Contents keywords: Imperial household--Banners and bondservants--House of Ts'ao (Cao) 曹 -- Ts'ao Yin in Peking--Soochow society--Peking and Soochow, poetry and society--Office of Textile Commissioner (Zhizaoju 織造局)--Subsidiary income--Customs houses--Stabilization of rice prices--Execution of Imperial commissions--Southern tours--K'ang-hsi Emperors six southern tours--Jesuits and the southern tours--Cao Yin and the southern tours--Southern tours in the Dream of the Red Chamber--Cao Yin and the Complete Tang Poems--Liang-huai Salt Administration 兩淮鹽法--Lianghuai Salt taxes, Salt Censors--Salt merchants--Cao Yin, Li Xu 李煦 as Lianghuai Salt censors--Cao Yin as the Emperor's secret informant--Cao Yin's Palace Memorials--Officials, rumors, robbers--Examination Hall Case of 1711 and the mutual impeachment of Gali 噶禮 and Chang Po-hsing (Zhang Boxing 張伯行 )--Fall of the House of Cao--Illness and death--Son Cao Yong 曹顒 --Adopted son Cao Fu 曹頫 --Appendixes: Raw silk prices, 1712-1726--Kiangsu rice prices, 1706-1722--New sample rice yields, 1715-1722--Authors hypothesis on the Dream of the Red Chamber (Hongloumeng 紅樓夢).