364
CHINA.
Of the total value of the imports and exports to foreign countries for 1885- Tls. 153,205,729-Tls. 118,959,571 must be credited to Great Britain and her colonies, including India. The remainder is thus divided among other countries:-United States, Tls. 11,613,124; Continent of Europe, Tls. 9,822,717; Russia, via Odessa, Tls. 948,280; Siberia and Russia, via Kiachta, Tls. 3,438,259; Russian Manchuria, Tls. 660,484; Corea, Tls. 145,437; Japan, Tls. 6,755,216; Philippine Islands, Tls. 324,697; Cochin China, Tls. 304,699; Siam, Tls. 579,993; Java, Tls. 485,196; Turkey and Egypt Tls. 370,753; and South America, Tls. 4,168. Among the exports, tea and silk take the first places. In 1885 the export of tea amounted to 2,128,751 piculs, of which 1,388,244 piculs went to Great Britain and British possessions. Manufactured Cotton and Woollen Goods and Opium constitute the bulk of the imports of foreign produce into China. The value of Cotton Goods imported in 1885 was Tls. 31,493,823; that of Woollen Goods, Tls. 4,824,056; and of Miscellaneous Piece Goods, Tls. 163,332. Most of these goods came from British looms. The value of the Opium imported in 1885 was Tls. 25,438,914. Although China is traversed in all directions by roals, they are usually mere tracks, or at best footpaths, along which the transport of goods is a tedious and difficult undertaking. It was owing to the imperfect means of communication that such a fearful mortality attended the last famines in Shansi, Honan, and Shantung. A vast internal trade is, however, carried on over the roads, and by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. The most populous part of China is singularly well adapted for the contruction of a network of railways, and a first attempt to introduce them into the country was made in 1876, when a line from Shanghai to Woosung, ten miles in length, was constructed by an English Company. The little railway was subsequently purchased by the Chinese Government and closed by them on the 21st October, 1877, when the rails were taken up and the line with rolling stock shipped to Formosa, and has never since been utilised. The little Kaiping railway is being extended from the coal mines there to Lutai, a distance of 27 miles. A telegraph line has been erected between Tientsin and Shanghai, which was opened in December, 1882, and has since been extended southwards to Canton. A line between Tientsin and Peking was opened to traffic in August, 1884. Hankow is also connected with the tele- graph system, and a line from Canton to Lungchau-fu, on the Kwangsi and Tonquin border, was completed in June, 1884. Canton was connected with Kowloon by an overland telegraph line in the middle of 1883. A railway from the Kaiping coat mines to Lutai, à distance of twenty-seven miles, is in course of construction.
PAKHOI.
Pakhoi is one of the ports opened to foreign trade by the Chefoo Convention of 1876. It is situated on the Gulf of Tonquin in long. 190 deg. 13 min. E. and lat. 21 deg. 30 min. N. The British Consul hoisted his flag on the 1st May, 1877, and the foreigners were well received by the natives. Pakhoi is the port for the important city of Lien-chau, from whence considerable quantities of foreign piece goods are distributed over the country lying between the West River and the sea-board. It is believed that it will also become one great outlet for the trade of the province of Kwangsi. The trade was formerly almost exclusively in the hands of Chinese, who transhipped goods from Hongkong and Maca (chiefly the latter) in native bottoms, and in 1877 the value of the trade passing through the Foreign Customs amounted to no more than Tls. 11,714, while in 1878 it was nil. Trade afterwards, however, greatly improved. In 1885 the value of the trade was 2,584,403 as compared with Tls. 1,703,289 in 1884, Tls. 1,345,740 in 1883, Tis. 1,462,638 in 1882, Tls. 1,800,856 in 1881, Tls. 1,748,160 in 1880, and Tls. 328,532 in 1879. The exports are sugar, oil,