The large banks, by accepting or refusing the notes of any house or by throwing money or sapiques on the market, rule in the corporation and have the whole fate of the market in their hands. The four Hengs, by the amount of their reserve, the solidity of their credit, and the number of their branches or correspondents, have no rivals in north China. All exchange operations are carried on in the money market, which is held every day in the south-eastern part of the city, on the street, near the Tauist Temple, where all the houses in Peking are represented, and every one takes care to be so, lest he be thought in default. When the rate is fixed the news is dispatched by couriers, pigeons, etc., to all whom it concerns. The couriers of the corporation, who communicate with the brokers and bankers, are also the confidential agents of the syndics, are acquainted with the amounts of the emissions of each house, know whether a certain patron is really ill or only feigning, and by their reports decide who shall be boycotted or declared insolvent. All this goes on in full liberty, without surveillance by the state, without any tax on the transactions, and without any other interference than the prohibition of fictitious dealings. The corn market is in the same way the almost exclusive domain of the corn corporation, the state never interfering except in the case of a famine in the region.
Besides the merchants’ corporations, there exist also corporations of artisans. The embroiderers, the makers of cloisonné, the tanners, and the carpenters have theirs. The carriers and the boatmen, who, before the opening of the railway, had the monopoly of transportation between Peking and the provinces without forming associations, met at their respective inns and established rules and rates for their business. Informal organizations, varying among the different towns in their degrees of development, exist among the barbers—who at Peking meet every year for a sacrifice and a banquet—the chair-bearers, and the jinrikisha men, and so every city has its corporations and associations which are not like those of the next city.
Some branches of trade have no corporations, and the peasants, when they come to town to sell their produce, trade on their own account, for the best terms they can get, and have to accept, in the market, an organization the origin of which is forgotten. Every year, on the appearance of each sort of crop, the King ki of the market, having agreed with the dealers, fixes the minimum price of the commodity for the season. He also polices the market. The function of King ki is the property of the person who exercises it, who has bought it from his predecessor and will sell it to his successor by private contract, and nobody contests his right. In the market for azaroles the position is hereditary. The monopoly of the corporations is often complicated with a provincial question. The Chinaman regards every man who was born in another district as a foreigner—still more if he is of another province. Those who are of the same local origin, on the other hand, stand by one another. Hence it has come to pass that some trades have been monopolized by the people of some one province. Most of the bankers were originally from Chan-Si; all the great merchants came from Anhoei. The people of Chan-tung have three special occupations in Peking. They have the exclusive privilege of killing pigs and retailing meat. They are the only water carriers, each one having his well on the public highway, his watering place for horses and mules, and his district where he sells water without permitting the people to provide for themselves elsewhere. Such privileges are consecrated by usage and zealously defended by their holders, and respect for them is enforced, when necessary, by the authorities. Associations are formed, also, even among the coolies who work on the docks.
These details show by how great a variety of forms all the corporations assure the same result—the organization of labor. We see also how they extend beyond commerce. The Chinaman is in fact a social being bound closely to his fellows—of the family, province, trade, or class—by every tie and in every sphere of life. He is never a man living by himself and for himself, and is not accustomed to independence. Hence the authority of the corporation, instead of seeming strange, is a necessity to him. Consequently the corporation has the right, by universal consent, to exact obedience from its members, and to compel those who would stay out to come into it.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
M. L. Azoulay suggests, in the Revue Scientifique, that the invitation given to Señor Rámon y Cajal, the celebrated Spanish neurologist, to visit the United States and attend the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Clark University, furnishes a good example for France to follow. “It causes grievous chagrin to me to think,” he says, “that while Germany, England, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States are regularly accustomed to invite to their scientific ceremonials, of which there are more than one every year, students of other countries who have illustrated any branch of human knowledge, France, formerly so hospitable, refuses these international appeals.”
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At the recent meeting of the British Archæological Association, at Buxton, Dr. Brushfield described the prehistoric circle of Arbor Low as, upon evidence which he cited, the earliest neolithic monument in Britain. There are thirty-two stones in the circle, all now lying prostrate, but they must originally have been erect. The dolmen in the center is now level with the ground. The mound and ditch—the latter being inside, between the mound and the stone circle—are in a very perfect condition, notwithstanding the lapse of time. The work has two openings—on the northeast and southwest.