married females reside here. In this respect there has been very little improvement during the last year.
The importation of sugar from Tae-ping and other places was, during last year, very considerable. The growers were able to sell it here cheaper, on account of not paying export duties, than it was procurable at Canton, and hence many sales. This branch of commerce will mainly depend upon the prices for which it can be brought to Hong Kong, and the amount it will fetch at home. Should the crops of this season be as abundant as last year there can be no doubt but the importation in 1849 will be larger. With a richer kind of cane, which is here very thin and juiceless, and good machinery, the Chinese might compete with slave sugar, for work is very cheap, and an acre planted with sugar-cane yields, even at reduced prices, more profit than a rice-field. There is, however, a great demand for this commodity in the northern provinces, so that the prices can never go below a certain level. The Government are rather opposed to the extension of the culture, lest paddy—the staff of life, and vegetables might be grown in smaller quantities. The foreign exportations constitute up to this time not one hundredth part of the home consumption, and have not yet materially affected the market.
Neither camphor, rhubarb, nor teas have any more been brought by junks to this market; all those who speculated in these articles have lost, and this is the reason for their abstaining from any further attempts. It was owing to the small demand that the first could not find ready purchasers; the second offered for sale by the junks was of an inferior quality, and next to useless in the English market; the last shipped to Hong Kong was not selected according to the demand, and realized therefore next to nothing. Another difficulty was, that the men who made this trial had no capital, and could sell for ready-money only. If direct communications be established with Füch-choo, and a judicious choice made of the teas most in demand, the junks no doubt might sell the black kinds to greater advantage here than any tea-man could do at Canton who has to transport his goods through a long and expensive inland passage.
Efforts have been made to induce the Fokëen junks to bring coals from Ke-lung on the north-coast of Formosa. Some small investments have been brought here; not yet, however, to give rise to hopes that all our supplies would henceforth be imported from thence. The Chinese Government does not prevent the exportation; but the labour to bring them on board in the absence of all machinery, and even a common cart, is very great. Still it is very likely that the ingenious and plodding Chinese may get over these difficulties, and import them here during the north-east monsoon as ballast.
Alum finds generally a ready sale at this port, because it can be obtained cheaper here than at Canton, where it has to pay an import and export duty. It is brought here in Fokëen Chaougan junks, which fetch it from an island on the coast of Keangsoo, where it is found in immense quantities; some comes likewise from Chě-Leang. The junks buy it on the spot at an average rate of half a dollar per picul; and if they can dispose of it here at one and a quarter dollar they make a fair profit; at one dollar it does only cover the freight and labour. Several cargoes have been imported and sold at remunerating prices.
Salt has been imported in greater quantities than at any of the preceding years, the whole amounting, according to the returns of the salt-weigher, which are always less than the actual quantity, to 297,050 piculs in 524 junks. The largest quantity imported in a single month was 41,150 piculs, the smallest 13,000: the junks have varied from 31 to 52 per month. By far the most extensive importers are the Pwan-yu boats. The demand for this article is likely to increase, on account of the large fisheries in the neighbouring seas, which become every year more numerous, and the great difference between the prices here and in the interior. The Fokeen junks have already commenced to become the importers; and though they were in the first instance beaten out of the market by very low prices, they have again ventured to compete with the salt manufacturers in the neighbourhood,
A greater number of marine junks visited this year the port than at any previous period. A few of them sold sundry articles imported from the north for Chinese consumption, whilst others bought opium and calicoes, the staple articles of exportation, with ready money. This trade has of late most materially increased; yet the transactions are secret, and to obtain the true returns is impossible. Few vessels, however, anchor here without buying something; and as there were about 80 junks on an average per month, the sum total of this money laid out cannot be inconsiderable.
The only produce of our island, granite slabs, freighted 777 large boats. Insignificant as this commodity may appear, it nevertheless gives employ to more than 1000 people, whose perseverance and hard labour are exemplary.
The fisheries have been extended, and it is much to be regretted that the particulars cannot be given, no account being kept. The owners of the smacks, on account of not being here exposed to the extortions of mandarins, prefer Stanley and Aberdeen to native harbours; and their agents, who supply them with rice and other necessaries, find it more advantageous to live under the British flag than take upon themselves the responsibility their own Government imposes upon them, and the consequent liability of paying heavy fines, if the fishing-craft they have secured commit outrages. The exportation of salt-fish to the interior from the above two places has been very large: as it is an article of food of which the poorest partake, there is a constant demand.
During this year not one single instance occurred, to my recollection, of the Chinese Government interfering with vessels that came to the port. Instead of insisting upon carrying into effect the Supplementary Treaty, in regard to the junks that come here, no notice whatsoever is taken of them.
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