coin in the world perhaps, dating to the Chou Dynasty, therefore of tremendous historic value (that is, the originals if they could be found) but of no particular purchasing power. Then there is another coin on a copper basis called Tungyuan by the Chinese. There is a silver dollar called Yangchien, which has the reputation of being the most important coin in Manchuria. It was first minted at Canton by the famous Viceroy Chang Chihtung and has the appearance of a Japanese silver coin. Then there is Sycee. There are in circulation Japanese silver yen, Mexican dollars, Japanese and Russian subsidiary coins of various denominations. There are Chinese Government notes called Kuantieh, copper coin notes called Tungyuanpiao, silver-dollar notes called Yangchienpiao. There are in circulation there Bank of Japan notes, Japanese army notes, Bank of Chosen notes, Yokohama Specie Bank notes, Russian ruble notes.

But let no one lead himself into a fool's paradise by merely glancing at this simple list. Take the one item of Sycee, which the natives call Yinting, as a warning. To say Sycee or Yinting is simple enough, but the dif ferent kinds of Sycee make it ring with altogether different tones: there is a Sycee called Yuanpaoyin, another called Chungting, another called Hsiaoko, still another called Mienchinyin, another Paopaitzu, another Pienyin, and the end is not yet. And when one stops to ponder with proper humility the depth and height of the following statement of fact, he is apt to fear he may land in the Slough of Despond of the Manchurian currency muddle.

The manufacture of Sycee is entirely left to private individuals and plants called Yinlu, or Silver Furnaces; and there is no fixed fineness or weight to it which would hold good throughout the country. Even where, as in Manchuria, its weight is fixed by local Chambers of Com

merce, local scales in use at one and a thousand towns by no means agree.

We have perhaps performed our duty in indicating just what hades this sort of currency condition would play with the commercial and industrial development of

a country.

Taxes in Manchuria are not a whit less trying or bewildering than her currency. Either of them is entitled to a fat technical volume in its own right. As this book has no pretension whatever of being a technical work on either of the vexatious themes, we shall be content with a mere indication of the thorny nature of the subjects. For that purpose let us take one form of taxation, called "likin."

Likin, as the word shows, is a hundredth, or one per cent., tax levied on goods in transit-one per cent. ad valorem. It is a comparatively new tax. It was inaugurated to meet pressing financial needs in the dark days following the Taiping Rebellion. It was invented as a temporary measure, and put into effect in 1853 for the first time. But soon after the Taiping Revolt came the Mohammedan Uprising in the South. The Government had to raise funds to suppress it and lost no time in extending the scope of "likin," making it a nation-wide tax of a permanent nature. If it held to the original scope, the tax would not have been so trying. But of course every provincial and every petty-district tax-gatherer embroidered it and enlarged it according to his particular fancy or greed or financial needs, so that it has been so transformed that no prophet now could possibly detect the original by looking at it. As the collection of it is farmed out to various officials and private individuals at certain fixed prices, all the wise laws in connection with the tax as it first was put into practice remain now as little more than dead letter. But the real

infernal phase of likin tax is not even in its ready rubber balloon quality of expanding in response to the greed of tax-gatherers. It is due to the fact that likin is collected at a hundred and one places all along the line of transit. When a cart of goods is sent any great distance, the amount of likin tax on it takes on the aspects of a snowball and becomes really astounding. If the driver of a cart is instructed to sell a portion of the cargo to meet this likin tax-as is the custom in China-it often happens that the entire cargo is exhausted long before it reaches its destination. This is no idle jest: it is a real, blood-curdling page right out of the book of commercial life in China. In China many taxes are written with a character for "loss"-and there is downright ground for it. Looking over the list of taxes in China, one is tempted to conclude that the inventive genius of the Chinese people has been concentrated for centuries on christening different forms of taxation. In older times there were military tax, river conservancy tax, charity-work tax, rescue-work tax, river-police tax, and many others which a cargo in transit had to face in addition to likin. The thing got to such a desperate pass that its very evil brought about its own reform. In Mukden Province in Manchuria, for example, all these additional taxes were abolished in January, 1907. Likin is now limited to only two collections, one at the point of origin of a cargo and the other at its destination. On grains and flour the tax of one per cent. ad valorem is collected, and on all other products one and a half per cent. is levied. Cargoes which simply pass through the Province without being sold there pay no tax whatever. The destination levy is 2 per cent. ad valorem for all goods, whether they are of its own province or imported from outside, except for grains and flour on which no destination levy is collected.

In Kirin Province likin tax is known under the name of seven and four likin: that is to say, 7 per cent. likin for army expenditure and 4 per cent. likin to defray the expenses connected with the Kirin mint.

In Amur Province there is no likin tax at all. In its place there is a 10 per cent. levy on various goods, livestock, and grains.

CHAPTER XIV

GOVERNMENT

IN the first year of Emperor Shunchih, who placed the Manchu Dynasty upon the Dragon Throne of the Middle Kingdom, Manchuria received an expression of special consideration at the hand of the Peking Court. It sent one of the Palace Ministers to preside over her. He was supported and assisted by two Deputy Lieutenant Generals and a military secretary in the administration of the Province. Even in those simple days the governing of the Home Province of the Manchu Dynasty seemed anything but simple. The persistent and frequent changes in her administrative form are an eloquent comment on this point.

In 1646, that is to say only two years after the Palace Minister had been sent there, an Anpang took his place at the head of the Provincial Government. He took upon himself all the functions of the two Lieutenant Generals who had gone to assist the palace minister. In 1657 Shenyang, the district round about the Capital City of Mukden, was created a prefecture under the name of Fengtien Fu, and a civil governor was appointed to rule over it. He was commanded to combine the duties of Literary Chancellor in 1661. In 1662 the title of Anpang was changed to Chiangchun, or Military Governor, of Liaotung. In the next year the title was changed again to the Military Governor of Fengtien. In 1671 it was once more changed to the Military Governor of Shenking. In 1684 the Provinces of Mukden, Kirin, and Amur were each governed by a military governor, who