104  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
incidence,  and  accordingly  their  collection  and  report  depend
upon  the  industry,  the  integrity,  and  the  whim  of  the  local
officials  ;  others  are  general,  but  such  that  there  is  no  check
upon  the  collection  such  as  is  afforded  by  transit  from  one
district  to  another.  The  principal  among  them  are  the
following  :—
1.  The  reed  tax,  a  charge  upon  the  marshes  along
the  Yangtze  and  elsewhere,  producing  reeds  for  thatching ­
  and  for  fuel.
2.  The  tea  license,  now  probably  incorporated  #
the  likin  on  transit.
3.  Mining  royalties,  insignificant  in  the  past.
4  Fees  on  sales  of  land  and  houses.
5.  Pawnbrokers’  and  other  mercantile  licenses»
probably  producing  the  greater  part  of  the  reported
collection.
6.  Lo-ti-shui,  consumption  and  production  tax,  no#
insignificant,  but  capable  of  development  on  the
abolition  of  likin.  \
The  total  proceeds  of  miscellaneous  taxes  *  reported
to  the  Imperial  Government,  including  cash  receipts  fro#
special  tenures,  corvées,  and  purveyances,  is  Tls.3,856,000.!
This  includes  Tls.55,000  from  Honan,  for  which  Mr.  Jam#'
son  reports  Tls.200,000  collected  in  1900,  and  makes  the
following  remark  :—  I
“  By  law  there  is  payable  on  affixing  the  officia
seal  to  a  sale  or  mortgage  of  land  a  fee  nominally  °:
3  per  cent,  but  actually  of  about  8  per  cent.
valorem.  The  fees  which  the  syndicate  were  asked
to  pay  came  to  over  10  per  cent.  Assuming  the#
are  150,000,000  mow  of  land  in  Honan  of  an  average
value  of  Tls.io  per  mow,  which  is  well  below  the  mark»
and  supposing  that  land  on  an  average  changes  hands
once  in  60  years  or  two  generations,  one-sixtieth  each
year  gives  a  value  transferred  of  Tls.25,000,000  ;  °
*  “  China  :  Past  and  Present.”
t  Includes  Tls.  1,000,000  collected  in  Kwangtung  from  the  Weis#®
Lottery.