Untitled

ADMINISTEATIVE DIVISIONS. 883
" It costs less to carry a pound of silver 100 miles than it does to carry the
equivalent value of brass, and at places far removed from centres of civilisation,
the tendency is, naturally, to bring more to an equality the value of the two metals,
just as the values of all goods tend to equalise themselves, relatively, the greater
distance they are carried. But however unavoidable, the difficulty is none the less
troublesome to a traveller, who has thus three things to look to first, the quality
of the silver ; secondly, the weight of the tael ; and thirdly, the number of cash to
the tael." *
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS.
China proper comprises eighteen provinces, nineteen with Shinking (Liaotung),
or South Manchuria, grouped in eight viceroyalties or general governments. Each
province is divided into departments, or fu, which are again subdivided into cheir,
or circles, and hicn, or districts. These terms are usually added to the names of
the towns that have been chosen as the capitals of the respective divisions. The
pao (tit'), or communes properly so called, average from fifty to seventy in every
hien, besides which there are a number of so-called chili-chew, which depend
directly on the central administration of the province. In the regions inhabited
by mixed populations the ting, or military prefectures, are numerous, and take the
name of chili-ting when they are attached directly to the central administration.
Some of the subjugated aboriginal tribes have also their distinct communes divided
into tu fu, tu chew, and tu se. Peking is under a special military administration,
whose jurisdiction extends for some miles beyond the environs. The supreme
command is vested in the tsongtu for the viceroyalties, in the futai for the provinces,
in the futsun and tootai for the circles, while the special commissioners take
the title of Kinchai.
For a tabulated scheme of the nineteen provinces, with other statistical matter,
the reader is referred to the end of this volume.
* Gill, op. tit. p. 272.