CHINA
95
Government can rely, form 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. A new fleet is now being acquired, for which seven vessels are in course of construction in German yards, namely, three cruisers of 2,950 tons displacement each and four torpedo boat catchers.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
The ports open to trade are:-Canton, Hoihow (in Hainan), Pakhoi, Swatow, Amoy Foochow, Wênchow, Ningro, Shanghai, Chirkiang, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang Chefoo, Tientsin, and Newchwang. The additional ports opened under the Treaty of Shimonoseki are Soochow, Hangchow, Shasi and Chungking. There were also opened in June last, under a special article attached to the Burmah Convention of 1897, the ports of Samshui in Kwangtung and Wuchow in Kwangsi, on the Sikiang or West River. Lungchow, Mêntszu, Szemao and Hokeow on the frontiers of Tonkin and Burmah are stations under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs. 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 rorts 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. 1875... Hk. Tls. 67,803,247 79,293,452
Net Imports of Native Goods.
Hk. Tls. 42.927,455
Net Exports to Foreign Countries.
Total of Foreign Trade.
Hk. Tls. 68,912,929 Hk. Tls. 136,716,176
1880... 1885... 1890...
"
}
77,883,587
19
88,200,018
}}
"
65,005,711
"?
127,093,481
"
87,144,480
1891...
"}
134,003,863
100,947,849
157,177,039 153,205,729 214,237,961 234,951,712
56,826,447
33
57,117,407
"}
74,017,519
"}
"
17
80,085,179
1892...
39
135,101,198
""
102,583,525
237,684,723
"
76,717,666
1893...
บ
151,362,819
116,632,311
267,995,130
"
80,079,118
1894...
162,102,911
128,104,522
"}
290,207,433
"
80,377,259
"
1895...
J1
171,696,715
"}
1896...
་་
202,589,994
*
143,293,211 131,081,421
"
""
314,989,926 333,671,415
"
"
83.405,382 86,488,288
1896 equals at
Mex. $200,554,574
£21,846,903
Continent of Europe, except Russia..
Ex. 1.53 Mex. $309,962,690 Ex. 3s. 4d. £33,764,999
Mex. $510,517,264 Mex. $132,327,081
£55,611,902
£14,414,715
The increase in the last ten 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.
The following was the net value of commodities imported direct from and exported direct to Foreign Countries in 1896. 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)..
India.
Total
Imports
Exports
Hk. Tls. 91,356,530
54,053,060
145,409,590
44,571,387
11,282,049
55,853,436
17,390,123
11,378,854
28,768,977
9,431,985
18,077,532
27,509,517
**
23,027,056
2,175,858
25,202,914
United States of America
99
11,929,853
11,123,599
23,053,452
Russia (ses and overland)
2,229,129
Straits and other British Colonies Macao
"
14,906,594
17,135,723
"
5,972,521
3,189,765
9,162,286
"9
3,984,481
2,223,005
6,207,486
Other Foreign Countries
"
1,730,354
2,671,105
4,401,459
911,623,419 131,081,421
342,704,840
Digitized by 00
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