The Life of Yakoob Beg; Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar

Travellers, however, who were provided with a passport, were accorded privileges of transit, and were permitted, if they felt so disposed, to continue their journeys during hours interdicted to less privileged mortals. In each chief town there were offices for the issue of these permits to travel. Not many obstacles were thrown in the path of those, who left permanent guarantees in the shape of property behind them for their return, in accomplishing their desire for travel; but rarely was permission granted to any one, not blessed with these worldly advantages, to proceed farther than the neighbouring district. Indeed in all cases leave to visit foreign states, other than Khokand or Bokhara, was a matter of difficulty to be obtained, and only in the most exceptional cases was it granted. But it appears that there were some evasions of this regulation by a simulation of religious zeal, for the Sheikh-ul-Islam had it in his power to grant permits to leave the country on pilgrimages to Bokhara the "holy," or to Mecca. In themselves the passports were simple in phraseology. They merely stated the name and address of the traveller, the nature of his business, and his destination. Having obtained the consent of the Dadkwah, and the authority of the Kazi, no difficulty was experienced in procuring the necessary slip of paper. Infractions of this permission, by too long an absence, or by proceeding in some forbidden direction, were visited on a first offence with a fine. On a repetition of it, however, the punishment became more severe. It would be interesting to know how these protectors of the public peace were paid, and by what means. But on this point there is little trustworthy information. We, however, know of one tax which was devoted to the support of the urban police, but of the funds from which the suburban were remunerated, we have no authority for any assertion. A weekly tax was levied from all the shop and booth owners, to go towards the payment of their protectors; but it is not supposed that this amounted to a sufficient sum to maintain the large force in the more important cities. The difference was probably paid out of the state coffers under the head of justice. Judging from this we cannot be far wrong in assuming that a similar tax was levied on the farmers and country residents for the support of the suburban police; and as the secret police required less outlay in the country than in the cities, it is possible that that tax more nearly defrayed the total cost, than it did in Yarkand or Kashgar. The police supervision and the military terrorism, freely resorted to on all occasions offering an excuse for such an extreme measure, have not been without their effect in leaving traces of their existence and influence in the daily life of the Kashgari, and on the countenances and sentiments of the subject peoples. Where formerly lived a light-hearted and happy race there now seemed as if a never-to-be-removed gloom had settled down on the face of the land, and neither the assurance of security nor the irregular encouragement of the ruler to commerce could remove the blight that had fallen upon the energies and happiness of the people. As one of them expressed it, in pathetic language, "During the Chinese rule there was everything; there is nothing now." The speaker of that sentence was no merchant, who might have been expected to be depressed by the falling-off in trade, but a warrior and a chieftain's son and heir. If to him the military system of Yakoob Beg seemed unsatisfactory and irksome, what must it have appeared to those more peaceful subjects to whom merchandise and barter were as the breath of their nostrils? All the advantages of a perfect police system, heavily weighted by the incumbrance of a costly addition of spies and tale-bearers, would seem as nothing compared with the loss incurred by the fetters placed on individual motion and enterprise. Considered by itself, the police organization of Kashgar was, perhaps, the most perfect design achieved by Yakoob Beg, and his community of spies will rank with anything in effectiveness that has ever been accomplished by any potentate. But as a permanent addition to his strength it is permissible to doubt whether he really secured his rule by employing the latter, or obtained much more by the formation of the former than the services of a trained body of trustworthy, courageous men. The restrictions imposed on trade by the severance of all communications with the East by the Tungan wars and by the limited amount of liberty granted the native Kashgari, proved most deterrent to all mercantile adventure, and placed in the hands of Khokandians or Russians on the north, and of Cashmerians and Punjabis on the south, most of the trade still carried on with Eastern Turkestan.

