Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/204

196 some days, during which time the energetic syndicate members bought all the rice in sight, put it in vessels and rushed it abroad to Japan, a country which buys the inferior grade of Chinese rice for home consumption and ships abroad its own superior article. As soon as the embargo was published, the value of rice afloat at once rose and the Tao-tai syndicate cleared a handsome profit. This illustrates Chinese fiscal methods, and warrants the statement that the actual foreign commerce of the country is greater than the figures indicate.

China levies on its foreign commerce a tariff for revenue only. The rate charged on nearly all articles is five per cent, on imports and exports alike, although there are some special rates and a number of articles on the free list. The actual average rate on imports and exports runs from three to four per cent. It is the general opinion of merchants in China that, should it become necessary to add to the Government's income, this rate could be increased without any serious detriment to foreign commerce. In Japan the Government has found it necessary, in order to derive more revenue, to seriously increase its customs tariff, so that the present charges range from thirty to fifty per cent, ad valorem.

Foreign articles destined for consumption at the treaty ports or places of importation pay no further taxes. When, however, they are sent into the interior they are obliged to pay internal transportation taxes, called 'Likin,' collected at various stations along the trade routes. These likin charges, although they form a perfectly legitimate method of taxation, are objected to by the Chinese quite as much as by foreign traders, on account of their uncertain amount, which, according to Chinese custom, is left largely to the official in charge, who collects as much as he can. The foreign nations, in order to obviate these difficulties, have arranged with the Chinese Government to permit foreign articles destined for the interior to pay a single tax of two and a half per cent, to the Imperial Maritime Customs and then to receive what is called a 'transit pass' entitling the goods to pass the interior likin stations without further charge. Unfortunately, these transit passes are not always respected by officials in the interior, unless they think that the shipper will appeal to a foreign government, and, therefore, the officials are apt to levy likin in accordance with their own needs, and of the total collected but a small part finds its way into the public treasury.

The native merchant has no such advantage as the foreigner in securing immunity from likin extortion, and has to resort to all sorts of subterfuges to escape the impositions of his own countrymen, one of the most frequent of such resorts being to keep his goods under the name of a foreign merchant if possible. Another device was told to me by a customs official on the West River, where the local farmers