110
CHINA
Miscellaneous Tls. 3,000,000. In addition the grain tribute may also be estimated at Tls. 3,000,000, making a total estimated revenue of TIs. 77,000,000. The amounts given above are those supposed to be accounted for to the Government, but very much larger amounts are raised from the people and absorbed by the officials in the way of peculation. With the significant exception of the Maritime Customs, which is under foreign control, no item of revenue shows any elasticity. The land tax, salt revenue, Lekin Native Customs, are all about the same figures as they were ten years ago, although it is a matter of common notoriety that these sources of revenue have increased indefinitely.
China had no foreign debt till the end of 1874, when a loan of £627,675, bearing 8 per cent. interest, was contracted through the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, under Imperial authority, and secured by the Customs' revenue. Afterwards a number of other loans, of comparatively moderate amount, were contracted, mostly through the agency of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and several of them have been paid off. Up to 1894 the total foreign debt of China was inconsiderable, but since then extensive borrowings have had to be male to meet the expenses of the war with Japan and the indemnity, which was Tls. 200,000,000 (at exchange of 3s. 31d.), with a further Tls. 20,000,000 for the retrocession of the Liaotung Peninsula. The last instalment was paid in 1898, and the total indebtedness of the country is now £55,755,000, the principal loans being the Russian of 1895, the Anglo-German of 1896, and the Anglo-German of 1898, each of £16,000,000. Recently several minor loans, amounting in all to less than £4,000,000, have been contracted through the agency of the foreign banks for the purposes of railway construction. It is but fair to say that these loans have been devoted to their purpose, and will automatically redeem themselves if efficient manage- ment of the lines be assured. In some cases the lines have been hypothecated to the banks as security, and these institutions have nominated a foreign accountant.
AREA AND POPULATION
China proper, extending over 1,336,841 English square miles, is divided into eighteen provinces, the area and population of which are given below, the figures with being from Chinese official data for 1882, those with a + from the data of 1879, and Fohkien being estimated on the basis of the census of 1844:-
an
*
Province
Estimated Popultn. per
Chekiang Fohkien Hupeh*
Provincial Capital
Area English Square Miles
Population square mile
Chihli +
Shantung
Peking
58,949
17,937,000
304
Tsinan
53,762
36,247,835
557
Shansi *
Honan*.
Taiyuen.
56,268
12,211,453
221
Kaifung..
66,913
22,115,827
340
Kiangsu
Nanking
Anhwei*
Ngankin
92,961 {
20,905,171
470
20,596,288
425
Kiangsi t
Nanchang
72,176
24,534,118
340
Hangchow
39,150
11,588,692
296
Foochow
38,500
22,190,556
574
Wuchang
22,190,556
473
Changchau
144,770
21,002,604
282
Sigan
Lanchow
192,850
8,432,193
126
9,285,377
74
*
Chingtu
166,800
67,712,897
406
79,456
29,706,249
377
78,250
5,151,327
65
64,554
7,669,181
118
107,969
11,721,576
108
1,312,328
383,253,029
292
Hunan*. Shensi t. Kansuh + Szechuen Kwangtung Kwangsi t Kweichau + Yunnan +
Canton Kwelin Kweiyang Yunnan
It is to be noted that the Chinese census, following all Oriental methods of calculation, is not to be trusted. There is no subject on which foreign and native statisticians are more contentious than that of the Chinese population. Experts vary in their estimates between 250,000,000 and 440,000,000.
The total number of foreigners in China in 1898 was 13,421, of whom 5,148 were subjects of Great Britain, 2,056 of the United States, 920 of France, 1,043 of Germany, 200 of Sweden and Norway, 141 of Italy, 395 of Spain, 162 of Denmark, 1,694 of Japan, and 1,082 Portuguese, almost entirely natives of Macao, all other nationalities being represented by very few members. Of 773 mercantile firms doing business at the treaty ports, 398 were British, 107 German, 43 American, and 37 French.