Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-04-25
f250,O0O. The man was till recently
| Hool,fod "a la Hn In, lo,,-l,- rsob IL ra,nn

925O,OOO. The man was till recently
reputed to be fabulously rich. He was
the owner of forty-eigh~t pawn-shops, .
most fertile source of wealth in China,
and many banks whose ramitications
extended all over the empire The
liquidation of this vast and complicated
business will perhaps bring to light
some of the secret springs of Chinese
~tinanciering, which has hitherto been
little understood by foreigners. The
deposits were enormous, the chief de.
positors being officials, and'some of the
money being the property of the I'M
perial or Provincial governments. But
the line which marks off Government
money from the private funds of the
officials is not very clearly drawn. Hence
attempts are being made er post Jiacto to
convert private money into Government
money for the purpose of obtaining
payment in full from the defaulting
hanks on pain of decapitation. But that
is not so simple a matter either, and
has to be managed very gingerly, for
the question arises whether Government
money can be lent at interest or put in
risk at all, and whether the Official w. Q
claims to have deposited Government
money with a private banker does not
expose himself to punishment. And il
he fails after all in extorting payment
to the prejudice of other creditors, his
attempt may render him liable to &C.
count to the Government for sums OF
money which were really his own, and
thus the unlucky official may lose his
money twice over. The Chinese have
no Bankruptcy law, and a defaulter is
exposed to very rough treatment at the
hands of his Infatuated creditors. In
cases where the creditors are influential
officials the fate of a debtor would in
deed be terrible were it not for the
automatic protection which is af-
forded by the e%quivocal relations
of the officials to the Govern
ment. AS a matter of fact arlimportant
officials become exceedingly rich, but
Their salaries being small and their ex-
penses heavy, while the purity of their
dealings is held to be above suspicion,
the possession of wealth is ipso Jacto
a condemnation of their conduct. The
richest men are consequently driven to
expedients to conceal their wealth, and
so the official depositors with the bank
ers dare rot appear openly as prosecu-
tors. 1t is all anomalous and paralyz-
ing state of things, a government poor
to the verge of indigenee, with ali its
officials Individually amassing fortunes.
These fortunes, however, serve, in a
sort of irregular and was.eful manner,
as a reserve fund for the government,
for the owners of them can be
'squeezed" on emergencies; indeed,
without any special emergency, every
visit to the palace forms the occasion
for bleeding the provincial o ~1icials.
A recent audience with the Emperor
cost q Governor ego, 900 in blackmail.
The general breakdown Of JOINT
I stock enterprises created and managed
by Chinese probably results from more
than mere inexpersence. 1t brings out
clearly a ser.ou defect in the Chinese
character which will prevent their aver
accomplishing anything really great IN
the field of commerce or finansc-the
incapac:ty to work honestly for others.
1t is the same defect which prevents
their civil, military, or naval admi2is-
t~rations from attaining to any position
of importance. Population rules from
| the Emperor to the coolie, and in all
their undertakings individualism so
strongly asserts itself that the effectual
coordination of forces required to bring
any enterprise to a successful issue IS
not attainable. 1t will, no doubt, be a
great disappointment to the enlightened
among them to discover that his faint
on the character of the people is indeli-
bic, and that, much as they wish to get
rid of the presence of foreigners. it is
nevertheless, to fore; gners they must
apply to organize the resources of their
country, whether by means of railways,
steamboats,, mines, or any other form
of combined effort whose success de-
| ponds on the certainty that every man
will do his duty.-Cor. London Times.