However, race, as represented by the honor and capacity of one European, is carrying the day, and Korean Finance is gradually being placed on a sound basis. With careful management, judicious retrenchments of expenditure, the reduction of the chaos in the Treasury to an orderly system of accounts, and a different method of collecting the land tax, which is now being remitted with tolerable regularity to the Treasury, an actual financial equilibrium was established and maintained during the year 1896, which closed with a considerable surplus, and in April, 1897, one million dollars of the Japanese loan of three millions was repaid to Japan, and there is every prospect that the remaining indebtedness might be paid off out of income in 1899, leaving Korea in the proud position of a country without a national debt, and with a surplus of income over expenditure! The prosperous financial conclusion of 1896 is all the more remarkable because of certain exceptional expenditures. Two new regiments were added to the army, the old Arsenal, a disused costly toy, was put into working order, with all necessary modern improvements, under the supervision of a Russian machinist, the Kyeng-wun Palace was built, costly ceremonies and works connected with the late Queen’s prospective funeral were paid for, and a considerable area of western Seoul was recreated. All civil Government _employés_ (and they are legion), as well as soldiers and police, are paid regularly every month, and sinecures are very slowly disappearing. A Korean silver, copper, and brass coinage, convenient as well as ornamental, is coming into general circulation, and as it gradually displaces _cash_, is setting trade free from at least one of the conditions which hampered it, and increased banking facilities are tending in the same direction. FOOTNOTES: [48] For detailed statistics of Korean Foreign Trade, see Appendix C. [49] This seems incredible, and compels one to suppose that £ is a misprint for $. [50] See Appendix B. [51] See Appendix C. CHAPTER XXXIV DÆMONISM OR _SHAMANISM_ Korean cities without priests or temples; houses without “god shelves”; village festivals without a _mikoshi_ or idols carried in festive procession; marriage and burial without priestly blessing; an absence of religious ceremonials and sacred books to which real or assumed reverence is paid, and nothing to show that religion has any hold on the popular mind, constitute a singular Korean characteristic.