The trade carried on by the Athalik Ghazi's state, if we are to judge solely by amount, with foreign countries, was greatest with Russia and her dependencies; but if we investigate the matter more closely we find that the result is a little more satisfactory to ourselves. The direct trade that was carried on by way of Leh with Khoten and Sanju was steadily increasing, while that of Russia by Khokand had for some time remained stationary, if it had not even decreased. And then much of the Russian trade has to be scored to this country, for in the marts of Kashgar, underneath Russian exteriors, were very often to be found English interiors, and the brand of well-known Manchester and Liverpool makers was discovered beneath some gaudy and brilliant-looking cover hailing from Moscow or Nishni Novgorod. Besides, recent investigations have proved that some of the goods exported from Shikarpore, in Scinde, through the Bholan Pass find their way through the mountainous districts that intervene into the territory of his late Highness the Ameer of Kashgar. Nor had Yakoob Beg totally neglected all means for inducing merchants to enter his state; indeed, his chief objection seemed to have been, not that they should have entered his state, but that they should leave it. Serais were built in all the chief towns for the accommodation of such merchants as might take up a temporary abode within his territory, and the Andijani Serai, or hotel, specially constructed for merchants from Khokand, was one of the largest and most striking buildings in the city of Kashgar. Yakoob Beg had even detailed off to take care of the serai and its occupants a large number of the old Khitay, or Yangy Mussulmans, who were generally employed throughout the city as domestic servants. When we come to the description of the relations of Yakoob Beg with England and with Russia we will speak more fully of the details of those treaties of commerce which were ratified on several occasions, and whose ostensible object was the promotion of trade and other friendly intercourse.

We have now considered the army, the police, the administration of justice, and the court of Yakoob Beg, and the only chief subject that remains to be discussed are the principles of finance adopted by the Ameer. To keep any state, even an Asiatic state, in a fit condition for preserving its independence, a settled revenue is requisite, and Yakoob Beg, whose atmosphere was one of almost continual warfare, was on several occasions pressed for money in a manner difficult to be conceived by us. His military operations languished for the want of the sinews of war, and we are told on credible authority that many of his soldiers received only payment out of the spoil taken at the sack of Turfan and other places. So long as his ordinary expenditure was increased by the addition of an extraordinary war outlay, so long was he unable to make his receipts and expenditure balance. On the cessation of hostilities against the Tungani, and the partial revival of trade in consequence, his fiscal affairs assumed a brighter aspect, and it is possible that during the last few years of his reign his revenue showed a surplus. But to obtain that success, a most joyful one to every embarrassed potentate, Yakoob Beg had to resort to many strange expedients, and to manifest much patience and long-suffering; and in overcoming petty obstacles and minor details, he proved himself to be a man of more than average ability, no less than he had previously by the skilful manipulation of armies and intriguers. Here again he erected a structure distinct and separate from that handed down to him by the Chinese. Comparatively speaking, the Chinese had been wealthy to the Athalik Ghazi, and they received in moderate imposts on merchandise alone almost a sufficient sum to defray the total cost of their administration. Yakoob Beg had no such certain source of revenue; he had to raise from an impoverished and only half-conquered state a sum almost as large as that required by the Chinese. That he did it remains the chief proof of his skill as a finance minister, and is another reason for our regarding this extraordinary ruler with admiration. We may feel sure that if we could follow closely the history of his fiscal efforts, and the numberless plans that proved abortive, we should have revealed one of the most instructive and interesting narratives of modern Asia. There are no materials out of Kashgar, if there are such there, for such an investigation however, and we can only follow as best we may be able, the thread of events by the light of such authorities as are at our disposal. In court and personal expenditure he set an example that might with advantage be followed by other rulers in Asia even at the present day, and in a strict economy and supervision of the petty sums that in the aggregate make all the difference in any state between a surplus and a deficit, were to be found the two guiding principles of his conduct. Kashgaria might be in a very backward state of cultivation, and years of commotion and warfare had undoubtedly thrown it back in the ranks of prosperity and civilization, but the Athalik Ghazi was persuaded of the truth of the Latin philosopher's saying, that "Parsimonia magna vectigalia est." It must be remembered that Yakoob Beg set himself a different task to accomplish than had the Chinese. Their idea was not so much to extend their empire, although there has always been a tendency with the Chinese to be aggressive against small neighbours, as to acquire a territory that could be made a paying thing: much as the pioneers of Anglo-Saxon conquest have made their impression in every quarter of the globe in search of wealth and adventure, did the Chinese by a seemingly irresistible impulse spread over the continent of Asia. In doing so they were actuated as much by calculation of possible profit as by any desire for military renown. The Emperor Keen-Lung himself was flattered by the triumphs achieved beyond Gobi; but his lieutenants and viceroys aimed at more mercenary