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CCCCXVI: CONCERNING THE PROVISION MADE IN CHINA AGAINST FAMINE 1 - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. V Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. V (Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772).

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CCCCXVI

CONCERNING THE PROVISION MADE IN CHINA AGAINST FAMINE1

I have somewhere read that, in China, an account is yearly taken of the number of people, and the quantities of provision produced. This account is transmitted to the emperor, whose ministers can thence foresee a scarcity, likely to happen in any province, and from what province it can best be supplied in good time. To facilitate the collecting of this account, and prevent the necessity of entering houses and spending time in asking and answering questions, each house is furnished with a little board, to be hung without the door during a certain time each year; on which board are marked certain words, against which the inhabitant is to mark the number and quantity, somewhat in this manner:

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All under sixteen are accounted children, and all above men and women. Any other particulars, which the government desires information of, are occasionally marked on the same boards. Thus the officers appointed to collect the accounts in each district, have only to pass before the doors, and enter into their book what they find marked on the board, without giving the least trouble to the family. There is a penalty on marking falsely; and as neighbors must know nearly the truth of each other’s account, they dare not expose themselves by a false one, to each other’s accusation. Perhaps such a regulation is scarcely practicable with us.

[1 ]Taken from Dr. Percival’s Essays (vol. iii., p. 25), being an extract from a letter written to him by Dr. Franklin, on the subject of his Observations on the State of Population in Manchester and Other Adjacent Places.—B. V.