CHINA
93
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, Foochow, Wênchow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Chinkiang, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang, Chefoo, Tientsin, and Newchwang. The additional ports opened under the Treaty of Shimonoseki are Soochow, Hangchow, Shasi and Chungking. 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...Hk. Tls. 71,000,278
Net Exports to Foreign Countries. Hk. Tls. 61,990,235
Total of Foreign Trade. Hk. Tls. 132,990,513
Net Imports of Native Goods. Hk. Tls. 30,409,512
1875...
"
1880...
67,803,247 79,293,452
"J
68,912,929
136,716,176
""
42,027,455
"}
77,883,587
>>
1885...
"}
88,200,018
"}
65,005,711
"}
1890...
127,093,481
""
87,144,480
157,177,039 153,205,729 214,237,961
""
56,826,447
19
"}
1891...
134,003,863
100,947,849
"
1892...
""
135,101,198
"}
102,583,525
1893...
151,362,819
116,632,311
"}
1894...
162,102,911
128,104,522
>>
1895...
171,696,715
""
143,293,211
"}
234,951,712 237,684,723 267,995,130 290,207,433 314,989,926
,,
57,117,407 74,017,519 80,085,179
""
76,717,666
"}
80,079,118
31
80,377,259 83,405,382
1895 equals at
Ex. 1.53 Mex. $262,695,973
Mex. $219,238,613 £23,434,410
Mex. $127,610,234 £13,640,255
Ex. 3s. 3 d. £28,079,567
Mex. $481,934,586 £51,513,977
The increase in the last nine years is partly accounted for by the Native Customs stations outside Hongkong and Macao having been placed under the Foreign Inspectorate. The trade passing these stations was not formerly included in the returns.
Trade in 1894 and 1895 was adversely effected by various exceptional causes, the further declins in silver owing to the failure of the Indian Government to keep up the artificial price os the rupee, the bubonic plague in Canton and Hongkong in the sum- mer of 1894, a drought in the southern and disturbances in the central provinces, and the war between China and Japan, which continued from June 1894 till April 1895 and resulted in the occupation of Newchwang during 1895 and the cession of Formosa to Japan.
The following was the net value of commodities imported direct from and exported direct to Foreign Countries in 1895. 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...
Japan (including Formosa)..
Imports
Total
Exports
...Hk. Tls. 88,191,240
54,774,489
142,965,729
"
33,960,060
10,570,897
44,530,957
*
17,195,038
14,821,642
32,016,680
Continent of Europe, except Russia. United States of America
"
7,552,099
21,172,378
28,724,477
"}
5,093,182
15,383,402
20,476,584
India.....
"
16,944,390
2,763,730
19,708,120
Russia (sea and overland)
Straits and other British Colonies Macao
"}
1,902,192
15,602,641
17,504,833
19
4,505,696
3,605,716
8,111,412
3,075,677
1,739,407
4,815,084
Other Foreign Countries
1,527,386
2,858,909
4,386,295
179,946,960
143,293,211 323,240,171
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.