CHINA
77
Import Duty
Export Duty
The Imperial Maritime Customs revenue for the same year, consisted of
.Foreign Tls. 3,474,027 Native Tls. 756,440 Hk. Tls. 4,230,467
Coast Trade Duty..
"J
5,856,927
**
"
1,661,377
7,518,304
"
""
"
Opium Duty
Opium Lekin
"
"
631,020 1,925,161
""
314,694
945,714
">
"
376,372
19
2,301,533
19
"
Tonnage Dues
5,132,784 293,545
"
"
996,287 36,348
**
6,129,071
"
329,893
""
541,243
Transit Dues
Hk. Tls. 21,996,225
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 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 construction 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 Coal Company's line, at first intended only to carry coal to the Canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin, and in August, 1888, was opened to passenger traffic. It will eventually be continued to Tungchow, near Peking. In 1889 Imperial sanction was given to a project for a line from a place some ten miles from Peking to Hankow, but the work has been postponed. An extension of the Tientsin line to Shan-hai-kwan was commenced in 1890, and a line from Linsi to Newchwang and thence to Kirin has been sanctioned. A telegraph line between Tientsin and Shanghai was opened in December, 1882, and lines now connect all the important cities of the empire.
NEWCHWANG
Newchwang is the most northerly port in China open to foreign trade. It is situated in the province of Shing-king, in Manchuria. It is called by the natives Ying-tz, and lies about thirteen miles from the mouth of the river Liao, which falls into the Gulf of Liao-tung, a continuation of the Gulf of Pechili.
Before the port was opened, comparatively little was known of this part of the Central Kingdom. Manchuria has since, however, been largely colonised by the Chinese, who now outnumber the natives. The word Ying-tz means military station, and that was the only use formerly made of the port. Between the years 1858 and 1860, the British fleet assembled in Ta-lien-wan Bay, and early in 1861 the foreign settlement was established. The town of Newchwang itself is distant from Ying-tz about thirty miles, and is a sparsely populated, uninteresting, and unimportant place.
The country about the port of Newchwang is bare and desolate, and in sailing up the river a most cheerless prospect greets the traveller's eye. Ying-tz is surrounded by dreary marshes, and the land under cultivation produces principally Beans. The river is closed by ice for more than three months every year, during which period the residents are entirely cut off from the outer world. The climate, however, is healthy and bracing. The construction of a railway to connect this port with the province of Kirin has been sanctioned, but the work has not been commenced. The population of the place is estimated at 60,000.
The chief articles of trade at the port are Beans and Bean-cake, 2,811,345 piculs of the former and 2,623,718 piculs of the latter being exported in 1890, as against 1,916,877 piculs and 1,893,384 piculs respectively in 1889. The net quantity of Opium imported in 1890 was 210 piculs, compared with 2,453 piculs in 1879. The import of Opium has of late years shown almost continuous decline, the poppy being largely and successfully cultivated in Manchuria. The total value of the trade of the port for 1890 amounted to Tis. 14,448,281 as against Tls. 9,450,004 in 1889.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.