Identifier: americanauniver04beac (find matches)
Title: The Americana : a universal reference library, comprising the arts and sciences, literature, history, biography, geography, commerce, etc. of the world
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Beach, Frederick Converse, 1848-1918 Rines, George Edwin, 1860-
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: New York : Scientific American Compiling Dept.
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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s aManchu force, and the total Manchu army isestimated at 270,000 men, with an organizationof its own. There is a Chinese army separatelyorganized from this, forming a kind of militia,supposed to include some 800,000 men. A con-siderable number of the men are now armedwith rifles of European pattern, and the Euro-pean drill has been partially introduced. Li-Hung-Chang, when governor of Pe-chi-Li,organized a corps of instruction drilled andtrained on the European model, and this com-prises 10,000 men. Numbers of Krupp gunsare mounted on the fortifications; and there arearsenals superintended by Europeans. The navycontains several cruisers and other war ves-sels of the modern type, but the Chinese losttheir most powerful ships in the war with theJapanese, and their navy is now of comparativelylittle strength. Three protected cruisers werebuilt in 1897 in Germany for the Chinese fleet,r<nd several sea-going torpedo boats, ordered be-fore the war, have been also added. The reve- CHINA.
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i A Street in Tungchow 2. Reception Hall of Temple. CHINA nue of the empire is derived from customs, ex-cise, and the land and salt taxes. Calculatingon the basis of statistics for 1901, if the cus-toms duties, including the sum payable in lieuof the likin or in land-transit dues, be computedat about 10 per cent, the revenue, if payable ingold, would be about $20,000,000. China had a national debt before the war of1894-5, and at the close of that contest sheassumed a new indebtedness of $187,500,000.The aggregate indemnity which the foreign pow-ers were to receive by way of indemnity forthe Boxer outrages in 1900 was $337,500,000,payable in 39 annual installments. The wholeof the Chinese customs revenue, if payable ingold, would be equivalent to about 6 per centof the indemnity. History.— The early history of the Chineseis shrouded in fable, but it is certain that civili-zation had advanced much among them when itwas only beginning to dawn on the nations ofEurope. The names of numer

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