objects, and but for the golden promise held forth by a permanent conquest of Turkestan would have induced their master to direct his efforts to some more profitable undertaking. The Chinese, having acquired Kashgar, were far too sagacious to use up its resources by an organized system of pillage, and they accordingly, let it be granted chiefly with a view to their own personal aggrandizement, devoted their attention to the development of its natural wealth by means already detailed in a previous chapter. For three generations the officials grew rich on the prosperity of their dependency, and for the same period the people themselves were scarcely less flourishing. The Chinese had accepted no slight responsibility in undertaking the government of Kashgar on principles identical with those by which they held authority in Tibet; but, owing to wonderful perseverance and good management, they triumphed over every difficulty. The revenue raised for state and local purposes was very great, and it sufficed to preserve good order for many years, and to add permanent improvement to the state in every direction. The task voluntarily undertaken by the Chinese was far more onerous than that Yakoob Beg found he had to execute; but they came to it with many advantages that he wanted. They had a large and faithful army; he had only an uncertain gathering, which might flee or desert on the first symptom of disaster: they had the resources of a great and powerful empire at their back; he had nothing but his own energy and determination: and above all, they had a reputation that added to their strength and facilitated their undertakings, while he was regarded as a mere military adventurer, receiving the contempt of Tungan and Khoja alike. The very nature of things made the Chinese turn most of their attention to commerce, while for years Yakoob Beg's sole thought was to consolidate his military strength and form a large standing army. For many years, then, Yakoob Beg only spent money on the drilling of soldiers and the purchase of weapons. Now and then, when some danger seemed to threaten him, either from Russia, Afghanistan, or the Tungani, he would devote considerable sums to the construction of forts in the line of the menaced position. But his chief expenditure was confined to his army, and the maintenance of his dynasty by his police system. The administration of justice required a certain sum of money, and the Church for its support came in for a fair share of the good things that were going. It is clear that his expenditure, if not very great in our eyes, would severely tax a population of 1,000,000 people in no very high state of prosperity. The chief source of wealth in the past had always been the trade with China, and when that was broken off, the slight increase in intercourse with Russia and India was not a sufficient compensation. In fact, the country was very poor, without the ingenuity and commercial instincts of the Khitay. During the days of the war under Buzurg Khan, the only means of obtaining the necessary revenue was by despoliation and enforced levies on the occupied portion of the territory. When the western portion of Kashgaria was subdued, Yakoob Beg found himself without any money in his exchequer, and no easy means of filling it presented itself to him. In these straits he had recourse to an expedient that, if not very novel, was at all events very effective. He issued a proclamation to his faithful subjects to the effect that as conqueror he was landowner of the whole state; but that he was willing – eager would have been the more correct expression – to sell it to them at a cheap rate. He, however, exempted from this the old possessions of the Chinese Wangs and Ambans, and distributed their extensive domains among the more prominent of his followers, who in return acknowledged their liability to military service. The system was an exact copy of the old feudal régime, and Yakoob Beg was vested with all the rights and authority of the feudal lord of the Middle Ages. The parallel is still further maintained by the large reward that the Church received for its aid to the new ruler. The old revenues, devoted to the support of the temples and religious seminaries in the past, and which had miscarried during the troublous period of the war for the possession of Turkestan, were restored, and fresh possessions were added thereto, to demonstrate the generosity of the sovereign and his veneration for the religion of Mahomed. His old friend the Sheikh-ul-Islam was still more fortunate, and a large estate was set apart for his special enjoyment. Nor does it appear that the Mussulman priests abused the fresh power and advantages they thus secured; for among the toilers in Kashgaria none were more energetic than they in educating the people, and in extending their influence over their minds, both for the benefit of their religion and for the security of the power of the Athalik Ghazi. But in one respect, and it is impossible to exaggerate its importance, Yakoob Beg's endeavours to found a strong military class, bound to him by ties of past favours and others yet to come, were abortive; for with rare exceptions his followers refused to fill their new avocation of landed proprietors. Instead of devoting their attention to the questions arising from agriculture and other rural pursuits, they sub-let all their possessions to Andijani immigrants, and, residing in their city ordas, gave themselves over either to lascivious pleasures or to complete indolence. Even so distinguished a warrior as Abdulla Beg, the slayer of more than 12,000 persons, as his panegyrists boasted, suffered from the pervading effeminacy on the cessation of active hostilities; and in the lower ranks of the service such deterioration in energy was still more manifest. This change in the spirit of his earlier supporters, among other things, obliged Yakoob Beg to depend the more on the Andijani merchants and shopkeepers, and conduced to his adopting more favourable views on foreign trade in the later years of his power.

