SHANGHAI
739
Ch'ang Miao has been acquired under competent European management, and forms a formidable competitor; while one or two private firms have started to undertake ship- building and engineering on a large scale, and with well-equipped works. From the well-appointed local yards a number of ocean-going steamers of considerable tonnage have of late years been turned out, which in their general style are fully equal to European-built vessels, so that steel and iron shipbuilding has become one of the regular industries of the port. Shanghai bids fair to outrival Bombay soon as the largest manufacturing centre in Asia. The cost of labour during the last five or six has increased fifty per cent.
A
years.
The "Astor House" in Hongkew, and the "Palace," formerly known as the "Central," in the British Concession, besides many other houses, give good hotel ac- commodation. There are six daily newspapers: the North-China Daily News, the Shanghai Times, L'Echo de Chine, and China Press, morning; the Shanghai Mercury and the Evening News, evening; and the weeklies include the North-China Herald, Celestial Empire, The Union, Finance and Commerce, The Far Eastern Review. Shipping and Engineering, The Sunday Times and Lloyd's Weekly. There are upwards of a dozen native daily papers.
These are sold at the prices of ten and eight cash, equal to about a farthing. Some of them have a circulation of 10,000 per day. The Chinese Post Office was organized by the Maritime Customs. The former Municipal Local Post was in 1898- incorporated with it. Shanghai was made a port of Registry for British ships in 1874. The currency of Shanghai is the tael weight of silver-equal to 579-84 grains troy, of fineness 0.916, but reckoned at 98. That is to say, an actual weight of 98 taels is counted as 100. The Shanghai tael thus contains, or should contain, 520.43 gr. troy of pure silver, but varies owing to the crude methods of assay.
This is, however, the mean.
The silver known as "sycee" is 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, or equivalent dollars from the various provincial mints, smaller subsidiary provincial silver coins and copper cash. There are twenty-eight foreign and numerous native banks in the Settlement. The Imperial Chinese Bank, under Chinese and European man- agement, was opened by Imperial Decree in 1896.
TRADE AND COMMERCE
Shanghai is the great emporium for the trade of the Yangtsze and Northern and Corean ports, and to some extent for Japan. The total import and export trade of 1868 amounted to 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 for 1881. There was, however, a rapid recovery up to 1905. The gross trade, import and export, for the last nine years, as returned by the Customs Statistical Department, is given below:-
1914... Hk. Tls. 498,695,147 at Ex. 1.47 Mex. $733,081,866 at Ex. 2s. 8d., £ 68,051,150
1915...
""
549,379,765
1.41
""
""
1916...
""
571,245,672
1.54
""
""
1917...
""
580,232,838
1.63
""
""
$774,625,468 $379,718,335 $945,779,526
""
""
1918... 1919... 1920...
29
627,094,382
1.61
">
,, $1,009,621,955
""
768,006,155
1.68
>>
""
"
840,969,438
1.58
"}
1921... 1922... 1923...
""
927,477,660
1.50
""
""
""
989,715,490
1.49
""
"
""
1,105,117,246
1.51
""
>>
$1,290,250,340 $1,328,731,712 $1,391,216,490 $1,484,573,235 $1,668,727,041
""
"1
:)
""
""
16
2s. 7 d., £71,247,688 3s. 31 d., £ 94,761,326- 4s. 3 d., £125,263,808 5s. 3 d., £165,755,416 6s. 4d., £243,201,949 6s. 9 d., £285,579,205 3s. 11d,, £183,321,756- 3s. 9d., £185,571,654 3s. 5 d., £192,244,354
The following tables show the export of Tea and Silk for eight years:-
Tea--Black Brick Green
1914...piculs 196,817 400,015 277,565
Waste Cocoons.
Silk Wild
1914...54,927
13,727
52,474 20,863
1915...
""
1916... 1917... 1918... 1919... 1920...
""
""
"
""
73,351 146,232
"
40,248
1921...
48,341
""
273,076 434,466 311,605 222,384 404,910 296,214 175,232 214,570 208,292 79,716 164,175 149,344 249,658 4,642 157,063 13,820 249,113
1915...79,089
24,260
39,879 31,170
1916...66,609 10,986
06,448 23,398
1917...66,837 11,826 1918...60,943 15,525 1919...82,289 14,099 1920...46,889 9,412 1921...28,260
171,451
29,428
81,467 28,550
77,988
30,894
51,496
24,544
456
18,074
18,211
1922... 1923...
152 828
1,438
261,019 1922...63,593
9,744
49,299 28,396
""
257,617
7,516
256,741 | 1923...60,783
15,113
72,779
16,861