Finance.

No general statement of the revenue and expenditure of China is made public, and such estimates as have been formed by Europeans are founded on financial reports of provincial governors published in the Peking Gazette. Except the foreign maritime and a few native customs, the entire revenue is collected by provincial agents. The Board of Revenue at Peking issues annually to each of the provincial governors a statement of the amount required from his province for the following year, and when to this amount is added the sum necessary for local administration, civil and military, the revenue to be provided by each collector is ascertained. The amount actually levied, however, greatly exceeds this, and the surplus, which may amount to 50 or 70 per cent. of the total, disappears in the form of costs, or in presents to official superiors, or remains in the hands of the collectors. The following table, taken from a memorandum by Sir R. Hart, dated March 25, 1901, shows, according to records of the Hu-Pu, or Board of Revenue, the latest estimate of the revenue and expenditure of China :

To meet the expenditure on interest and redemption of the new debt, the Government has required viceroys and governors of provinces to increase their annual remittances by 18,700,000 taels during the years 1902–1910.

The land tax varies in different provinces from 10d. or 18. to 68. 6d. or more per acre. The rate of incidence is theoretically fixed, but under other names additional taxes are imposed on land. Salt is a Government monopoly, all producers being required to sell to Government agents, who, at a price which covers the duty, re-sell to merchants provided with salt warrants.' Likin is a tax imposed on merchandise in course of transportation, payable at appointed barriers, which by Article 8 of the Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and China, signed in September, 1902, will be abolished when all the Powers having treaties with China assent to a scheme of surtaxing imports and exports in lieu of likin.

The collection of the revenue on the Chinese foreign trade and the administration of the lights on the coast of China are under the management

of the Imperial Customs Service, the Inspector-General of which is a foreigner (British), under whom is a large staff of European, American, and Chinese subordinates, the department being organised somewhat similarly to the English Civil Service. Since November, 1901, the Native Customs, being hypothecated for the service of the indemnity, have been under the Imperial Maritime Customs. The collection of native customs within a radius of 50 li (3 li 1 mile usually) of each treaty port, is controlled by the Imperial Maritime Customs authorities.

=

The receipts from maritime customs and from opium likin in the last 5 years were (in Haikwan taels) :

Debts contracted by China since the beginning of 1894 are stated in the subjoined table. They are all secured on the Imperial Maritime Customs, except the loan of 1899, a railway loan with railway security :

On May 29, 1901, China agreed to pay to the Powers an indemnity amounting to 450,000,000 taels (64,000,000l.) for injuries inflicted by the 'Boxers.' This indemnity is to constitute a gold debt repayable in 39 annual instalments, due on January 1 of each year up to 1941; interest at 4 per cent., amounting to 18,829,500 taels (2,560,0007.) per annum, will be payable half-yearly. The securities for the debt are the Imperial Maritime Customs otherwise unappropriated, increased to 5 per cent. ad valorem (to be converted into specific duties), the native customs (transit likin within 16 miles of port) administered by the Maritime Customs, and the salt gabelle otherwise unappropriated. The proceeds of the assigned revenues are paid monthly to a commission in Shanghai. The annual charge on all debts secured on the Customs now amounts to about 5,770,000%.

Defence.

Not the least important of the consequences of the events of 1900 in China has been the change wrought in the military organisation. The 1 The Powers are Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States.

The metric system has been legally established in Chile since 1865, but the old Spanish weights and measures are still in use to some extent.

Diplomatic and Consular Representatives.

1. OF CHILE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Envoy and Minister.-Don Domingo Gana.

First Secretary.-Don Victor Eastman.
Attaché.-Don Santiago Monk.

Naval Attaché.-Lieut. L. Rosas.

Consul in London.-A. Torres.

There are Consular representatives at Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leith, Liverpool (C. G.), Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton and many other places.

2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN CHILE.

Envoy and Minister.-A. S. Raikes, appointed January 1, 1905.

There are Consular representatives at Coquimbo (C.), Valparaiso (C.G.), Antofagasta (V.C.), Arica (V.C.), Caldera, Coronel, Iquique (C.), Lota, Pisagua (V.C.), Punta Arenas (V.C.), Talcahuano (V.C.), Tocopilla, Tomé, Traiguen.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Chile. 1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Annuario Estadístico. Valparaiso.

Memorias presentandas al Congreso nacional por los Ministros de Estado en los departamentos de Relaciones Exteriores, Hacienda, &c Santiago, 1901.

Estadística comercial de la República de Chile. Annual. Valparaiso, 1901.

Synopsis estadística y geográfica de Chile. Santiago, Annual."

Reports on the trade, manufactures, agriculture of Chile in Foreign Office Reports, annual series. London.

Statement on behalf of Chile in reply to the Argentine Report, submitted to the British Arbitration Tribunal. 6 vols. London, 1901-02.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Anrique (N.) and Silva (L. I.), Ensayo de una Bibliografia Historica i Geografica de Chile. Santiago, 1902.

Asta-Buruaga Francisco S.), Diccionario geográfico de la República de Chile. 8. New York, 1867.

Ball (John), Notes of a Naturalist in South America. London, 1887.

Barros Arana (Diego), La guerre du Pacifique. Paris, 1882; and Historia general de Chile.

Child (Theodore), The Spanish American Republics. London, 1891.

Conway (Sir M.), Aconcagua and Tierra del Fuego. London, 1902.

FitzGerald (E. A.), The Highest Andes, London, 1899.

Fountain (P.), The Great Mountains and Forests of South America. London, 1902. Gay (Claudio), Historia general de Chile.

