remote military services, all the land of the empire is regarded as the property of the emperor, and all original titles to land are held directly from him subject to three conditions:[1]First, the payment of a land tax; second, the payment of fees when the crown title-holder or his successors sell mortgages, or leases; third, the supplying of certain labor service when demanded by the authorities. The land tax, which is exacted from all arable land, varies in amount according to the productiveness of the land, and does not ordinarily exceed one twentieth of the gross product. There is no tax on waste and uncultivated land, and rights in common exist in respect to waste land adjoining villages. The fees incident to the alienation of land are nominally about three per cent of the purchase money, but usually, by extortion, range from five to six per cent. The supplying of labor, when demanded by the authorities, is not well defined, and is apparently limited to furnishing the Government with transportation and labor on the public works, especially the repairing of dikes and canals. If these conditions are complied with, the state rarely interferes with the possession, alienation, or rental of land by its subjects. When land is rented the Government tax is paid by the landlord, and not by the tenant. The district magistrate is tax assessor, tax collector, judge, and administrator. A board of revenue fixes the amount that each district shall return to the state, and the district magistrate is liable for this sum whether he collects it or not. Any surplus collected, on the other hand, in excess of what is due the state is his private perquisite. Remission of land taxes is made when any great calamities occur, as floods, famines, and fires, and in such cases the tenant has the benefit of three tenths of the remission.
The other chief sources of imperial revenue in China are from a monopoly of salt; from taxes on goods brought through the gates of towns and cities, which appear to be analogous to the European octroi taxes; from taxes known as likin on the transit of goods through the provinces; from export and import duties, which are of modern origin; and from the sale of honors or titles.[2] There appear to be no taxes on personal property in China; but in Pekin, and probably in other cities, small license fees are required from certain occupations and manufactures, ostensibly for defraying municipal expenditures.
- ↑ It is even asserted that there is at the present time but one person in all China who holds an absolute freehold title to any real estate, and he in virtue of being a lineal descendant of the Ming dynasty which the Manchus supplanted.
- ↑ The customs revenue of China for the year 1893 was reported as £3,646,350 (or $18,331,750), of which fully one third was derived from the duties on opium. The average rate of duties on other importations was about six per centum of their entered valuation.
