CHINA
111
The principal dependencies of China are Mongolia, with an area of 1,288,035 square miles, and some 2,000,000 people; and Manchuria, with an area of 362,313 square miles, and an estimated population of 15,000,000. The latter is being steadily and rapidly colonised by Chinese, who greatly outnumber the Manchus in their own land. Thibet, which is also practically a dependency of China, has an area of 643,734 square miles and a population of 6,000,000 souls. It is ruled by the Dalai Lama, but subject to the Government of Peking, who maintain a Resident at Lhassa.
ARMY AND NAVY
The standing military force of China consists of two great divisions, the first formed by the more immediate subjects of the ruling dynasty, the Manchus, and the second by the Chinese and other subject races. The first, the main force upon which the Imperial 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, but these figures, derived from Native sources, are altogether untrustworthy. In organization, equipment, personnel and commissariat, the Army is utterly inefficient, and with the exception of a few brigades of foreign- drilled troops is little better than rabble as far as concerns opposition to European, Indian or Japanese troops. 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
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. Three cruisers of 2,950 tons displacement were secured in 1895 from the Vulcan Works at Stetten, and two very fine Elswick sloops of the same size were added in 1899. These, with two corvettes and two training vessels, supplemented by four Elbau "destroyers," comprise the Pei Yang Squadron or Northern Fleet. These vessels might be of real value for conveying troop- ships, shelling rebellious towns, &c., but as the Chinese have no naval base and no docking facilities in Northern waters, and as the ships are ill-found and with indifferent personnel, they would be of little use against a resolute foreign enemy.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
The ports open to trade are:-Newchwang, Tientsin, Chefoo, Shanghai, Soochow, Chinkiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Kewkiang, Hankow, Yochow, Shasi, Ichang, Chungking, Hangehow, Ningpo, Wênchow, Santu, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Samshui, Wuchow, Nanning, Kiungchow, and Pakhoi. 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 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. 1885... Hk. Tls. 88,200,018 1890...
127,093,481
Net Exports to Foreign Countries. Hk. Tls. 65,005,711
Total of Foreign Trade. Hk. Tls. 153,205,729
Net Imports of Native Goods Hk. Tls .57,117,407
"
""
1891...
134,003,863
""
87,144,480 100,947,849
"
214,237,961 234,951,712
74,017,519
99
}}
>>
80,085,179
1892...
135,101,198
"
102,583,525
237,684,723
"}
"
76,717,666
1893... 1894... 1895... 1896...
151,362,819
116,632,311
267,995,130
**
"
19
80,079,118
""
>>
162,102,911 171,696,715
128,104,522
"
39
19
143,293,211
99
290,207,433 314,989,926
80,377,259
83,405,382
"
202,589,994
19
1897...
202,828,625
1898...
"
209,579,334
""
131,081,421 163,501,358 159,037,149
19
39
333,671,415 366,329,983 368,616,483
86,488,288
91
91
19
91,443,935 101,680,963
1898 equals at
Mex. $240,146,095 £22,944,422
Ex. 1.51, Mex. $316,464,794
Ex. 2s. 10gd., £30,236,185
Mex. $556,610,889 £53,180,607
Mex. $153,538,254 £14,669,597
The following was the net value of commodities imported direct from and exported direct to Foreign Countries in 1898. 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:-
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