CHINA.
865
Agents reside. The import trade from Great Britain, exclusive of the Colony of Hongkong, centres at Shanghai, Hankow, and Tientsin, while the bulk of the erports to Great Britain pass through the ports of Shanghai, Foochow, Hankow, and Canton. The annual value of the foreign trade of China was as follows in each
Of the total value of the imports and exports to foreign countries for 1886- Tls. 164,685,891-Tls. 121,424,159 must be credited to Great Britain and her colonies, including India. The remainder is thus divided among other countries:-United States, Tls. 14,333,024; Continent of Europe, Tls. 14,677,487; Russia, via Odessa, Tls. 1,470,993; Siberia and Russia, via Kiachta, Tls. 4,948,009; Russian Manchuria, Tls. 823,248, Corea, Tls. 131,736; Japan, Tls. 6,913,525; Philippine Islands, Tls. 257,364; Cochin China, Tls. 349,463; Siam, Tls. 504,321; Java, Tls. 464,129; Turkey and Egypt Tls. 213,567; and South America, Tls. 6,026. Among the exports, tea and silk take the first places. In 1886 the export of tea amounted to 2,217,295 piculs, and the value of raw silk exported was Tis. 21,482,048. 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 1886 was Tls. 29,049,653; that of Woollen Goods, Tls. 5,630,948; and of Miscellaneous Piece Goods, Tls. 74,485. Most of these goods came from British looms. The value of the Opium imported in 1886 was Tls. 24,988,561.
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Although China is traversed in all directions by roads, 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 Shausi, 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. The Kaiping railway is being extended from the coal mines there to Lutai, a distance of 27 miles, and thence to Tientsin. A telegraph line between Tientsin and Shanghai 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 telegraph 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 overlaud telegraph line in the middle of 1883.
• Wet Imports, i,«., the value of the Foreign Goods imported direct from Foreign Countries, lesa the value of the
Foreign Goods re-exported to Foreign Countries during the year.
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