Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 11, 1900, Page 19

November 11, 1000, China’s War Debt May Be a Billion Dollars (Copyright, 1900, by Frank G. Carpenter) collected. SHANGHAIL, Sept. 30.—(Special Corre- spondence of The Bee.)~Can China pay :'4 war debt? This the powers would like to know. Each will demand satls- faction for the expense it has incurred and also a good round sum for the injury to its citizens. As to the war bill, the average will be $100,000,000 apiece. This, including Germany, Russia, Japan, Eng- land, France and the Unitea States, will foot up about $i00.000,000 The damage to the merchanis at various ports, the wrecking of the legations at Pekin and the destruction of the mission stations every- where, including compensation for the lives of missionaries, will demand millions more, In fact, the powers will probably ask for about $1,000,000,000, or just as FIGURING UP THE much as Germany demanded of France at the close of the Franco-Prussian war Can China pay it? Li Hung Chang says it cannot and that it will have to give up territory instead I4 Hung Chang, however, is a Chinese offi- clal, a cog in the most corrupt political machine of the world, a machine that will have to be rebuilt if the empire is 1o continue. He knows that a big national debt means the tearing of himself and his class from the machinery and the modern- {zing of the Chinese government The truth is the Chinese could pay the interest on a $1.000,000,000 debt and not feel it. The present taxes are enough for all legitimate gevernment expenses and 6 per cent on a debt three times that size. They have now a smaller deht than any of the great powers. It does not equal $1 a head and amounts to less than $200.- 000,000 Phere are no local debts to speak of. The provinces are unincumbered and the cities and villages are unbonded; in- deed, there is no country in a hetter finan- clal condition. As compared with the great powers, China is rich England has cne-tenth the people and carries u debt ten times as great; the debt of France is twenty times that of China and the dehts of the other powers are propertionately large Here s what they are in round numbers: Ene- 1and owes $2.200 000 000 Trance. $4,250.000,- 000; Germany. £2.400.000.000, while Russia has a debt of $£1.760,000.000. Austria-Hun- gary and Ttaly each owe eight times as much ag the present rational debt of China and poor little Spain is payving in. terest on loans six times as great, Whnat the C ese Deht Tn, The Chinese have a horror of debt. With them bankruptey Is a disgrace. They pay their bills, settling all accounts at New Years. They especially dislike debts to for- elgners, and it is the national polley to keep out of them Thelr first forelgn loan was in 1874, when they borrowed $3.000000 at 8 per cent throngh the Hong Kong and Shanghal bank The loan was secured by the customs Their chlef debt was Incurred after 1894, in order to pay the Japanese indemnity. Dur- ing that vear they borrowed 10,000,000 taels of the English on a twenty-year loan, In 1895 they negotiated another English loan of ahout $15.000,000 at 6 per cent, to run for twenty yenrs, and at the same time one of ahout $80.000.000 of the Russians and French, to run thirtv-six vears, at 4 per cent. Tn 1896 and 1808 they made two other loans of $80.000.000 each of the Anglo-Ger- mang, one at § and the other at 4% per cent, The first loan was to run thirty-six years and the second forty-five. These and a few other very small loans, some of which are to pay the gauranteed interest on rail- road undertakinegs, comprise the total debt of this nation af 400,000,000 people, owning some of the richest agricultural and min eral lands upon earth No one knows what the revenues of China are. The taxes collected are enormous, bhut 70 per cent of them never gets to Pekin the balance is either swallowed up in the form of costs or presents to officlal superi- ors. or remains In the hands of the tax collectors. There {8 no country so office-ridden There {8 a class of men known as yamen runners connected with all government places, who are pald out of taxes and fqueezes. Tt is impossible to tell what s Accounts are rendered in plece- meal, and no province furnishes a balance of its whole expenditures and revenues never a surplus often deficits, No increase is ever reported. No one exs knows that such a condition occurs the surplus will go into the collector's pockets. Indeed, if the are correct government revenues have been falling off, ¢, business and wealth the empire has been steadily growing. The revenues actually paid today are esti- although in comm were estimated at $100,000,000. One hundred approximated il later Sir George Stan- $200,000,000, ton estimated best figures attainable they what as follows, in tae Imperial customs, 20,000,000; salt tax, 600; native custom 10,000,000; 1ikin, 15,000,- 000,000; grain tribute, miscellaneous sources, 4,000,- 000, making a grand total of 77.000.000 taels actually received. w Taxen Are Collecte The taxes of the empire are collected by This s one of the seven great departments of the government. It corresponds to our Treasury department of revenue, It will probably have charge of the national debt, and all matters of indemnity will be laid before The board of ievenue is known as the Hu It has two presidents, one a Manchu and one a Chinese. It has four vice presi dents and from s and clerks all taxes and duties and allowances. mints are under it, and it he fmperial factories which ar It nominally levies «-l!u:n«d’ in aif stationery, silks and perial family year to each of the provincial governments a statement of the amount it {s expected to government, mugt be added the local taxes, the civil and After receiving the estimate the viceroy or governor gives his directions to the different successively reach the men who actually from the people of taxes that the Chinese officials are able to pay such high prices for their offices, aries are practic The real sal- ally nothing, but the per- can hold back from their collections make the high places ex ceedingly profitable. Some years ago a col- lector of customs at Canton was expected to send about $1,000,000 to Pekin, whercas the annual receipts of his office were known to be over $3,000,000. This man probably had a salary of a couple of thousand dol lars a year. The Chinese merchants of Heng Kong told Lord Beresford that man darins who had salaries of $1.000 were ac- customed to spend $20,000 to keep up thelr establishments and that viceroys who re- ceived but $6,000 had often necessary ex- penses amounting to as much as $75,000 a year. Notwithstanding this, such officia's usually retired from their offices rich Al Min Moderate thieving in government work s not considered dishonest. It {8 only when the steals are of enormous size that they create comment or are noted in Chinese history. Take Ho Kwan, for instance, who was one of the high officials of the Em peror Kien Lung Ho Kwan was a poor Tartar, who became an official of great wealth and power When Kien Lung died the next emperor feared him and had him decapitated. His estate was confiscated and was found to be enormous. He had more than 200 strings of pearls and pre cious stones and one of the pearls was big. ger than any in the imperial crown. He had precious stones in the rough and dia- monds made into buttons and also millions of ounces of silver and gold. Take Li Hung Chang. No one knows how rich he is. He has bank stock, railroad stock and factory stock everywhere. 1 im- agine he owns foreign bonds. His real es tate possessions are large and he has much in jewels. He wears a diamond button in his cap, the stone of which is as big as the end of your thumb, and he has many dia- mond rings. Sheng is sald to be rich, and s0 In all probability is Kang Yi and the other close friends of the empress dowager. The land taxes of China could pay a big interest on three times any indemnity the powers will demand. More than this sum is annually collected, although cut of it the government gets only 25,000,000 taels. China s a blg country and a vast amount of 1t is cultivated. If half the cultivated land were taxed at 75 cents per acre the gross rev enue would be more than 300,000,000 taels Let us estimate it roughly at $200.000 N00 Set aside $25,000,000 instead of 25000000 taels for the government and you have still £25,000,000 to pay the expenses of collec- tion and in addition the enormous sum of £170.000.000, or 4 per cent on a loan of £2.770.000.000. The powers cannot nsk mare than one-fourth, or at the outside one- third, this amount. The est'mate of 75 certs an acre {8 very low and this is on only one-half of the cultivated land. Tt ¢hows you what a surplus China might have without the addition of a tenth of 1 per cent to its tax rate for government im- provements If its ofMcials were honest How Land s Held. The lands of China nominally belong to the emperor and all taxes come directly from the crown. The lands are chiefly held fn clans or families. They are divided up Into small tracts or farms, many of which are less than an acre in size. There {3 a thorough system of government records. Real estate 1s bought and sold and the transfers are registered. The taxes are Tevied upon lands as described in the gov- ornment records, but the expense of trans- terring 1s so great that the ownership ~ften passes without a government deed. The estates descend to the eldest son, the other sons having certain rights which must be satisfied hefore the ownership can pass. The daughters never inherit, A part of the land tax is pald in kind and a part in money. The tax 1s estimated somewhat according to the amount under crops and the farmers brihe the collectors to report less crops than they actually have in order to escape taxation, All money taxes are in silver, 98 per cent fine. There are bankers connected with the treasury department at Pekin who pnss upon the purity of the tax money as It comes in and who are responsible for it. A curious tax levied upon lands in China 18 the rice tribute Thig comes chiefly from certaln provinces in the valley of the Yangtse. It was originally iIntended for the support of the Manchu soldiers in the capital, but a part of it now goes to other funds. The tribute amounts to ahout 104,000 tons of rice annually. This does not represent half the amount col- lected. 1In all the large cltles there are fmperfal granaries built to store rice for times of famine and for the use of the CANAL STREET IN CANTON of the lare of the P'eiho THE 1LLUSTRATED BEE. soldiers. 