tentate, Yakoob Beg had to resort to many strange
expedients, and to manifest much patience and long-suffering; and in
overcoming petty obstacles and minor details, he proved himself to be a
man of more than average ability, no less than he had previously by the
skilful manipulation of armies and intriguers. Here again he erected a
structure distinct and separate from that handed down to him by the
Chinese. Comparatively speaking, the Chinese had been wealthy to the
Athalik Ghazi, and they received in moderate imposts on merchandise
alone almost a sufficient sum to defray the total cost of their
administration. Yakoob Beg had no such certain source of revenue; he had
to raise from an impoverished and only half-conquered state a sum almost
as large as that required by the Chinese. That he did it remains the
chief proof of his skill as a finance minister, and is another reason
for our regarding this extraordinary ruler with admiration. We may feel
sure that if we could follow closely the history of his fiscal efforts,
and the numberless plans that proved abortive, we should have revealed
one of the most instructive and interesting narratives of modern Asia.
There are no materials out of Kashgar, if there are such there, for such
an investigation however, and we can only follow as best we may be able,
the thread of events by the light of such authorities as are at our
disposal. In court and personal expenditure he set an example that might
with advantage be followed by other rulers in Asia even at the present
day, and in a strict economy and supervision of the petty sums that in
the aggregate make all the difference in any state between a surplus and
a deficit, were to be found the two guiding principles of his conduct.
Kashgaria might be in a very backward state of cultivation, and years of
commotion and warfare had undoubtedly thrown it back in the ranks of
prosperity and civilization, but the Athalik Ghazi was persuaded of the
truth of the Latin philosopher's saying, that "Parsimonia magna
vectigalia est." It must be remembered that Yakoob Beg set himself a
different task to accomplish than had the Chinese. Their idea was not so
much to extend their empire, although there has always been a tendency
with the Chinese to be aggressive against small neighbours, as to
acquire a territory that could be made a paying thing: much as the
pioneers of Anglo-Saxon conquest have made their impression in every
quarter of the globe in s