i68  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
millions  should  give  ten  times  greater  relief  than  the  simplification ­
  of  the  measures  of  forty  millions.  This  presupposes
that  the  four  hundred  millions  are  crying  for  relief,  but  we
must  first  see  who  it  is  that  call  for  currency  reform.  The
foreign  merchant  stands  in  the  first  place,  with  his  crying
need  for  fixity  of  exchange  between  gold  and  silver,  which
requires  for  its  establishment  a  fixed  unit  of  currency,  which
in  turn  can  only  be  attained  by  coinage.  That  he  will  also
be  freed  from  bondage  to  his  comprador  does  not  appeal
to  him,  since  he  is  unlikely  to  realise  their  relative  positions,
and  the  activity  of  his  advocacy  will  be  weakened  by  so
much  ;  moreover,  there  are  in  China  less  than  a  thousand
firms  of  European  and  American  nationality,  even  including
the  protected  races,  such  as  those  from  British  India,  and
including  branch  firms.  Then  come  the  foreign  banks,
ten  in  number,  standing  like  Isacchar  between  two  burdens  ,
they  may  consider  that  their  profits  from  rapid  fluctuations
in  exchange,  of  the  causes  of  which  they  have  prior  knowledge, ­
  will  be  made  good  by  the  development  of  legitimate
trade  resulting  from  certainty  of  exchange  ;  and  they  may
set  against  their  profits  from  changing  funds  from  one
standard  of  currency  to  another  their  newly  acquired  ability
to  keep  their  own  treasuries.  The  Government  of  China
will  welcome  any  measure  which  will  set  a  limit  to  the
amount  which  it  must  take  from  its  revenues  to  pay  the
indemnities  due  to  the  Foreign  Powers  \  and,  as  a  corporate
entity,  may  be  willing  to  have  a  uniform  currency  in  which
the  revenue  may  be  paid  and  received.  No  other  element
of  support  can  be  brought  in  by  any  flight  of  the  imagination.
All  the  vested  interests  in  China  will  be  against  the  change.
e  members  of  the  Government  as  individuals,  from  the
highest  Minister  of  State  in  Peking  to  the  humblest  assistantdeputy
  sub-district  magistrate,  will  give  it  their  tacit,  if
not  openly-expressed,  opposition.  The  tax-collector,  with
ns  assistants  and  his  servants,  and  backed  by  his  family  to
t  îe  third  and  the  fourth  generation,  will  fight  strenuously
against  any  obligation  to  pay  into  the  Treasury  the  exact
coin  which  he  has  received  from  the  taxpayer.  The  power-