Yet He Never Placed A Chinese In His Cabinet, And He Employed
Foreigners Only As Ministers.
These, however, he chose with discernment,
always excepting the Ministers of Finance.
He really loved his subjects;
and if they were not always happy under his government, it is because they
took care to conceal their sufferings. There were in those days no Public
Censors whose duty it is to warn the Sovereign of what is going on: and no
one dared to speak out for fear of the resentment of the Ministers, who
were the depositaries of the Imperial authority, and the authors of the
oppressions under which the people laboured. Several Chinese, men of
letters and of great ability, who lived at Hupilai's court, might have
rendered that prince the greatest service in the administration of his
dominions, but they never were intrusted with any but subordinate offices,
and they were not in a position to make known the malversations of those
public blood-suckers." (De Mailla, IX. 459-460.)
AHMAD was a native of Fenaket (afterwards Shah-Rukhia), near the Jaxartes,
and obtained employment under Kublai through the Empress Jamui Khatun, who
had known him before her marriage. To her Court he was originally
attached, but we find him already employed in high financial office in
1264. Kublai's demands for money must have been very large, and he
eschewed looking too closely into the character of his financial agents or
the means by which they raised money for him. Ahmad was very successful in
this, and being a man of great talent and address, obtained immense
influence over the Emperor, until at last nothing was done save by his
direction, though he always appeared to be acting under the orders of
Kublai.
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