5
will be imagined, of taking any steps towards extending their intercourse with Russia as consumers of the varied objects of Russia's industrial production.
Population. No reliable figures as to the population of Kashgaria being obtain- able, any estimate can but be conjectural, the author's being 1,800,000, including nomad Kirghis.
Area. Its cultivated oases form about 10,000 square versts, or about 1,042,000 dessiatines (2,813,400 acres), a sharp contrast to its boundless expanses of waterless, stony, or sandy deserts.
Demands.-The demands of the inhabitants, whether townsmen or villagers, are extremely primitive and few, and their habits excessively dirty. In clothing they are anything but exacting, but give preference to Russian prints. The chief consumers of Russian textiles are the native women, who favour brilliant glaring colours. By ancient custom the whole population of Kashgaria changes its clothes but once a year, at the feast of Ramazan, before the approach of which the bazaars are crowded and trade exceedingly brisk.
Agriculture.-Agriculture is the chief avocation of the inhabitants and the main factor of their economic being, pursued under most primitive conditions, to a descrip- tion of which the author devotes considerable space. The instruments of labour are old-world and primitive in the extreme, hand and brute labour solely prevailing. Wheat, barley, maize, white gaolan, and rice are the chief grain crops and clover the chief grass. Hemp, flax, poppy (for opium), and tobacco (of poor, seentless quality) are also grown, but in small quantities, the hemp and flax mostly for their oil rather than for fibre, the latter demanding toil, to which the natives are averse. Hemp too produces in large quantities the narcotic "nasha," or 'gashish," widely popular among the natives, and lately in considerable demand in India and in Russian Turkestan.
66
Cotton.-The cultivation of cotton finds extraordinarily favourable conditions, climatic and soil, in most parts of the Kashgarian oases, mostly in the south, yielding with but trifling labour a comparatively big crop of fibre of fully satisfactory quality, Besides fully meeting the local demand Kashgarian cotton is largely exported abroad across Russian frontiers, competing to a certain extent with American. Its develop- ment of late years has made steady progress, even at the expense of grain growing, the advance, however, being confined to quantity. Owing to the fears of an agricul- tural crisis should the grain-growing area be restricted in favour of cotton, the Chinese authorities have lately undertaken a series of measures to restrain cotton growing within normal dimensions. The export of late years of Kashgarian cotton to Russian territory has been as follows:-
In 1893 to the value of
Roubles.
16,380
69,243
168,717
80,769
deficiencies. Of felt goods the best are the so-called "koshmi," or felt covers, of three sorts, used extensively by the natives, less than one fifth of the entire production being exported. The export of late years has been as follows:-
EXPORT of Carpets, "Koshmi," and Woollen Goods.
Roubles.
In 1893 to the value of
89,500
1896
153,024
1899
199,657
1900
269,019
1902
*
594,227
1904
390,081
15
Leather.--Leather is also one of the prominent factors of the foreign trade of Kashgaria. Local hides are exported mostly raw, undressed, the export of hides and leather goods (exclusively to Russian Turkestan, for the use of the native Sarts) amounting of late years to---
In 1894 to the value of
1895
1899
"
1900
"
1902 1904
19
Silk. The silk industry is carried on in the southern portion
Roubles.
81.187
132,522
66,258
75,025
241,842
142,706
of Kashgaria, but
of late years, owing to disease in the worms, it has much declined. The export of raw silk, combings and waste, to Russia is as follows:--
In 1893 to the value of
1895
1897
1900
1902
91
1904
Roubles.
31,800
8,900
4,495
31.140
16,833
36,880
Silk in all its forms too is one of the largest items of export to India. Corals.--Corals, though not of local origin, but mostly Italian, imported via India, form another article of export from Kashgaria to Russian territory, to the following extent :—
In 1894 to the value of
1899
19
1902
1904
1905
Roubles.
2,522
29,195
110,552
168,419
77,859
1896
1900
1902
1904
1905
701,669 225,185
Cotton Fabrics Export.-After a detailed description of horticultural and fruit- growing conditions the author passes to home manufactures the products of which are exported, the chief industry being cotton weaving. The export of cotton fabrics to Russian Turkestan of late years has been as follows:-
25
In 1897 to the value of
1899
1900
5
1902
**
1904
*
Roubles.
1,625,629
1,646,742
1,726,783
1,349,928
1,508,306
These tissues are worked on most primitive frames, demanding great physical labour, the greatest demand being for the so-called "mata," "kham," "chakmen,” and "chiza-bu," made in separate lengths of to arshine (14 to 9 inches) in width and 8 to 10 arshines (18 ft. 8 in. to 23 ft. 4 in.) in length.
Carpet and Felt Manufactures.-Carpet and felt manufactures come next in importance from the point of view of export, the best carpets being worked at Khotan and neighbourhood. The carpets, though in their way excellent and lasting, find no market beyond Russian Turkestan, suffering as they do from want of taste, monotony of design, bad colours, dimensions suited only to native tenements, and other
Wool and Camelhair.-Wool now forms one of the staple trades of the country, the buying-up of wool and camelhair, and the export of the same in washed form to Russia, having recently been much developed. A big local dealer, Akhunbaieff by name, having studied the Russian demand at Irbit and Nijni fairs, and founded a hydraulic press at Kashgar, has regularly developed a big export trade; another trader, Mussabaieff, following in his steps at Kuldja, and exporting via the new Orenburg- Tashkent line. The chief places whence the wool is collected in Kashgaria, mostly from nomad Khirghis cattle rearers, are the Khotan, Keria, and Yarkend oases, and then the Utch-Turphan, Aksu, and Kutchar. The export of Kashgarian wool to Russian territory is as follows:-
49
In 1893 to the value of
1894
1898
1900
33
1902
1904
1905
[2472 -1]
:::::::
:::::::
Roubles.
129,000
320,512
272,403
112,755
54,131 81,718 233,120
C
30
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