ect directly any part of the revenues, unless the imperial maritime
customs be excepted, though these, too, pass through the books of the
provincial authorities.[40]

It has hitherto been extremely difficult to obtain anything like
trustworthy figures for the whole revenue of China, for the reason that
no complete statistics are published by the central government at
Peking.[41] The only available data are, first, the returns published by
the imperial maritime customs for the duties levied on foreign trade;
and, secondly, the memorials sent to Peking by the provincial
authorities on revenue matters, certain of which are published from time
to time in the _Peking Gazette_. These are usually fragmentary, being
merely reports which the governor has received from his subordinates,
detailing, as the case may be, the yield of the land tax or the likin
for his particular district, with a dissertation on the causes which
have made it more or less than for the previous period. Or the return
may be one detailing the expenditure of such and such a department, or
reporting the transmission of a sum in reply to a requisition of the
board of revenue, with a statement of the source from which it has been
met. It is only by collating these returns over a long period that
anything like a complete statement can be made up. And even then these
returns do not represent anything like the total of taxation paid by the
people, but, as far as they go, they may be taken to represent the
volume of taxation on which the Peking government can draw revenue.

The following table, taken from a memorandum by Sir Robert Hart, dated
the 25th of March 1901, shows the latest official estimate (up to 1910)
of the revenue and expenditure of China:--

_Revenue._
Taels.[42]
Land tax 26,500,000
Provincial duties 1,600,000
" receipts (various) 1,000,000
Grain commutation 3,100,000
Salt gabelle 13,500,000
Li-kin 16,000,000
Native customs 2,700,000
Maritime customs:--
General cargo 17,000,000
Foreign opium 5,000,000
Native opium 1,800,000
----------
Total 88,200,000

_Expenditure._
Taels.
Provincial