A370
CHANGSHA
from Changsha. The Changsha-Kweichow road, which runs via Changteh, Taoyuan, Shenchow (Yuanling), Ch'enhsi and Yuanchow (Chihkiang), to Hwanghsien on the Kweichow border-a distance of about 835 kilometres- has been completed and opened to traffic. From Hwanghsien it is necessary to travel for two days by chair before the journey can be continued by road to Kweiyang. The Changsha-Szechwan road, branches off from the Changsha- Kweichow road at Shenchow (Yuanling), whence it runs via Luhsi, Ch'ien- ch'eng, Yungsui and Ch'at'ung, to Hsiushan-a distance of 220 kilometres. The road-bed has been laid as far as Ch'at'ung It is hoped that the surfacing with stone and gravel will be completed and the road be opened to through traffic by November this year. The Changsha-Changteh-Lichow-Tungyomiao has been extended and opened to traffic as far as Shasi ou the Yangtze. The Changsha-Hankow road, via P'ingkiang, T'ungch'eng and Tsungyang is complete except for a distance of 25 kilometres between P'ingkiang and T'ungch'eng. Progress is being inade with this section, however, and through traffic between Changsha and Hankow is now under discussion. The Changsha- Kwangsi road, via Siangtan, Hengchow, Hungch'iao, Ch'iyang and Yungchow (Lingling, to Lishanp'u on the Kwangsi border, has been completed and opened to traffic. From the border it is necessary to travel by chair for half a day to Hwangshaho, whence the road has been completed as far as Kweilin. The Changsha-Kwantung road, via Siangtan, Hengchow and Leiyang, to Pingshek was completed and opened to traffic two years ago.
TRADE IN 1937
at other ports in China, 1937 trade report for Changsha has to deal with two very distinct divisions of the year: the period proceding and the period succeeding the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities.
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Seldom have trading prospects for the port seemed brighter than at the opening of the year under review. Owing to the excellent financial results of the previous year's trading and, particularly, to the more than usually abundant rice crops in that year, a large proportion of which was sold to Kwangtung in the early part of the year now under discussion, money was plentiful and was freely spent, necessitating the purchase of further supplies for the factories and the re-stocking of the well-patronised shops, for which purposes still more money was available. Also full confidence in the new cur- rency had been attained, Government reconstruction work in the province was proceeding apace, and the obviously returning prosperity of the country as a whole was an extremely encouraging factor: all of which pointed to the soundness of economic conditions at the moment and led to a general expan sion in trade, the statistics of which soon showed a very marked advance over those for the early part of 1936.
The outbreak of hostilities heralded by the Lu Kou Ch'iao incident in July, and confirmed in all its seriousness by the warfare in the Shanghai area in August, almost at once brought an end to prosperity. The closure of the Yangtze to through shipments of cargo, the almost total monopolisation of rolling-stock on the railway by military supplies, the temporary sterilisation of money by the Government's banking restrictions, and the curtailing of credits, would have been sufficient to paralyse most of the trade of the port even if enterprise had not been discouraged by the general circumstance of the country being at war and even if buyers had not been intimidated by the possibility of stocks being destroyed by bombs from enemy planes or other war-time hazards. It is true that fears of currency depreciation led for a time to a tendency to exchange money for commodities of almost any kind, also that heavy purchases were made at first of commodities in which a short- age was likely to occur, and that the outbreak of war even stimulated the sale of a few items such as petroleum products; but these transactions represented as a rule a transfer of local stocks from one holder to another rather than new trade. Thereafter, inward and outward cargoes mostly consisted of necessities exchanged with nearby Yangtze ports and such commodities as the railway could find freight space to transport.