In return for these and other services he expects to get his wages punctually paid, and to be allowed to charge, without any notice being taken of the same, a commission on all purchases.

This is the Chinese system, and even a servant absolutely honest in any other way cannot emancipate himself from its grip.

But if treated fairly, he will not abuse his chance.

One curious feature of the system is that if one master is in a relatively higher position than another, the former will be charged by his servants slightly more than the latter by his servants for precisely the same article.

Many attempts have been made by foreigners to break through this "old custom," especially by offering higher wages; but signal failure has always been the result, and those masters have invariably succeeded best who have fallen in with the existing institution, and have tried to make the best of it.
There is one more, and in many ways the most important, side of a Chinese servant's character.