The sum of money which he immediately received by the sale of lands placed him in a condition to undertake those wars against the Tungani, which added so much to the extent of his territory and to the responsibilities of his position. Indeed, for several years after its first enforcement it continued to bring in a certain amount to the coffers of the State. But even this resource was transitory, and the sum of money received by this means and in the shape of spoil, from Yarkand, Kashgar, Khoten, and other places, was not sufficient to meet the expenditure caused by the formation of a large army. Neither of these practices could be regarded as a permanent means of obtaining a revenue, for the former would scarcely admit of a repetition, and the latter soon exhausted itself. So when his rule had become a little settled, and these modes of raising money, in addition to the still more reprehensible practice of robbing foreign merchants, had become out of date to a certain degree, the Athalik Ghazi had to place his fiscal arrangements on a more practical and honourable basis. While he laboured under some disadvantages, already enumerated, as compared with the Chinese, he had the great advantage over them that he strove for an object more easily accomplished than the restoration of Kashgar to its pristine welfare; and in his budget he had only steadily to keep in view how much he required to maintain so many jigits, and so many police in his pay, and to keep in his exchequer a small surplus for any untoward emergency. He left the roads to take care of themselves; the irrigation works, sadly wanted in various parts of the state, must be reserved for his successors; and all proposals for the amelioration of the people were shelved for a more opportune occasion. But so many thousand jigits must be in the ranks; so many fresh guns and cartridges must be placed in the arsenals; and so many adventurers must be induced by good pay to take service in the army as non-commissioned officers, in order that the rank and file should be well drilled. The very necessities of his position compelled Yakoob Beg to make all these military preparations; but the cost was great, and the sacrifices thus imposed on ruler and on people were a terrible strain. Recent events make us inclined to believe that a less active military and foreign policy, and a more peaceable and domestic one, would have tended to have added more strength to the Athalik Ghazi's rule than the somewhat ostentatious military parade to which he had recourse. Be that as it may, Yakoob Beg instituted in 1867 two taxes, which may be supposed to represent the two chief classes of receipts during his tenure of authority. The first of these was a tithe on all the cereal produce of the country; this tax was called the Ushr. The second, called the Zakat, was a customs due levied on all merchandise entering Kashgar. The Ushr was payable on all land except that occupied by the Church, or by those who owed military service to the crown instead of other payment; and even those who rented land from the noble classes were obliged to surrender a tithe to the ruler. It would appear, therefore, from this that it was not so much the land as its legal possessor who was exempt from liability to the usual obligations of citizenship. The danger contained in the acquisition of all the crown lands by Andijani merchants, and the gradual displacement of his more immediate followers through the energy of these people, was not imperceptible to Yakoob Beg, and he accordingly adopted measures for preventing his nobles selling their land without his sanction. The receipts from this Ushr were very considerable, and it was the main source of his revenue for years. We have some idea of the approximate value of land in Kashgar. The method of measuring land for sale, and consequently also for taxation, is peculiar. It is not by any given size that it is computed, or, indeed, strictly speaking by the amount of crop it produces; but at a rate in accordance with the amount of wheat with which it had been planted. The average rate was about a pound for as much land as was sown with 20 lb. of wheat. The tenant, as has been said, paid the government dues and handed over three-fourths of the net produce to the landlord as rent, receiving for his portion only the one-fourth remaining. Under this system it was only in very prosperous years that any but very large tenants made sufficient to earn a competent