Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/157

Rh those engaged in nearly every form of occupation, such as public printers, watchmen, foremen, physicians and druggists, superintendents in trade, and cooks in public institutions. To give official rank to many of these shows us that the statements made elsewhere about the socialistic-military type of government, prevailing at the Taiping capital and in some of the chief cities, are based on the actual organisation of their state.

It was apparently the intention of the T'ienwang to organise the country on the basis of definite holdings of land graded according to its yield into nine classes, and distributed among the peasants according to their needs. That this provision was ever carried into effect is doubtful. It was found necessary throughout the long struggle to insure supplies to the great armies constantly in the field and especially to their families and the officials at Nanking. No chances could be taken of losing the coöperation of agriculturists. Within the areas well under control we therefore find the village and rural population subject to taxation indeed, but less burdened than under Manchu rule, while on the other hand their products were purchased at fair prices and not taken from them forcibly. Apart from strictly enforcing the religious and moral precepts of their faith, overturning the idols and temples, and forbidding the use of opium and alcohol, the insurgents did all they could to encourage agriculture and trade. The statistics for these years show that the export of tea actually increased under the Taipings from 1858 to 1862, while silk practically held its own.