Page:Europe in China.djvu/554

536 The revenue derived from the opium monopoly amounted in 1877 and 1878 to $132,000 a year, which was less, by $1,500, than the amount derived from the same source in 1876. This monopoly, which had all along been held by a Chinese syndicate in Hongkong at an unfairly low rate, was sold by public tenders in 1879, to a partner of the Singapore Syndicate (Tan King-sing), in a manner with which the public was not satisfied, at an increase of no more than $77,916. At the next sale (February 11, 1882), the farm was sold, for one year, for the sum of $210,000, being virtually the same amount as that obtained in 1879.

It appears from the foregoing analysis of the principal sources of local revenue, that, whilst there was as regards rates on tenements and opium a moderate increase of revenue spread over the whole period and commensurate with the natural increase of the population, there was in respect of stamp duties and premia on leases newly granted an unnatural sudden increase, derived from the one and the same source, viz. dealings in land, and confined to one and the same year, 1881. Early in the year 1881, the Chinese residents of Hongkong were seized by a mania for speculating in land and in house properties. This frenzy lasted until October, 1881, when the bubble burst and a general panic ensued. The value of the properties, which had been unduly inflated by the Chinese speculators, then fell suddenly some 45 per cent. and great depression followed. The Chinese, and principally those among them whom Sir John had looked upon as the leading men of the Chinese community, were the principal sufferers by this collapse of the land speculations, the Government and British and foreign residents having been in most cases the original sellers, after which the properties changed hands rapidly at ever-increasing rates, until at last a deadlock ensued from want of funds. The collapse of the bubble was followed in 1882 by numerous bankruptcies and endless litigation. On the whole, however, the results were far less disastrous than might have been anticipated, the depreciation in real values being comparatively slight. Still, all through the