:
Cost of
transport.
Traders.
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as the true object of attempts to find a direct route from India, Siam, or French Indo-China into south-west China. Only an unimportant fraction of the trade of Ssucbuan or Kneichou is ever likely to flow through Yunnan, the imports required by those provinces going naturally by the Yangtze. Similarly, Cooper said that beyond the export and import trade with Yunnan, it was difficult to conceive what further advantage Burma would reap from commu- nications with Western China. In this General Mesny and other authorities concur. The difficulties are obvious. External trade from any direction must traverse a vast mountain barrier, and the through trade must needs be limited to a few valuable goods. Richthofen asserts that the natural direction of the trade of Western China is up the Yangtze, and cannot be made to go west or south across the barrier, except a small portion, and that only if a railway be built. But a railway would involve a heavy expenditure, and prospective profits would be incommensurate with the outlay.
Considering the difficulty of the routes and the consequent long carriage of goods, the cost of freight by porters, mules, &c., is important, for expensive transport may render the sale price of many commodities prohibitive. The standard in Yunnan is usually one of weight (so many catties of 13lbs.), and the distances are reckoned in li, nominally a measure of distance (1 li-660 yards), though really one of time, 10 l, or an hour's journey, varying in distance with the difficulty of the route. The length of a stage in Yunnan also varies according to the accommodation available. But General Mesny says it ranges from 20 to 30 miles a day. The cost of transport is about the same on all routes. Mr. Bourne states that 23d. per ton per mile is a fair rate for pack animals in Yunnan, and he thinks that this charge is considerable in a country where values are low. But he has probably much understated the cost of carriage, which Mr. Holt Hallett estimates at 1s. per ton per mile, while another authority, Mr. Jensen, of the Chinese Telegraph Service, puts the rate at 30 dollar per 100 li for 160 to 173 lbs. by mule, or roughly 5d. to 6d. per ton per mile. The rates vary with the number of mules and the nature of the loads.* The heavy charges for transport make it imperative that foreigners should lay their merchandise as as possible to the various centres of consumption at the lowest profitable prices. Under present conditions transit is long, slow, and expensive. General Mesny does not recommend the building of railways because of the natural obstacles, but he thinks that some of the trade routes might be improved, especially the routes from the Yangtze and the Red River, and perhaps also the Bhamo route. Mr. Turner, whose experience appears to be mainly of the Tali-Fu district, holds that Yunnan is not in a decayed or decaying condition, and that, apart from metals, it has still a few not unimportant exportable products; but the question, he says, is whether these products can be sold at such a price as to bear Rs. 7 per ton per day of mule transport to Burma. He wonders, however, that there is any trade at all, considering the severe roads, made of rough blocks of stone, slippery and difficult for men and animals.
near
Retail trading of a local kind is carried on to a large extent in Yunnan, for the Chinese are born merchants. The articles of largest consumption carried from place to place are tea, sugar, paper, salt, and cotton-tea, salt, and cotton being especially important in the transit trade. Traffic in foreign goods and silver is carried on by hucksters from Hunan, who bring these articles to Yunnan and Kueichou and take back opium. The general trade, wholesale and retail, is conducted by the Chinese, as distinguished from the indigenous population. Rocher says that dealings with them require time and patience and a personnel trained to the special kind of business. their clothes of blue cotton show, Chinese men and women do not readily change their habits in making purchases, but means and opportunity might Merchants often make very long give them a taste for fashion in dress. journeys. The Lyons mission found representatives of Chinese firms from Hong Kong and Canton at most places they visited in Yunnan, Kueichou, and Ssuchuan. A large gild of Cantonese merchants visit North Tonkin
4.s
* In India 4 annas (or 4d.) per ton per mile is usually estimated as the cost of cartage for bulky goods. Mr. Bourne's estimate of 24d. per ton per mile for pack animals therefore appears extremely low. His colleagues on the Blackburn Mission give 3d, to 6d. per ton per mile as the rate on the route from Sui-Fu to Yannan-Fu, which is probably correct for Yunnan generally.
