CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904 — Page 474

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on the shores of the Koko-nor. The Chinese complain of the difficulty of obtaining the musk in its pure state owing to adulteration by the tribesmen, whom they report as being most expert in injecting blood into the "pod" containing the secretion directly after the animal is killed. It is, however, an open question whether the Celestials are not themselves the worst offenders in this respect; anyway, musk when it reaches Shanghae is said to contain 20 per cent. and over of foreign matter. Lu-jung," or deer horns in velvet, is a much prized medicine among the Chinese; but the quality of horn obtainable at Sungp'an is reported as inferior to that coming from Tachienlu and Kuan Hsien.

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Live Stock. The tribesmen around Sungp'an go in extensively for raising sheep, oxen, and horses, the grassy slopes of the hills, in addition to the moorlands of the Amdon, providing most excellent grazing ground for their flocks and berds. The figure for beasts given in the table is the number sent down annually to supply the markets of North-Western Szechuan, including those of the Chengtu Plain, A fine, full-grown sheep can be bought at Sungplan for 1:30 taels, the smaller ones for 9 mace. Goats are a little more expensive, the price ranging from 1.20 taels to 2 taels a-head. Besides those exported, some 7,000 sheep annually are slaughtered at Sungp'an. Oxen and yaks fetch from 5 to 7 taels each.

Wool-Large quantities of this staple must be used by the tribesmen for the manufacture of the serge cloth (called by the Chinese "Pu-lu "), which is worn by all, not excluding the Llamas and women. Of the amount of the wool sent south but a minute proportion is used by the Chinese; it is only in fact within late years, since the foreign demand became known, that there was any trade to speak of at Sung'an in this article; and the wool purchases now made are mostly on account of foreign firms. Owing to this new demand, the local price of wool has increased to more than double its former figure, ie., from 5 taels ten years ago to 10 to 11 taels, the present price per picul. The wool sent down is said to contain quite 25 per cent. of dirt, and, it might naturally be asked, considering the cost for transport and li-kin before it reaches Chungking, why means have not been devised to have it properly cleaned at Sungp'an. I purposely brought this point before the leading merchants, and they informed me that the matter had been well considered; and, although the place offered facilities for the establishment of cleansing houses, the water of the river was too cold to work with locally. If this to them-insuperable difficulty could be got over they would be able to pack the wool well and cheaply ready for direct shipment abroad. The present practice is simply to separate, as it arrives from inland, the better and cleaner quality wool from the rest before making it up into rough unpro- tected bundles for conveyance south by coolie or mule.

Tea-This is by far the most important on the list of articles brought up from the south for sale to the tribesmen, it being in fact to them an absolute necessity. The stuff, however, is hard to recognize as the staple from which is brewed "the cup that cheers." The contents of the bundles 1 saw opened resembled more than anything else a packed collection of dried twigs, while the infusion obtained from them is as unlike one's idea of tea as it is possible to conceive. These things, anyway, are a matter of taste, and the cheapness of the twigs is a consideration. The better quality tea comes from the Kuan Hsien district, and is invariably packed in large square matted parcels ("pao ") containing 120 catties. Each of these "pao" is valued at 8:00 taels, but the purchasing price at Kuan Hsien (untaxed) is 110 taels, The supply coming from the Shih Tsuen districts is packed in smaller parcels holding 66 catties, valued in Sungp'an at 2:50 taels each. The trade is a monopoly in the hands of the five Ch'a Hao, or tea hongs, which also control the chief business of Sungpan besides. The names of the four chief hongs are Feng Sheng Ho, I Ho Chu'an, Pen Li Sheng, and Ting Li Yuan. Branches of these establishments are maintained in the commercial centres of Chengtu, Kuan Hsien, Mien Chow, and Shih Tsuen, and other places. The head offices are managed, with one exception, by Mahommedans, who are looked up to by all with the greatest respect. The control of the tea traffic supplying Thibet is vested in the Yen Cha Tao at Chengtu, and all packages are supposed to have a lable bearing the characters "Yin Ch'a" stamped with his seal. The number of these " Yin piuo" issued annually do not excced 30,000, and the tax for each "piao" is 120 taels to cover one package, two small "pao" being reckoned as one. I heard, however, that by a mutual concession the Ch's Hao have agreed to take up and pay for 28,000 "piao" annually if they be supplied with 30,000, and further, so long as the monopolists do not overdo it, a matter of 5,000 packages more can be conveyed up without any impost whatever. Thus the burden of taxation is considerably lessened for the tea hongs, while the Government derives a

