Most of the provinces pay in a leap-year an additional sum both in money and kind. The payment upon each mow varies according to the quality of the land, from 1 to 400 cash.
The assessment having been made, the government not only levies that sum, but takes a certain per centage, as 5 to 10 per cent. insurance and loss in the carriage—for changing cash into silver, and vice versa—expenses of transportation, and many other items under diverse names. There is so great ingenuity shown in this affair, that the account is considerably swelled, and the peasant is obliged to pay at least from 20 to 30 per cent, above the assessment. Moreover, the extortions of the tax-gatherers, and the local mandarins, are far from trifling. Being badly paid, these officers are naturally very anxious to indemnify themselves upon the people. Hence arise bloody encounters, and the people show a most determinate resistance against the oppressors.
Many of the lands of the Mantchoo and Chinese soldiers are situated near the frontiers of the Meaou-tsze territories. The greater part of the Ele area, has likewise been granted to these warriors It is very natural that they should defend their own herd against their enemies, and thus become the natural bulwark of the adjacent districts
Every collector must furnish a certain quantity both of money and grain. If he fails to do so, he must reimburse the deficit himself. His whole property is made surety for the due payment, and if this be insufficient, he is sent to an adjoining rich district, and permitted to exercise extortions, until he has obtained the requisite sum. Such a visit is feared by the people as much as the plague, many of the richer classes immediately abscond, whilst others hide their valuables.
It has often been remarked, that the immense populousness, and the taxes, which on an average are per mow 160 cash, and per king, 16 taëls, (1 taël per English acre,) raise the price of grain higher than it values in other countries. Rice is not half so dear in Bengal as in China, Manilla is enabled to import large quantities to Macao, Java can furnish the market to advantage, and even in Japan it is much cheaper. We have nowhere found it to be at so low a price as at Canton, which is owing to the importation from foreign parts. The land is of very high value, and being parcelled out into many small portions, the cultivators are enabled to extract much more than a large landholder would be able to do. Thus it can pay heavier taxes, especially in the southern provinces; the soil yields a threefold, and often a fourfold harvest.
The richest province is Keang-soo, and it pays therefore an enormous tax; Chè-keang, the smallest province, is evidently over taxed,