1 saw rice barns at Nuauvkin and clsewhere The rice fleet vhich carries this crop to P'ekin 18 of enormous extent It is to be seen upon the Grand canal, and it has its chief depot at Tung Chow, fifteen miles from Pekin The rice tribute is handled by the transport department, and there are thousands of boats and junks engaged in carrying it from one place to another The amount the government recelves from it is sald to be in the neighborhood of $4,000,000 per year The Snlt Monopoly The manufacture and sale of It is a government monopoly The il Conn from sea waer, there being evaporating ponds in the provinces near the sea One st is not far from the mouth After the salt is made it | urned over to the salt commissioners I'h men hand it over to those who have t-sell- ing license ind they farm it ont to others, The sult Heense 0" Hmited number They are perpetual and are pa I down - ‘ brings in about $1,000,000 a4 year, and one on the reeds and rushes which grow In the lowlands of the river This atuft belengs to the government, and those who guther It must pay so many cash per burdle I'here are quantities of reeds in Manchuria, and also along the lowlands of the Yangtse valley and otherwheres They are sold for thatch and £ fuel The reorganization of the empire wil necessitate the employment of foreigners in nearly all places of trust. China eannot pay its debts without Europeans manage its tax collection e only honest col leetors in the empire today are the foreign ers in the customs and the natives under them. For some years the tmperial mari tme custon have been managed by Sir Robert Hart, who gets a salary twice as big as that of our president. He collects all the fmport dutic turnin nto the imperial trensury mewhere hetween 20,000,000 and 80,000,000 (¢ Vovear He has a large corps of ofMcia ind his foreign clerks are the best paid men in Asia. They get big salaries and every few years are al lowed to go to Burope for a vacation, with EVEN WHEELBARROWS ARE TAXED P ERA from father to son In a good district a Ucense is often worth as much as $10,000 a year. The government fixes the price at which salt is to be =old to consumers, 8o that the man who pgets a contract makes or 10ses, according to his selection of a district and the price at which he gets his salt. Some wholesale dealers male as much as 25 per cent Indeed, it s helleved that the wsalt revenues could he greatly in ereased without increasing the cost of the salt to the people At present salt costs only about 2 cents a pound at Shanghal and not more than 2 cents a pound at Han- kow. The total government revenue from it, according to one anthority, is $10,000,000, 1t I estimated that the actunl rveceipts are ahout $70.000,000. and of this the merchants and midMemen make a profit of more than £20.000,000 The Chinese salt is not =0 fine as that s0ld In the United States. 1t is dark porous and full of lumps. Tt is stored in salt warehouses, and you coften see great 1ills of it near the large cities. Tt s piled up there and covered with matting until needed for use Sa zing Merchants, One of the greatest squeezes in China s the llkin tax. This s a tax on goods in transit, Tt 18 collected along all the water ways of the Chinese empire and fills the rivers and canals with little revenue hoats each eauipped with soldiers and ecannon The officials thus guard the waterways and take their toll from every hit of mer chandise that passes through them. The toxes are supposed to be fixed ones, hut the officials make them a matter of bargain between themselves and the merchants S8ome of the merchants’ unions pay lump sums to have thelr goods escape lkin taxes. The Shanghal Plece Goods gulld, for instance, had all of its dutfes on forelgn goeds 8o commuted for a number of years The 1ittle gunboats often blackmall the merchants, and they make all sorts of s0Neezes No one knows how much money is eol lected under the plea of 1lkin taxes. Mr Tamieson a former Enelish consul at Shanehal, estimates that ahout $10.000.000 | of 1ikin taxes annually goes Into the puhlie revenues. The amount actually eollected probably {s several times that which comes from the Imperial maritime customs, or geveral times 22000000 tacls annually s . Nes China has all sorts of queer taxes. The Jinriksha men in Shanghal are taxed. The wheelbarrow coolles pay lleenses And there are leenses for pawnbroking, bank ing and goods selling. There are pawn shops In every town, which have to pav not only for the privilege of engaging in business, but an annual tax thereafter. In some clties the license costs as much as $5.000 and the yearly taxes are from $50 to $100, There are taxes on all land sales. The legal charge 18 3 per cent on the money value of the transfer. Tess than this fs usually pald, because the parties to the contract put a less consfderation in the deed than fs recelved. There fs a legal tax on mines, now amounting to nothing, but | which mayv yleld a large revenue when the country 18 opened up. There are export | taxes and import taxes. There are taxes on silk cocoons, and, in fact, little taxes on meny things, There is & tax on oplum imports which ASSENGERS FEAR THE MAGIC CAM their salaries paid. The members of the indoor staff can have two years' leave at the close of every sceven, and those of the outdoor one year after overy ten Bven the customs departient s managed along eivil service lines, and, although Sir Robert Hart s its autocrat, everything goes by promotion and general cofficiency IFRANK (. CARPENTER HAZLEWOOD World's finest butter from pure pasteurized creat At Court ney & Co “No time to pull the cork!” Emergencies call for action. Judg¢ment calls for ILER'S PURE MALT WHISKEY Purity above suspicion. WILLOW SPRINGS DISTILLERY, OMAHMA USA. A $12 Bath Gavinet | $12 By POl Kowj « you clean nna complexion. Phy. nd 1 Tor Culde, L. " b O e skin, . Monuy funded S with he B e e " e ‘d. i T Ve mmen \ yale t ¢ for § Men and o Giurment tecd to it perfectly with A k due of 1 MOODY & €O, P.0.Bex 2100, Olmcinnat),0,