SHANGHAI
127
of the McCarthy pattern, but manufactured in Shanghai. The silk filatures are twenty- five in number with 8,040 spindles. The export in 1895 was 6,276 bales of one picul (133 lbs.) each, which it was expected would be doubled in 1896. The Hing Chong Silk Filature at Jessfield consists of 300 basins. It is intended to increase the concern until there are 900 basins working. Then there is the extensive filature belonging to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., at Sinza, at which 400 basins are worked. Messrs. Bavier & Co. work a filature on the Soochow Creek, in which there are 150 basins. On the opposite side of the Creek there is a very extensive establishment known as the Sing-chang Filature, which is the property of the Shanghai Silk Filature Co., Limited. There are 500 basins in this factory. The Shanghai Silk Filature Company own also a large factory in Lee Hongkew, contain- ing 500 basins. Another large filature on the Soochow Creek is owned by a Chinese company called Chung-kee, who have also started a factory of a similar kind in the extensive building lately occupied by the Empire Brewery in Yangtszepoo_road. Messrs. Lintilhac & Co. own a large filature on the Soochow Creek, while Ching Chong has a similar establishment in North Folkien road, in which there are 300 basins. In addition to these factories, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. have a large waste-silk filature on Yangtszepoo road. There are also a paper mill, match factories, chemical and soap works, and various other industries, which are fast increasing in number. Shanghai bids fair to soon outrival Bombay as the largest manufacturing centre in Asia.
The "Astor House" in Hongkew, the "Central" in the British, and the "Hôtel des Colonies" in the French Concession, besides many second class inns, give hotel accom- modation equal to that of any port in the East. There are five daily newspapers, the North China Daily News and Shanghai Daily Press, morning, the Shanghai Mercury, the China Gazette, and the Shanghai Times, evening; also three weeklies, the North China Herald, Celestial Empire, and The Union. There are three native daily papers, the Shun-pao, the IIu-pao, and the Sin-wan-pao. These are sold at the prices of ten and eight cash, equal to a farthing and have a very large circulation. In one matter, that of Postal accommodation, Shanghai is perhaps over-supplied, there being British, French, American, Japanese, German, Local, and Customs Post-offices. Shanghai was made a port of Registry for British ships in 1874. All foreign hongs and even private houses have to give themselves fancy Chinese names, by which only they are known to the natives. The system is, however, found to have its conveniences. No less than 3,248 jinrickshas, 3,563 passenger wheelbarrows, and 470 horse carriages ply for hire in the Settlements, besides large numbers outside.
The currency of Shanghai is the tael weight (equal to one and a third ounces. avoirdupois) of silver cast into "shoes" of fifty taels, more or less. The foreign banks issue notes of the value of one dollar and upwards for both taels and dollars. Smaller transactions are conducted in clean Mexican dollars and copper cash. There are seven foreign and numerous native banks in the Settlement.
Shanghai is the great emporium for the trade of the Yangtsze and northern ports, and to a considerable extent for Japan and Corea. The export of Tea from 1846 to 1850 averaged sixteen million pounds, and Silk during the same period seventeen thousand bales. The total import and export trade of 1868 was sixty-five million taels. It steadily increased each year until 1881, when it reached Hk. Tls. 141,921,357, but afterwards showed a great decline, the total for 1884 having been twenty per cent. less than that of 1881. It has since, however, shown a rapid recovery, the total trade in foreign bottoms, import and export, for the last six years, as given by the Customs Statistical Department, being :-
1890... Hk. Tls. 145,145,106 at Ex. 1.54 Mex.
$223,523,463 at Ex. 5s. 21d., £37,647,012
1891...
""
165,543,862
1.53
""
""
1892... 1893...
166,827,502
1.54
""
>>
""
177,017,836
1.54
"
""
1894...
195,622,371
1.51
""
""
1895...
218,733,283
1.53
$253,282,109 $256,914,353 $272,607,467 $295,389,780 $334,661,923
""
4s. lid., £40,696,199
""
4s. 41d., £36,319,946
"
3s. 11 d., £34,850,386
""
19
3s. 2 d., £31,279,202 3s. 3 d., £35,772,006
The value of foreign Opium imported in 1893, 1894, and 1895 was, owing to the fall in exchange on India, much over that of 1892, but the quantity in 1893 was 5,775 piculs less, in 1894 only 551 piculs more, and in 1895 was 31,589 piculs or 4,274 less than in 1892, while for several years previously there had been a falling off, owing to increased production of and demand for native opium, the quality of which is now much superior to formerly and the taxes very much lighter than on the foreign drug. The import of foreign opium in 1881 was 51,522 piculs. The import of native