Guerre entre le Chili, le Pérou et Bolivie en 1879. Paris, 1879.

Hancock (A. M.), A History of Chili. S. Chicago, 1893.

Hervey (M. H.), Dark Days in Chile. London, 1892.

Holdich (Sir T. H.), The Countries of the King's Award. London, 1904.

Keane (A. H.), Central and South America. [In Stanford's Compendium.] London, 1901.

Kunz (Hugo), Chile und die Deutschen Colonien. Leipzig, 1891.

Mackenna (Vicuña), Obras históricas sobre Chile.

Maldonado (R.), Estudios geograficos é hidrograficos sobre Chile. Santiago, 1897.
Markham (C. R.), The War between Chile and Peru, 1879-81. London, 1883.

Nordenskjöld (O.), Skildringar från den Swenska Expeditionen till Magellans-länderna, 1895-97. Stockholm, 1899.

Rosales (R. P. Diego de), Historia general del Reyno de Chile. 3 vols. 8. Valparaiso

1877-78.

Smith (W. A.), Temperate Chile, London, 1900.

CHINA.

(TA CH'ING KUO-CHUNG KUO.)

Reigning Emperor.

Tsai-t'ien, born August 2, 1872, son of Prince Ch'un, who was seventh son of the Emperor Tao-kuang and brother of the Emperor Hsien-fêng. Succeded to the throne under the title of Kuang-hsü on the death of his cousin the Emperor T'ung-chih, January 22, 1875. Came of age and assumed government nominally in March, 1887; married February 26, 1889. From the date of his marriage up to September, 1898, he was to a considerable extent the real and not merely the nominal head of the state, but in consequence of a rather erratic tendency to reform disclosed by a succession of decrees issued in that month, the Empress Dowager (see below) resumed power, and she has been the potential ruler of China ever since.

The Emperor is childless and there is no designated successor or heirpresumptive.

The Chinese Imperial family is of Manchu origin. The dynasty, in fact, dates from 1644, and is styled Ta Ch'ing Ch'ao (“Great Pure Dynasty"), and Kuang-hsü is the ninth of the line; but the official genealogy is carried back six generations earlier than the real founder, and Kuang-hsü's will be the fifteenth name in the canonized series of Ta Ch'ing Emperors. The rule is that a son or nephew or male relation of the next younger generation, designated by the Emperor just deceased, shall succeed; but Tung-chih is said not to have designated a successor (he died suddenly), and Tsai-t'ien, a cousin of the same generation, became Emperor as the result of a palace arrangement directed by Tzu-hsi, the well-known Empress Dowager (born November 17, 1834), who was the favourite concubine of Hsien-fềng, and mother of T'ung-chih. Tsai-t'ien's mother was a sister of Tzu-hsi, and the Empress Dowager is thus the Emperor Kuang-hsü's maternal aunt.

Government.

The laws of the Empire are laid down in the Ta-ts'ing-hwei-tien, or 'Collected Regulations of the Tsʻing dynasty,' which prescribe the govern. ment of the State to be based upon the government of the family.

The supreme direction of the Empire is vested in the Chin Chi Ch'u, the Privy Council, or Grand Council. The administration is under the supreme direction of the Nei-ko or Cabinet, comprising four members, two of Manchu and two of Chinese origin, besides two assistants from the Han-lin, or Great College, who have to see that nothing is done contrary to the civil and religious laws of the Empire, contained in the Ta-ts 'ing-hwei-tien and in the sacred books of Confucius. These members are denominated 'Ta-hsio-shih,' or Ministers of State. Under their orders are the Papu, or eight boards of government, each of which is presided over by a Manchu and a Chinese. These boards are:-(1) the board of civil appointments, which takes

cognisance of the conduct and administration of all civil officers; (2) the board of revenues, regulating all financial affairs; (3) the board of rites and ceremonies, which enforces the laws and customs to be observed by the people; (4) the military board; (5) the board of public works; (6) the high tribunal of criminal jurisdiction; (7) the Wai-wu-pu, or Board of Foreign Affairs, instituted by Imperial Decree of July 24, 1901 (v. infra); and (8) the Board of Commerce, instituted in 1903.

Independent of the Government, and theoretically above the central administration, is the Tu-ch'a-yuen, or board of public censors. It consists of from 40 to 50 members, under two presidents, the one of Manchu and the other of Chinese birth. By the ancient custom of the Empire, all the members of this board are privileged to present any remonstrance to the sovereign. One censor must be present at the meetings of each of the Government boards.

The Tsungli Yamên, or Foreign Office, created by a decree of January 19, 1861, was in July, 1901, superseded by the formation of a new Foreign Office called the Wai-wu-pu, with Prince Ching as President and four secretaries, and with precedence before all other boards.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Each of the 18 provinces is ruled by a Governor or Governor-General, who is responsible to the Emperor for the entire administration, political, judicial, military, and fiscal. He is assisted by a council and various other officials, such as the Treasurer, the Judicial Commissioner, and the Literary Chancellor. Each province is sub-divided into departments ruled by prefects, and each department into districts, each with a district magistrate. Two or more departments are sometimes united into a tao, or circuit, the official at the head of which is called a Taotai. Each town and village has also its governing body, and among the various officials there is regular gradation of rank, each being responsible to his immediate superior. Political office in the general administration of the Empire is less sought after than the position of viceroy or governor in the provinces, where the opportunities of acquiring wealth, not from official salaries but from gifts, &c., are abundant.

Area and Population.

The following table gives a statement of the area and population of the whole of the Chinese Empire according to the latest Chinese estimates :