33+
CHINA.
decorations to the living. The public revenue is mainly derived from three sources, namely, customs duties, licences, and a tax upon land, but the receipts from the foreign customs are alone made known. According to the returns published by the Government, the total receipts from foreign customs were as follow in each of the fourteen years from 1870 to 1883:-
1870..... 1871. 1872
TEAZ.
I
1873..... 1874.. 1875...
+
1876...
EKTENUE.
Haikwan Tis.
9.543.977
1877...
++
11,216,146
1878..
│11,678,636
1879
10,977,082
1880.
11,497,272
1881
•
| 11,968,109
1882
| 12.152,921
1889.
IBTIHOT,
Haikwan T.
12,067,078
12,489,988
13,531,670
14,258,583 14,685,162
| 14,085,672 13,286,757
China had no foreign debt till the end of 1874. It was announced on December 30th, 1874, that the Government had contracted a loan of £627,675, bearing 8 per cent. interest. The loan was issued at 95 per cent. through the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, under Imperial authority and secured by the customs' revenue, Three other loans, one in 1877, one in 1878, and the third in 1881, have since been issued by the same Bank under authority of the Chinese Government.
AREA AND POPULATION.
China proper, extending over 73,093 geographical, or 1,534,953 English square miles, is divided into eighteen provinces, the area and population of which are given as follow in the most recent estimates, partly based on official returns:—
Chihli Shantung
Shangi
Нодеп...
Kiangsu Anbwei
Kiangai
Fobkien
Chekiang
Hupeh
Hunan
Shengi
PROVINCE.
TL------
-----
Kansuh Szechuan
LITLIN
-- JJ LI. JLL
Kuangtung
----------
Kuangei..
Yunnan
Kweichau
PROVINCIAL CAPITAL.
Peking Tainan
----+-
Taiyuen
Kaifung
Nanking
Nganking
Nanchang
+
Foochow
Hangcbow Wuchang Changchau Sigan Lanchow Chington. Canton.. Kwelin Younen Kweiyang
AITA INGLISH POTARI MILK.
ESTIMATED POPULATION.
58,949
28,114,023
65,104
28,968,764
55,268 27,260,281
66,104 29,037,171
92,661
(37,849,601
34,168,059
72,176 30,426,999
- T➖➖
68,480
38.888,432
89,150
26,256,784
87,370,008
881,724
18,652,507
10,207,256
154,008
15,198,195
166,800 / 21,485,878
70,458 | 19,147,080
*IILILILII
78,250
7,313,696
...
107,869
5,561,320
---
64,554
6,288,219
1,534,953 405,213,162
Total...
----JJ J➖
The above population, giving 26 souls per square mile throughout China proper, appears to be excessive, considering that some of the outlying portions of the inmense territory are by no means densely inhabited. Nevertheless, other returns than those of the above tables, said to be official, give still higher figures. It is stated that in a census taken in 1842 the population of China was ascertained to number 414,686,994, of 320 per English square mile, and that in 1852 it had risen to 450,000,000, or 347 inhabitants per square mile. But there is, probably, less accuracy in the given results of the latter enumerations than in the preceding estimate, which is considerably over the mark. Rebellions and famines have, in some provinces, greatly thinned the population, and there is every reason to believe that the population of China does not now reach 300,000,000.