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and Yunnan each year, going vid Pakhoi and proceeding as far as Momien. They sell watches, needles, mirrors, and other European goods in exchange for opium. In the Chinese Shan States on the Burma frontier markets are held every fifth day.
The trade, mostly in native articles with a few foreigu piece goods, is Exchange. conducted mainly by barter. Banking business is undeveloped, though there are two banks at Yunnan-Fu. Owing to the lack of credit facilities, coin has to be carried in bulk. Mr. Bourne says that the lack of exchange banks accounts for the long journeys traders make with their goods.
There are, however, excellent arrangements for transmitting money by caravan over the main routes of Yunnan, with insurance against loss by robbery. About 2 per cent, covered the postage, registration, and insurance of silver sent by native post for Mr. Morrison from Chungking to Yunnan-Fu. The tael is the current silver coin, but its quality and the terms of exchange vary considerably from place to place, and the most useful and portable form of currency is pure silver in unstamped ingots of one tael or more. The ordinary currency among the people is cash, but a string of 1,000 cash weighs about 7 lbs. and is worth less than three shillings. The exchange value of cash, which has risen in recent years in Yunnan as in the rest of China, varies considerably in places at no great distance from one another. An interesting bi-metallic question, indeed, is agitating China owing to the continued fall in silver relatively to copper cash, a decline of 30 per cent. in five years. The authorities cannot coin cash at the govern ment standard except at a heavy loss, and have therefore ceased to coin. The diminished supply in conjunction with an increased demand for cash has forced up the value, with the result that there is constant higgling about both the quantity and the quality of the coins. Foreign merchants are placed at a special disadvantage, for their silver buys an ever diminishing quantity of articles from gold countries, and those articles sell for an ever diminishing quantity of cash in China. Among the Shans salt is sometimes used as currency, as in Caindu in the days of Marco Polo, but silver is tending to displace it. In exchanges across the Toukin frontier, tin is practically the currency, but as it is insufficient for transactions owing to its limited production, cotton, salt, tobacco, and foreign goods imported are mainly paid for in opium, which is exported for this purpose in large quantities to Kwangsi and Kwangtung.
Among the chief obstacles to commerce in Yunnan, as elsewhere in China, are Internal the likin on merchandise in transit and other internal taxes.
For forty years taxation. likin has grown more onerous as the financial burdens of the Government have increased. The frequency of likin stations, which are placed at all large towns and along all main routes by land or water, depends on the amount of trade and the extent to which it can be taxed without being extinguished. Accurate information about the tariff is hard to obtain, and neither party really pays any attention to the authorised tariff, the terms being decided by a process of bargaining. Besides the burden of the taxation itself, merchants suffer extortion in respect of exchange, the weight of silver, &c., and bribes have to be given to prevent undue delay. In short, likin is a field for wholesale peculation. The Government reaps comparatively little from it, but the chief collectors amass large fortunes, while a host of underlings subsist on petty exactions. Even if the taxation wore well administered, likin is objectionable in its form and incidence. Needless to say, smuggling of opina and other portable articles is freely practised in order to evade likin. As likin is levied at stations not far distant from one another, the farther goods travel, the more they pay, the higher the price becomes, and the more difficult is it for would-be consumers to purchase the goods. Though extremely unfavourable to general trade development, likin does not so much affect foreign commodities. Under the Treaty of 1858 British subjects have the option of freeing their goods from all internal taxation by payment of 2 per cent. ad valorem, that is, one-half of the 5 per cent. import or export duty, when a transit pass shall issue. The advantage of the transit pass grows with the distance traversed, as more likin stations are passed without additional taxation. But frequent endeavours are made by the authorities to override treaty rights. The likin collectorate for Yunnan is managed at Yunnan-Fu, and its proceeds go to the provincial government. Everything
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