Land Taxation In Imperial China 1750 1911 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... maritime customs duties and the li-kin duties in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the amount of the annual revenues was less than five million taels, the land tax formed two-thirds or more of the whole, while in the last few years before the Chino-Japanese War, 1894, it supplied about three-eighths of the total annual return of about eighty million taels.1 In recent years it has constituted onefourth of the annual tax revenue of a little over two hundred million taels.2 (2) This important part of the revenue is inelastic. For centuries, the amount apportioned has not been changed, and to do so would be extremely difficult. Nevertheless, this method has the advantage of securing a total fixed sum. (3) The land tax is levied on the land without allowances for indebtedness. (4) As the land tax has existed for centuries, the process of capitalization has proceeded to the point where the greater part of the burden has been eliminated. The persons who have lost by its establishment are not the same as those who own the lands at present. For the same reason, the question of equality and that of certainty are not of particular moment. (5) Although the greater part of the land tax has been capitalized, yet there are some few uncertain elements which cannot be included in the calculations. Prominent among such elements is the depreciation of copper coins. As the tax is collected in terms of silver which is always scarce, the taxpayer must pay more copper coins for the same weight of silver owing to the depreciation. This means in effect an additional tax. This new element is 1 During the 19th century the legal amount of land tax is over 31,000,000 taels. Annual variations are not great. 2 According to the budget of 1011, the land tax...