The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10th, 1902. ABOLITION OF THE LIKIN IN CHINA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11733, 10 September 1902, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10th, 1902. ABOLITION OF THE LIKIN IN CHINA.

No commercial intelligence has come from China for a long time equalling in importance the announcement made public in July last, that! the Government of Pekin has agreed to the aibolition of the "likin" —or, as Mr Demetrius Boulger prefers to spell it agreeably to the pronunciation, "lekin" —the inland transit-duties of that great Empire, and to substitute in their place increased import and export duties'. It is a far cry from the Fur East to the West, and Chinese rule in commercial concerns, as in most others, departs as widely as possible from European ideas. In the first place, trade in Chinese official conceptions is a tiling not so much to be encouraged as to be squeezed. In the second place, every province of the Empire has to find its own revenue the best way it can, and possesses a jurisdiction more distinct from those of neighbouring provinces than is that of any individual State of the American Republic. From the first cause has come to pass the universal corruption: of the Celestial administration. "Get revenue honestly if you can, and, above all, without exciting any rebellion, 'but get revenue," is the unwritten commandment of every viceroy, prefect, governor, taotoi of the Imperial dominions. The sums set apart for local government by the Emperor's decrees are absurdly inadequate. The taotai of Canton holds office for three years, and he is allowed a sum that would pay his office expenses. Nevertheless he usually contrives to meet the expenditure of his administration, to send large bribes to the Court at Pekin —not forgetting the Empress, it is said—and to retire with a fortune. How this is done is one of the open secrets of Chinese official life. Traders knew where the money came from. At present- merchants often send goods by longer routes in"order to avoid excessive likin, and to this end makes more or less- corrupt arrangements with governors competing for the revenue. Commerce is taxed at every step. Along every main trade route collectorates are established, at which- the local transit dues, alias likin, are exacted. With sublime impartiality all traders, native\-and foreign, are mulct; and it matters not whe!ther the Goods are Chinese products being sent abroad or manufactures of the "baroarians" for sale up country, all alike are subject to likin. English and native merchants alike have been complaining of the impolicy of levying imposts on commodities like silk and tea, which have to compete, severely haudicapped, with the produce of Japan and India, but, $11 in vain, the viceroys and governors insisted on the likin. The merchants of Foochow tokl Lord Charles Beresford that the tea trade, which is the staple of the port, was rapidly diminishing in consequence of tli° heavy likhl. and would probab'y be destioyeri altogether. Under this system, it is impossible to tell what the actual imposts levied on exports antf imports will amount to. By treaty arrangements between China and the Western Powers, especially with Great Britain, foreign goods are liable to a duty of 5 per cent. These must be landed at the thirty -four treaty ports, and it has been over and over again stipulated that one sum should be levied, so as to ensure free pasisage up country or down to the coast. Then, for instance, it was provided in the

Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 that: It shall be at the option of a British subject desiring to convey produce purchased inland to a poxt, or to convey imports from a port to an inland mark©*, to clear his goods of all

transit duties by payment of a single charge. This seems sufficiently definite and explicit, but he would be a poor mandarin who could not over-ride a treaty. As a matter of fact, the provincial and civic rulers placed so many obstacles in the way of the foreign trader that he was obliged in the long run to deal with the native dealers, and these did not dare to assert treaty rights. Indeed, roughly speaking, the Chinese merchant has no rights in the eyes of the Chinese official beyond those that his guild will enforce. The agreement now arrived at is designed to make absolute and universal the right guaranteed by treaty and systematically denied in practice. Sir James Lyle Mackay, who has negotiated the new. scheme, is the Special Commissioner of his Majesty's Government appointed to confer with commissioners of the Emperor of China on commercial subjects. He seems (says the "Telegraph") to have been supported by the two Yangtze Viceroys, *one of vhom, Chang Chi Tung, is the most honest and patriotic, and, it may be added, now that Li Hung Chang has passed away, most powerful governor in the Empire. It is easy to see that the new project would meet with favour at Pekin. The substituta for the likin is to be an addition to tho import and export duties. These, duties are paid to the Imperial Maritime Customs, which is under the control of Sir Robert Hart, and is always believed to be the one and only honestly administered department in China. At present it is computed that not more than one-fifth part of the. likin actually reaches rate provincial authorities; henceforth, under the new 'arrangement, the whole of it would go to Pekin. At present it is mortgaged to pay the indemnity; but ultimately the Central Government would benefit to the full extent of the extra taxation But) how, it may- be asked, wil' the mandarin class accept the proposed change? It is certain they will resist) the innovation, but the resistance may be overborne. In China direct resistance to an Imperial decree is not a.ttbeanipted ; the end is sought by oblique methods. An American merchant at Wuchow shipped 2000 cases of kerosene oil to Kwefin, under a transit pass—which by treaty would clear the goods right through—but on arrival at a likin barrier near Kweilin it was found that twenty cases -were missing. Very probably a little arrangement of the omcialsi, and on this account the -whole cargo was seized and held to be liable to confiscation. Months passed before the matter was arranged, and in the meantime the merchant had lost a contract for 120,000 cases of oil. On one pretext or another the mandarin will squeeze, but the tendency is now against him. Steamers can carry cargoes hundreds of miles up the Canton River and the Yangtsze without encountering a likin station. Moreover, there is an awakening in China in regard to the value of commerce Not long ago an attempt was made at Swatow to increase the likin, and a new likin house was erected. The population immediately pulled it) down. In that neighbourhood the authorities; are afraid of the people, and were fain to be content with the 2^ per cent, that usage had permitted them to extort. Beyond that the intelligent Chinese governors and merchants foresee that with the introduction of railways likin at every frontier will be impossible. There will be difficulties to raise the provincial revenues. Pekin will have a hard task to meet the demand of the rulers of the 18 provinces, each of them a kingdom in extent and ir. population; and a new tax in China is a perilous thing to propose. On the other hand, tie reform is immensely important, and without it the immense resources of China can never be developed. We must await the details of the project before it "s possible to judge of its practicability. If it can be carried into effect in the course of the next few years it will not only enormously benefit the Empire, but very materially strengthen the influence of Britain and Japan.