120
CHINA
Tomage
Goods to the value of Tls. 39,389,410 were conveyed to, and to the value of Tls. 8,393,711 were brought from, the interior under transit passes.
The total carrying trade, foreign and coastwise, was divided amongst the different flags as under (the Russian including tea carried overland viâ Kiakhta):—
Entries and Clearances
Values
Percentages Tonnage Duties
British...
25,350
23,338,230 Tls. 613,300,648
59:43
55'82
Japanese.
3,712
2,839,741
"1
59,240,730
7.23
4.56
German
2,078
1,854,246
"
71,691,967
4.72
8.13
French....
822
613,191
>
29,520,924
1.56
.3'25
Swedish and Norwegian
482
439,718
14,647,252
1'12
1.38
Russian
484
361,501
9,092,914
*92
1'63
American
716
310,107
"J
5,756,978
79
*92
Other Countries
765
162,349 •
97
3,148,350
*42
*60
Chinese
31,000
9,340,247
21
404,090,869
23-81
23.71
65,418
39,268,330
77
1,210,490,632
100'00
100'00
The vessels entered and cleared in 1899 were made up of 52,720 Steamers of 37,794,440 tons, and 12,698 Sailing Vessels of 1,473,890 tons.
The gross Coast trade in vessels of foreign build amounted to Tls. 341,111,286 outward, and Tls. 390,830,810 inward, the net native imports (that is goods not re-ex- ported) at the Treaty Ports being Tls. 132,969,143, and the exports to Treaty Ports Tls. 99,408,429.
The Imperial Maritime Customs revenue for the same year amounted to Haikwan Taels 26,661,450, and was derived from
Foreign Native
Total
Opium Tnage Transit
Imports Exports Coast T'de Opium
Duty. Duty. Duty. Duty. Lekin. Dues. Dues.
703,552 1,447,680 3,857,555 579,106 679,007 868,667 2,446,149 466,137 1,260,578 890,688 61,085 156,823
5,787,956 7,456,471
6,656,623 9,902,620 1,169,689 2,708,264 4,748,243 640,191 835,830 Although China is traversed in all directions by roads, they are usually mere tracks, or at best footpaths, along which the transport of goods is a tedious and difficult undertaking. It was owing to the imperfect means of communication that such a fearful mortality attended the last famines in Shansi, Honan, and Shantung. The enormous mineral wealth of Shan-Si is practically non-existent for the same reason, and there is every reason to fear that the present year (1900) will see in this province a repetition of the famine horrors of the Eighties. A vast internal trade is, however, carried on over the roads, and by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. The most populous part of China is singularly well adapted for the construction of a network of railways, and a first attempt to introduce them into the country was made in 1876, when a line from Shanghai to Woosung, ten miles in length, was constructed by an English company. The little rail way was subsequently purchased by the Chinese Government and closed by them on the 21st October, 1877. Since that time the principle of railways has been fully accepted and several important lines are projected, while some are already in operation. A tramway a few miles in length, begun in 1881 to carry coal from the Kaiping coal mines, near Tongshan, to the canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin and Taku on the one hand, and to Kinchow and Newchwang on the Gulf of Liao-tung, on the other. This road was only completed in the early part of 1900, and during the summer months was, between Kinchow and Newchwang, largely destroyed by the Chinese so as to preclude the advance of Russian forces on Peking via Manchuria. It is at present broken for a distance of some thirty miles eastwards of Kinchow. A line from Peking to Tientsin was opened in 1897, the Peking terminus being at Machiapu, a point two miles from the Tartar city, whence a short electric line connects it with one of the principal gates; the traffic developed so rapidly that in 1898-9 the line had to be doubled. From Lukouchiao (or Marco Polo's Bridge) a line of about eighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the province of Chilli; this line, in October 1899, was handed over by the British con- structors to the Belgian Syndicate as an integral factor in the great trans-continental road from Peking to Hankow. These roads have all more or less been deliberately and in some parts completely destroyed by the Chinese during 1900. The Railways, as foreign innovations, were particularly hateful to the Boxers who in many cases attacked the lines with a fury as intense as it was insensate; burning the stations, destroying