and evaded by the practice of a little discreet bribery; the net Customs revenue, which was returned for 1901 at more than one million and a quarter yen (1,325,414 yen; £135,303 sterling at exchange of 2s. 0½d.), and the proceeds of the various concessions, monopolies, mines, and mint, and the sums derived from such miscellaneous and irregular taxation as may suggest itself to that keen-witted Minister Yi Yong-ik.
Taxation is heavy and relentless. The list of the more important objects, upon which an impost is levied, includes, in addition to the land, customs and house taxes, salt, tobacco, fish, fur, lumber lands, minerals, ginseng, minting, cargo-boats, guilds, licences, paper, cowhides, pawnbroking, &c. In more recent times certain taxes have become obsolete. But this list, however, does not by any means exhaust the means by which the Emperor contrives to make his subjects "pay the piper." Quite subsidiary to the regular cases, but of great value in themselves, are the donations which are sent up from various parts of the country for the gratification of the Throne. These gifts are very comprehensive, and embrace the fruits of the land as well as the products of the sea. Little escapes the schedule of donations, and no intervention can bring about the discontinuation of the custom, while a failure on the part of a prefect to attend to this matter would result speedily enough in the loss of his office.
The Budget for the year 1901 was assessed at nine million yen odd, of which one million yen odd was dedicated to Imperial expenditure, and a trifle more than this sum paid to the Imperial Privy Purse. The estimated difference between the revenue and the expenditure of the same year was the small sum of 775 dollars.