livelihood. In bad years it is possible that the landlord had to satisfy himself with a smaller share, if he was not induced to surrender his claim altogether for the disastrous period. But the tax-farmers, entrusted with the collection of this rate, were eager to become rich, no less than to earn a good name with the authorities for bringing in a list with no defaulters. The unfortunate people were completely at their mercy, and without any means of ascertaining the accuracy of the claim, or of opposing extortionate demands on the part of the tax-collectors. They paid without a murmur, perhaps without a suspicion of the imposition that was being practised upon them, the sum demanded of them, if they were able; and as their dues were payable without delay and on demand before anything else was taken out of the total sum of the produce, the Athalik Ghazi received his share with regularity, and his tax-collector pocketed the excess sum for his own satisfaction. In many cases it is known that the amount claimed by the official exceeded by threefold the legal demand. Such a system was no less hurtful to the ruler than it was ruinous to the people. That in one tax alone a larger sum should be extracted from the people for the benefit of the officials than was contributed for the necessities of the state, exhibited a very loose system of supervision on the part of the sovereign, and is a strong piece of evidence that in many ways Yakoob Beg was a mixture of contradictions. We can scarcely persuade ourselves that he was aware of these occurrences, and yet how could he be ignorant of them?

In addition to the Ushr there was another tax on home produce, viz., the Tanabi, or tax on land devoted to the production of vegetables or fruit. The Tanab is, by the way, a lineal measure of forty-seven yards, and a Tanabi is a piece of land forty-seven yards square. On this extent of land cultivated for vegetables, or fruit, a small tax was raised. More than any other tax did this vary according to the character of the district, and to the quality of the year's crop. It was seldom less than a shilling a Tanabi, even in the least renowned district, whereas in some parts, in good years, it was five shillings, or even more. Here again, however, the middleman interfered, and exacted as much as he saw there was any possibility of his obtaining. This tax undoubtedly ought to have produced a large sum, as a larger portion of the soil is laid out as fruit and vegetable gardens than for crops; but whether it was more difficult to raise, or there was more peculation in transitu from the tax-payer to the imperial exchequer, it is certain that we hear much less of this tax than we should be disposed to imagine. The two great taxes on home productions were therefore a corn due and a fruit due. The rate was not in itself excessive, and could be paid by any community without embarrassment. It is uncertain to what extent the avarice of the officials had made the conditions of these two taxes more onerous, although, on the most favourable supposition, the citizen was mulcted in no inconsiderable sum. A more serious question for the ruler was, how did it affect his own position with regard to his subjects? Did Yakoob Beg appear in the eyes of the Kashgari as an exacting and oppressive tyrant on account of these heavy impositions?

It is impossible to speak on this point with any degree of certainty, but it is only natural to expect that such was the case. No tiller of the ground can feel grateful to a sovereign who required him to hand over almost one-third of his receipts before he made use of one penny of them, even for the payment of his rent. It is scarcely probable that Yakoob Beg approved of such enormous profits going to his officials; but, that having tolerated petty exactions in his earlier days, he found himself unable to attempt the task of coping with the evil when it had assumed such alarming proportions. It is impossible to believe that he remained in ignorance of what was occurring under his very eyes, and there is some evident foundation for the accusation that he participated in the division of the profits of his tax-gatherers. We should be loth to admit the accuracy of such a charge, and yet the arguments in its favour are too plausible to admit of a very confident contradiction. It would not speak well for the efficiency of his secret police if he had remained in ignorance of a fact which was losing him the sympathy of his subjects.

