CHINA
87
the Chinese and other subject races. The first, the main force upon which the Imperial Government can rely, forni the so-called troops of the Eight Banners, and garrison all the great cities, but so as to be separated by walls and forts from the population. According to the latest reports, the Imperial army comprises a total of 850,000 men, including 678 companies of Tartar troops, 211 companies of Mongols, and native Chinese infantry, a kind of militia, numbering 120,000 men. The native soldiers do not as a rule live in barracks, but in their own houses, mostly pursuing some civil occupation,
The Chinese navy consisted, prior to the Franco-Chinese war of 1884, mainly of small gunboats built at the Mamoi Arsenal, Foochow, and at Shanghai, on the foreign model, but was afterwards greatly strengthened. Five ships were lost, however, in the battle of the Yalu, when the Japanese inflicted a severe defeat upon the Chinese, and the remainder of the fleet was captured or destroyed at the taking of Weihaiwei in February, 1895,
TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
The ports open to trade are:-Canton, Hoihow (in Hainan), Pakhoi, Swatow, Amoy, Takow and Tainanfu, Tamsui and Kelung, Foochow, Wenchow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Chinkiang, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, lchang, Chefoo, Tientsin, and Newchwang; Under the provisions of the Chefoo Convention, permission was also accorded to British merchants to trade with Chungking and Yunnan-fu, and the former port was in 1891 formally opened to foreign trade and residence, but steamers are not allowed to proceed there. The import trade, exclusive of the Colony of Hongkong, centres chiefly at Shanghai, Canton, and Tientsin, while the bulk of the exports pass through the ports of Shanghai, Hankow, Foochow, and Canton. The annual value of the trade of China coming under the supervision of the Imperial Maritime Customs was as follows:--
Net Imports from Foreign Countries. 1870...Ilk. Tls. 71,000,278 67,803,247
Net Exports to Foreign Countries. Hk. Tis. 61,990,235
Total of Foreign Trade. Hk. Tls. 132,990,513
Net Imports of Native Goods. Hk. Tls. 30,409,512
1875...
}}
68,912,929
"}
1880...
79,293,452
"}
1885...
88,200,018
77,883,587 65,005,711
15
136,716,176 157,177,039 153,205,729
*)
42,927,455
""
56,826,447
""
57,117,407
1890...
"}
127,093,481
"}
87,144,480
""
1891...
134,003,863
"}
100,947,849
""
214,237,961 234,951,712
"
1892...
"J
135,101,198
"
1893...
151,362,819
59
"
1894...
"
162,102,911
""
102,583,525 116,632,311 128,104,522
**
"
19
237,684,723 267,995,130 290,207,433
>>
74,017,519 80,085,179 76,717,666 80,079,118
19
>>
80,377,259
1894 equals at
Ex. 1.51 Mex. $244,775,395
Mex. $193,437,828 £20,483,379
Mex. $121,369,661
Ex. 3s. 2 d. £25,919,580
Mex. $438,213,223
£46,402,959
£12,851,989
The increase in the last eight years is partly accounted for by the Native Customs stations outside Hongkong and Macao having been placed under the Foreign Inspectorate. The trade passing those stations was not formerly included in the returns.
Trade in 1894 and 1895 was adversely affected by various exceptional causes, the further decline in silver owing to the failure of the Indian Government to keep up the artificial price of the rupee, the bubonic plague in Canton and Hongkong in the sum- mer of 1891 and the war between China and Japan, which continued from June 1894 till April 1895.
The following was the net value of commodities imported direct from and exported direct to Foreign Countries in 1894. These figures do not include the trade carried on with neighbouring countries in Chinese junks, which does not come within the control of the Foreign Customs:-
Hongkong
Great Britain....
United States of America
Imports
Exports
.Hk. Tls. 82,424,351
50,793,504
Total 133,217,855
}}
29,943,379
11,500,254
41,443,633
9,263,082
16,442,788
25,705,870
Continent of Europe, except Russia.
5,770,594
19,119,081
24,889,675
India.
19,929,092
19
2,542,611
22,471,703
Japan
11
9,130,173
9,256,632
18,386,805
Russia (sea and overland)
**
1,058,728
11,023,184
12,081,912
Straits and other British Colonies Macao
**
3,767,495
3,014,796
6,782,291
11
5,093,158 1,684,127 4,777,285
Other Foreign Countries
"}
1,466,498
4,123,586
5,590,084
165,846,550
129,500,563 295,347,113
Page 500Page 501
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