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certain revenue from this source of 33,600 taels a year, and is spared the trouble and expense of the upkeep of an efficient controlling staff. On account of the difficulty of being always able to obtain a sufficient means of transport and to stoppage of traffic, which not infrequently happens through a spell of rain making certain sections of the road impassable, the tea hongs have established depôts at Mao Chow and Ping-ting- kuan, where tea is stored to meet any unforeseen demand. From Sungpan the tea is conveyed inland on the backs of yaks under the charge of a Chinese employé of the Ch'a Hao, or of a trusted Hsifan agent. Caravans are regulated so as to proceed in fairly strong numbers. The men accompanying them being well armed, they are thus or robbers, who are said enabled, if necessary, to keep off roving bands of "ch'a-pa

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to be ready to pounce on and pillage any party they think they can overcome. These caravans return laden with the different merchandize for which they have exchanged their previous cargo, and the profits made on transactions seem to be sufficient to compensate for the length of time, sometimes nine months, capital has to remain idle. The Manager of the principal Ch'a Hao told me that his firm had always as much as 60,000 taels up-country in merchandize. The hongs do not, as previously stated, confine themselves to business in tea alone, but dispatch by caravan any other goods from which they think profit can be made.

Transport. To and from Sungp'an the carriage of merchandize is done by coolie and mule over an extremely difficult road, which, however, could be greatly improved if a little money were expended on its repair. When a landslip or fallen boulders make places quite impassable, an effort is made to patch up the damage, the expense being defrayed by subscription collected from the village inns whose business is in danger of suffering from the loss of passing traffic. The workmen also levy a toll of a few cash from passers-by during their work, which, when finished, is anything but really satisfactory. The Sungp'an merchants complain bitterly of the state of affairs existing, and several of them begged me to represent the matter to the Viceroy in the hope that something might be done to lesson this drawback to trade. The cost of transport from Kuan Hsien to Sungpan by coolie is 3,200 cash per man, while for a mule it runs up to 5 taels. The former will carry, as a rule, 120 catties and take thirteen days over the journey, the latter bear burdens of 240 catties and are a little quicker. Mule transport, however, is not always procurable, and the head muleteers, who are not at all to be depended upon to carry out their contracts, frequently drop goods en route to enable them to take up a better chance offering, and then come back to continue with those they have for the time being left lying. So bad has this custom become, that merchandise will sometimes take as long as six months to reach its destination. The difficulty in securing transport is the reason why there is always a large stock of wool stored at Sungp'an, for it is the class of cargo the least liable to damage by being kept, and other merchandise has therefore the preference of carriage. Whether it would pay the larger firms to run their own mule caravans and thus be independent of the gang of muleteers is a moot question, I think, although the merchants themselves emphatically assured me that it would not, and that they consider it the better plan to lessen the exil existing by the establishment of depôts en route. The yaks, however, employed exclusively for the inland transport belong to firms engaged in the up-country business, and the drivers are always Hsifans. It may be here mentioned that carrying coolies on the road are invariably Chinese, the tribes- men never being seen with loads on their backs.

Li-kin.--Before concluding, I will add a few words on the subject of li-kin. The total sum reported to the Throne last year as collected for the province under the head of Pai-Ho li-kin was 500,000 taels, while the cost of its collection ran up to 10,000 taels. Salt li-kin was reported at 2,000,000 taels, and that for opium, 900,000 taels. It was only in the year 1894, at the instigation of the then Viceroy, Lu Chuan-lin, that a Barriers were erected at the two li-kun collectorate was established at Kuan Hsien.

rope bridges, but were instantly demolished by the people, who refused compliance with the new levy. No drastic steps were then taken to enforce obedience, but, at the present moment, Weiyuan are deputed to collect li-kin at both these places, and they do so now without any opposition. This additional impost has, however, diverted a lot of the trade from Sungp'an, which now branches off at Mao Chow for Chung-pa and Mienchu-hsien. I was unable to get a tariff of this li-kin, which appears to be collected without method or rule, and merchants complain of great extortion as they speak of the time when the barrier outside of the north gate of Mao Chow was the only hi-kin station between Sungpan and Chengtu. This Man Chow barrier levies a Sanfei, i... three expenditure li-kin (expenses for Crown litigation, travelling expenses for officials on duty, wages of "chai-jen," &c.) on all goods from Mao Chow, and also