The gold mines at Khoten were worked after the fall of that city in 1868, and continued productive down to the present time. There is no information on the quantities of the precious metal that are there turned out in the year, but it is probable that they are not very great. The coal mines near Aksu and Kucha are no longer made use of, except by a few individuals, and the copper mines in that district have, since the departure of the Chinese, only been very partially explored. The jade that used to come in great quantities from Aksu and Khoten, is still to be found throughout Kashgar; but although it is probable that it still nearly all comes from those cities, the Kashgari themselves tell a hesitating tale as to its place of production. A visitor to Kashgar, on going the round of the bazaars, soon found that the people's tongues were tied by the presence, in his train, of a number of the secret police, who had been specially told off to prevent the Feringhee obtaining any troublesome information on the state of the people, or the resources of the state. A striking instance was given him of the close attention paid by these guardians of order to the veriest trifles. The traveller inquired in one stall where the jade, which was the chief commodity of the merchant in question, came from, and received the reply, Aksu. Proceeding to another shop in the street, he repeated the question, when he was informed that it was imported from Khokand. But the traveller said, your neighbour told me it came from Aksu. The shopkeeper, taken aback by this abrupt remark, became confused, and admitted that it came from Aksu. Warned by a look from the official, he then repeated his original assertion that it came from Khokand. The use of all this absurd shuffling, and attempt to throw dust in strangers' eyes, is impossible to discover; for it was a matter of little moment whether jade came from Aksu, or Khokand, so long as we knew that it formed an important commodity, both in the rough and in the chiselled state, in the cities of Kashgaria.

The customs tax, or Zakat, is sanctioned by the Shariát, and was levied at all the border posts on the various roads leading into the state. Up to the ratification of the treaties with Great Britain and Russia, its regulations were vague and elastic in the extreme. In fact, any merchant who might have been so foolhardy as to venture into Kashgar would have had reason, before these events, to think himself fortunate if he escaped the penalty of his rashness; for assuredly his luggage would not, but would have been confiscated for the special benefit of his Highness the Ameer. So late as 1869, Russian merchants were robbed of their baggage, and personally ill-treated, and only after long years of negotiation did the Russian Government obtain any satisfaction for the injuries and loss inflicted on one of their subjects. And then how did the Athalik Ghazi send the sum of money he agreed to pay for the loss the merchant had incurred? – why in a depreciated Chinese currency, part of a large number of coins that he had found in a disused temple in Kashgar! Before this, all the external trade had been carried on with Khokand and Bokhara, Afghanistan and Badakshan, and the receipts from Zakat were quite insignificant, barring such treasure trove as the spoliation of a merchant from Tashkent, or from Leh. But with the persistent efforts on the part of the Russians on the north, and of the English native merchants on the south, to pierce the gloom hiding the country of Eastern Turkestan, it became impossible for Yakoob Beg to maintain much longer the incognito he was so jealous in maintaining. Perhaps also the prospect of deriving an income from Zakat, that should smooth down many of his difficulties, was not without some influence on his mind when he came into direct contact with civilized empires. His expectations were far too sanguine, and he seems to have once more, during the last twelve months of his life, become indifferent to the advantages or disadvantages of trade with his neighbours. In fact, when he placed his customs on a fair footing, he found that it would require many years to recoup him for the excessive exactions he surrendered. The merchants who first attempted to commence intercourse with Kashgar became speedily discouraged by the dangers of the route, and the small opening for a large remunerative trade in a country whose wealth and population had been magnified tenfold. In a country where the richest merchant in the chief town possessed only a capital of £8,000, not much could be expected in the way of fortune; and although the legal dues on all merchandise were fixed at an ad valorem rate of 2½ per cent., it was soon discovered that if the ruler happened to be in want of cash he would not scruple to take what he could from the stranger. Both to the ruler, and to the foreign merchant, the new arrangement contained distasteful matter. The former perceived that he had surrendered some of his imperial rights, and that he was not to be recompensed by his receiving more money, and the latter knew that the treaty stipulation would not save him from having to pay excess fees.