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mentioned, is the cereal most esteemed by the Manchurian farmer,
It is used only among the wealthier classes. Beans, though exported in large quantities to Japan for food, are in Manchuria generally used for the manufacture of oil. Wheat has only come into notice among the native farmers since the advent of the Russians and the establishment by the latter of flour mills. It is now one of the most important items of trade. Tobacco is grown in the neighbourhood of Kilin more particularly. The quality is good and the leaf has a considerable sale over the whole of Manchuria as well as in Mongolia. Hemp is grown in the same district as tobacco.
There are signs that the harvests of the country are gradually falling off. This is due chiefly to the lack of proper manuring, antiquated methods of agriculture, insufficient ploughing, and the absence of any system of rotation of crops. The implements in use are likewise of the most primitive kind, as may be inferred from the prices paid for them. The most expensive is apparently the winnower, which costs from 10 yen upwards; next comes the plough, which costs 3 yen. The others are purchasable for a yen or less.
No artificial fertilizers are used. Instead cattle dung or human fæces are mixed with the refuse of plants, grain, &c., allowed to rot, and then spread on the fields during the months of winter and spring.
Notwithstanding the suitability of the country for the purpose no attempts are made by the Manchurian farmers to breed cattle systematically or on an extensive scale. Each raises sufficient for his own personal requirements; but it is to Mongolia that purchasers look for their supplies. Under the circumstances it is not to be wondered at if the breeds are poor and the animals themselves suited only for farm purposes. Even in Mongolia no particular care is exercised in the rearing of animals, and during the winter months they are allowed to find food for themselves on the frozen plains.
Oxen as a rule are not seen in numbers save in distilleries and bean-oil factories where they are used for working the crushing mills. In such establishments it is no uncommon thing to find from twenty to a hundred or more of these beasts, and, as they as well as all other live-stock in these places are fed on grain refuse, it is here that the finest specimens of cattle are to be found.
Trade.-General Remarks.
The history of Manchurian foreign trade may be divided into two parts. The first dates from the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway; the second from the Russo-Japanese war. Undoubtedly a trade of sorts existed before then, but it was of no great importance. In those carly days the one port of export and import was Newchwang, but the establishment of the railway, the building of Dalny, and the use of the Shugari as a communication route, dealt its prosperity a heavy blow. The outbreak of war gave a tremendous impetus to the already prosperous trade of the country. It was to Manchuria that not only the Russian troops (it is calculated that 85 per cent. of the provisions and fodder supplied them were of local production), but also all the inhabitants of the Russian Settlements in the Far East looked for their food-stuffs, and though now a great part of the Russian railway has passed into our possession, strenuous efforts are being made by our late antagonists to prevent the diversion of northern trade to the south. In the furtherance of her endeavours she relies on her right of navigating the Shugari and on the possession of Vladivostock. She is also at present assisted by the lack of thorough organization on our line to Dairen. These remarks, of course, apply mainly to export trade. Imports come, generally speaking, viâ Changchun from Newchwang, Shanghae, and Tien-tsin. Changchun is the meeting-place, so to speak, of North and South Manchuria. Its trade bus lately increased enormously, and the probability is that before long it will, as far as the markets of these territories are concerned, become of far more importance then the places just mentioned for which it now acts as a distributing centre. Generally speaking, then, the export trade travels north-east: the import comes from the south, Newchwarg being the port for the former; Vladivostock that for the latter. This is certainly the tendency at present, and it will probably long continue. If this be borne in mind, it will be seen that the South Manchuria Railway and the Chinese Eastern Railway will become the main routes for the import trade; the east and west sections of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Shugari Railway the main routes for the export trade. For the local trade of the territory the following are the eight important routes :-
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1. Changchun, Kilin, A-shih-ho, or Changchun, Kilin, Laliu, Ashihho. 2. Changchun-Petune.
3. Hulancheng-Petuanlintzu.
4. Petuanlintzu-Payanhususu.
5. Ashihho-Sanshan.
6. Kiliu-Ninguta.
7. Kiliu-Gunchun,
8. Tsitsihar-Aigun.
Of these some will be not without importance in the foreign trade of Manchuria.
With regard to the export of agricultural produce, it should not be forgotten that, if we except what travels by the ordinary routes to Newchwang, the native farmer has no direct interest in the process. His share is confined to the disposal of his goods to Japanese or Russians on the spot, and it is the latter who either export or use their purchases for their own manufacturing purposes.
The country trade is at its busiest during the cold weather, when the crops are all harvested and the roads frozen hard. The farmers then, having nothing else to do, harness their cattle to the big drays which are in general use throughout the country, and carry agricultural produce to the various local markets for sale, laying in at the same time their own household stores.
Merchants and tradesmen in Manchuria are grouped, according to their business, under the following five headings : -
1. Moneychangers (also to some extent bankers).
2. Pawnbrokers (or moneylenders).
3. Dealers in grain.
4. Dealers in miscellaneous or fancy goods.
5. Wholesale dealers (combining with this calling that of inu-keepers) also-
(a.) Distillers.
(b.) Oil manufacturers.
(c.) Millers.
Markets on the Foreign Trade Routes.
Harbin Chosen instead of Hulancheng as a base for the exploitation of North and South Manchuria. The town, which is built in European style, covers an area of 1,275 acres, and has a population of 50,000, is divided into three main sections: New Harbin, the Wharf quarter, and Old Harbin. The two latter are the business part of the town. The Wharf quarter abuts on the Shugari, and is the most active part of Harbin, not only because it is the point of connection between the railway and the river traffic, but also because it contains the great flour mills and the Chinese Eastern Railway Company's shops. In New Harbin, which stands on a slight rise, are the junction of the railways running east, west, and south, the Harbin main station, the offices of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the head-quarters of the railway guards, the foreign Consulates, the public offices, banks, schools, and private residences. This is what is called by the Russians the administrative quarter.
The site of the town is admirably chosen, as routes either by rail, water, or road connect it with all the important markets of Manchuria, as well as with those of Europe.
The trade of Harbin may be said to consist on the one hand of the purchase by the Russians of agricultural produce, on the other of the sale of ordinary goods destined for the daily use of Russians. Agricultural produce is shortly wheat, part of which is used in the mills already mentioned, ultimately to find its way as flour into the Russian settlements, and the various markets of Kilin and the Amur, part in its raw state goes to Vladivostock, Blagovestchensk, &c. There is a growing disposition on the part of Japanese merchants too, to make this their head-quarters for purchasing beans and bean-cake, which they ship via Vladivostock to Tsuruya or Kobe. The value of beans and bean-cake exported thus between April and December of 1907 was 160,0001.
There are rumours that Russian merchants are contemplating shipping grain, mostly wheat, to Odessa, vía Vladivostock, but local conditions, the uncertainty of delivery, &c., have so far prevented this scheme being put into practice.
European trade is almost confined to the miscellaneous goods of every-day use
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