The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-07-20
CROESUS OF CHINA.
How Lii Hung Chang Rose from
Poverty to Wealth.
Remarkable Career of a Celestial Dip
Iomnt who Began Life as a Worker
ia the Rice Field.

Lii Hung Chang, the ''old fox with the
gray goatee, - as Vizevona, the italian
freebooter, once called him, says he
Chi ,agO Herald, is a man whose
wealth is reputed to be on a level with
that of the Rockefellers, Rothschilds and
Vanderbilts, though students of Chinese
history will tell you that he could buy
up any two of them. In 1910 this repre-
sentative of ''dead'' nation was a puny
orphan boy, working on rice boat in
the marshes of Hwei Ling, where he was
born. His life was bounded on all sides
by the rice fields.
In 1874 Ii Hung Chang, by some freak
of fortune that nobody has been able to
discover the truth about, reached Canton,
and year later, thanks to the way in
which ragged, friendless beggar lad can
seek and obtain an education while the
STATE feeds and clothes him in that
'effete' and ''barbarous' land, he was
admitted to the famous study cells. In
lS49i after five years of hard work. he had
outstripped all competitors and became
secretary to the Viceroy of Kowloon prov
ince. In the following year this viceroy
led 80, 900 men against rebel uprising.
He was killed in action, and Lii Hung
Chang took his place, pursued the enen Y
and won great victory.
In 1851 he was called to Pelxin and be-
came Secretary Of War, and in the ten
years following ne studied and mastered
the whole intricate system of his cOun-
try S government. The year 1865 saw him
still poor young man, but when he was
appointed governor of Kiang Su he began
to accumulate money.
In Kiang Su are the great salt min es
OF China, and the governor of the dis
trict has the privilege of farming" the
monopoly. Then, too, he began to round
up the mandarins in his province. They
tried to tell this young quiet hammered
governor that they were only earning a
bare living out Of their fees, but he as
tOnished them by exhibiting complete
knowledge of their methods, and soon 90
per cent Of their emOIuments went into
his capaciOus pockets.
In 1858 came the great rebellion, and
General Gordon began his triumphal
march against the insurgents. LII Hung
Chang, the war genius of the empire be-
came his right hand man, and after four
years OF marvellous success on the field
his Emperor loaded him down with more
hOnors and emOluments. In 1865 he was
appointed governor general of the Liang
King provinces, with four vicerOys and
1900 mandarins under his orders, and in
absolute control of the salt tax, the rice
tax, the sampan tax and the house tax
all 1nftnlteslmal charges on the individ-
ual-but when one directs the muleting
Of l9O, 600 people it is the fractions that
count.
In 1868 his wealth was estimated bv
foreigners who knew him intimately to
be $40, 600, 900. Still he kremained in i'm
perial favor, and in 1872 came his culmi-
mating triumph, when he was made
vlcerOy Of Pc Chi Ii, the imperial prov
lnce, with palace in the royal city, and
practically the collection of all the nation
al funds under his control
Here he developed peculiar method of
Sc mi moral squeezing. His emissaries
visited every province regularly and took
good care to guard the mass of the peO-
pie from eXbOrtiOn at the hands of the
mandarins. An officer found guilty of
demanding or accepting more than the set
amount OF taxation was promptly dis
missed from his Office in disgrace, Iii
Hung Chang saw that with such an i'm
mense population there was no necessity
to crush the individual with heavy taxes.
lie insisted on half of every tax being
turned into his hands, and One-half Of
these receipts he handed over in turn to
tibet imperial treasury, keeping the bal
ance for himself.
There was no false pretense about it.
The Emperor, happy in the fact that
never before had he found q man who
could drag such enormous sums out of
the hands OF the mandarins was more
than satisfied with the share that came to