THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

114

Foochow  native  customs  receipts
Foochow  foreign  „  „
Shanghai  „  „  ,,
North  Kwangtung  native  customs
Kiukiang  native  customs  ..

Tls.
.  .100,000
..  50,00°
..  50,000
..  100,000
.  .150,000

Most  of  these  appropriations  are  constant  year  by
year,  but,  to  take  the  year  1887  as  an  instance  of
change,  in  that  year  the  Hupeh  salt  likin  took  the
place  of  the  Shanghai  foreign  customs  ;  and  the
Kiangsu  salt-gabelle  (Tls.120,000)  and  native  custom^
at  Hwaian  (Tls.30,000)  took  that  of  the  two  FoochoW
customs  combined.  It  must  also  be  explained  that
in  1893  the  Board  of  Finance  advanced  Tls.212,39°
to  the  Buttery  Office  of  the  Household,  which  su#
has  to  be  deducted  and  repaid  in  1896.”
The  sum,  Tls.7,000,000,  allocated  to  the  maintenance  of  th e
Manchu  Bannermen  at  Peking,  is  shown  to  be  drawn  fro#
fifty-two  different  sources,  in  sums  ranging  from  Tls.24,00°
to  Tls.450,000.
Subject  to  full  consideration  of  all  these  omissions  an°
of  all  the  obscurity  hanging  over  Chinese  accounts,
below  (pp.  116  and  117)  is  given  the  official  budget  of  the
province  of  Honan  for  1900,  as  given  by  Mr.  Jamieson  *
A  province  with  a  population  of  21,000,000  contri'
butes  Tls.i,895,000  (£285,000)  for  Imperial  purposes,  an°
maintains  its  own  provincial  administration,  including  th e
expensive  and  burdensome  Yellow  River  Conservancy,  ° n
an  expenditure  of  Tls.  1,678,000  (£250,000)  !
Let  us  now  abstract  from  Mr.  Parker’s  figures,t  the
result  of  long  and  careful  inquiry  by  a  most  competen
inquirer,  the  Imperial  “  open  ”  budget  for  the  eighteen
provinces  constituting  China  Proper,  with  certain  c ° r '
rections  to  bring  the  actual  figures  up  to  date.

*  “  Land  Taxation  in  the  Province  of  Honan.”
f  “China:  Past  and  Present.”