Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/210

150 that the sum of 1½ million taels was "held at interest in the mint of Ch'ung-k'ing." The true inwardness of this admission can only be appreciated by those who, like myself, have seen large portions of the material and machinery intended for the new mint, lying wrecked in various rocky reaches of the Yang-tsze, or by those who may have chanced to notice a significant paragraph in the report of the Commissioner of Customs for Ch'ung-k'ing for 1905, which, after noting that a Taotai had been sent by the Viceroy to establish a mint, went on to say that "dissatisfaction was apparent before long at the rapidity with which money was being spent without much result, and the Taotai was superseded."

It was, of course, a case of the old, old story which appears in every conceivable variation over all official transactions in China, and which is summed up simply and accurately in the one word "squeeze." The stolid, patient Chinese peasant will stand much before expressing his disapproval, but there were not wanting signs that the people of