FINANCE
the condition of affairs in loco, that kind of check is not much applied: the statements of the high provincial authorities are usually accepted without query, for, after all, what concerns the Board is, not to obtain an intimate knowledge of the state of affairs in the provinces, but merely to procure data for assessing their respective contributions to the imperial Treasury. The viceroys and the governors, on their side, are not careful to be too frank about the conditions in their districts, unless there is a tale of financial difficulty to be told, when they neglect no facts calculated to create an impression of impecuniosity.
The provinces have discharged all their duties towards the Central Government when the sums demanded by the latter are sent forward. Thereafter the amount of provincial collections or disbursements is practically unqueried. Theoretically all local expenditures have to be approved by the Board of Revenue in Peking. But the Board having no means of intelligently auditing the accounts submitted to it, passes them as a matter of course. Thus each province virtually enjoys financial autonomy.
As to the manner of collecting the revenue, the only part of the work directly undertaken by agents of the Central Government is that relating to the foreign maritime customs and a few of the old native custom-houses. The rest is all done by agents of the provincial governments to whom the collectors are responsible. Moreover, all collec-
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