conduct its affairs with honesty and discretion. For this end there [should be a central fiscal administration, accountable for the whole income and expenditure of the Empire, and a Court of Exchequer having a thoroughly experienced foreign Chancellor, as a guarantee of efficiency. This would naturally lead to a complete revision of official salaries, which would be so supplemented as to remove the necessity for peculation, and would secure the whole revenue for the purposes of the Government, measures which would at once place China in a sound financial position, enabling her not only to meet all the liabilities resulting from the late war, but to have a considerable surplus in reserve. It is estimated that from one-half to two-thirds of the revenue disappears in the process of collection and transmission. Other essential reforms should follow, such as a complete survey of the land, in order to secure a proper adjustment of the land tax and return of the legitimate proceeds accruing from that source. The unification of the whole of the Customs under the present Imperial Maritime Customs Commissioners would sweep away the system of farming inland transit dues, and levying illegal imposts on foreign goods, by which they are so burdened as to become unsaleable in many of the inland marts. The total abolition of native collectorates would add greatly to the internal resources, as returns from those quarters are always much below actual collection.[1] The entire revenue of the Central Government of China, roughly speaking, is about one-fourth of that of India, although in area of productive soil and in population India is at a disadvantage, while at the same time the burden of taxation borne by the people under British rule is lighter and less oppressive, and is not subject to fluctuations
- ↑ See British Consular Report. Parl. 1897.
