430
(8)
Petitioners estimate the trade of this Colony at £40,000,000 a year, and among other reasons attribute the almost unequalled commercial position to which the Colony has attained "to the enterprise, skill and energy of British merchants," and state that "the prosperity of the Colony can best be maintained by the unremitting exertions and self-sacrifice of Petitioners and the valuable co-operation and support of the Chinese.”
Whatever may have been the conditions of trade in this Colony in years gone by, it is a fact I believe acknowledged by British merchants themselves that the modern tendency is for the trade to fall more and more into the hands of the Chinese, though this could hardly be attributed to "self-sacrifice" on the part of the petitioners. The large British mercantile houses of former days are now either extinct or have considerably modified their former methods of conducting business. Instead of merchants now dealing in merchandise on their own account, their transactions are becoming more and more confined to buying or selling on comi- mission for or to Chinese, and this, no doubt, is the reason why large mercantile houses do not increase, while smaller mercantile firms, working on a small capital, doing business as commission agents, arc increasing. Without the Chinese traders of this Colony, its prosperity would soon wane, and it is in no small degree due to them that Hongkong has reached its present commercial position.
The following statistics will show how large and rapid has been the growth of the Chinese population :-
RETURN II.
CENSUS OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG, 1857-1891.
CHINESE.-LAND,
CHINESE. Boat.
Men. Women. Boys. Girls. Total. Men. Women. Boys. Girls. Total.
1857,*
...
1858,......
1859,
1860,
1861,.......
1862,...
1863,
1864,..
1865,
35,347 8,864 1,299 3,811 51,821 11,240 4,496
36,257 | 10,219 4,406 3,561 54,443 | 13,918 6,537
43,432 11,315 4,859 4,276 63,882 14,482 5,936
58,598 15,808 6,417
5,148 85,471| 15,2071 7,169
3,262 30,909
68,056 14,252 6,420 5,172 88,900 16,921 6,212
5,160 3,346 31,639
59,819 | 16,969 8,029 6,416 91,233| 16,223 6.529 4,901
2,881 30,537
57,173 16,587 7,870 6,983 88,613 14,556 6,188 5,448 3,142 29,334
62,522 | 17,135 8,448 6,685 : 94,790 | 14,421 6,053 | 3,945 2,466 26,885
1866,.. 58,507| 14,761 5,899 5,133 84,600 13,872 5,627 || 4,692 2,763 26,954
1867,...
60,724 17,667 7,299 6,907 | 92,597| 10,564 4,722 3,558 2.479 21,323
1968-69,. 61,052 16,526 | 7,437 6,716 91,751| 10,397 | 5,777 3,194 2,861 | 22,529
1870-71,.... 61,028 17,143 6,765 6,799 | 91,735| 11,157 5,552 3,982 3,018
1872,.
64,514 17,453 6,748 6,650 | 95,365 9,457 1,623 3,566 2,558 20,199
1876,....... 71,126 19,222 8,734 8,341 107,423 9,899 5,165 4,241 3,440 22,745 1881,......... 78,778| 21,640 | 10,922 10,361 121,701 12,674 6,401 3,287 1,627 28,989
1891, 113,241 33,523| 16,118| 16,078 (178,960 | 14,449 6,969 5,886 4,781 32,035
3,893 2,296 21,925
6,265 1,117 30,837
.
5,076
5,271
3,065 28,559
!
28,709
* Particulars not ascertainable.
With this increase in the population there has been a corresponding increase in the volume of trade carried on by Chinese not only with Europeans but also among themselves quite independently of Europeans, British or otherwise.