Directory_and_Chronicle_1903 — Page 606

CHINA

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to 35,383 piculs, and this is a trade in which adulteration is rife. The export of various Oils was the highest recorded, amounting to 343,434 piculs. The deniand for Wood Oil is increasing, and this is a promising trade. Rhubarb has fallen off to 5,501 piculs, and complaints are made about the carelessness of the Natives in preparing the root. The export of Straw Braid was 94,075 piculs, the best year since 1897; but it is said that the American market prefers the Japanese article, as more regular in make and quality.

"There was again a falling off in the export of Black Tea, which only amounted to 665,499 piculs, the lowest on record. The crop was short, owing to heavy rains in April, but the quality was fairly up to the average. Green Tea fell to 189,430 piculs, the supply having been shorter than for many years, and the quality was, on the whole, rather below the average. Russia is taking more Indian and Ceylon Tea each year, and Foochow Teas have now lost the markets in Canada and Australia. The Export Duty and lekin raise the cost of low grade Teas sometimes as much as 40 per cent., and while this continues there is no hope of checking a continuous decline in the trade. There was a further decrease in the export of Black Brick Tea to 244,565 piculs-half what it was five years ago; but it is explained that Siberia is overstocked, and the new regulation that the heavy Import Duty must be paid immediately on arrival has checked importations until existing stocks are exhausted. Green Brick Tea rose from 31,334 to 48,957 piculs.

"The trade in Silk during the year was satisfactory. The worms were favoured with fine weather and an abundant supply of mulberry leaves, the crop was a good one, and the Cocoons were of fine quality. The export of Raw White Silk was 45,090 piculs, an increase of 13,294 piculs as compared with the shipments in 1900, although the demand for Native consumption stiffened prices locally, and business was at a standstill between August and November The export of Yellow Silk, principally for India, was 13,669 piculs, which was above the average. Wild Silk also exceeded the average, and 20,499 piculs were exported, in spite of a short supply from Manchuria, where prices were too high to tempt buyers. Steam Filatures did well, owing to a brisk demand from France and America, and good profits were made; the export of 49,938 piculs was the highest yet recorded.”

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. The enormous mineral wealth of Shan-Si is practically non-existent for the same reason, and there was every reason to fear that last year (1902) would see in this province a repetition of the famine horrors of the Eighties. 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 thein 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 rail- way was subsequently purchased by the Chinese Government and closed by them on the 21st October, 1877. Since that time the principle of railways has been fully accepted and several important lines are projected, while some are already in operation. A tramway a few miles in length, begun in 1881 to carry coal from the Kaiping coal mines, near Tongshan, to the canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin and Taku on the one hand, and to Kinchow and Newchwang on the Gulf of Liao-tung, on the other. This road was only completed in the early part of 1900, and during the summer months was, between Kinchow and Newchwang, largely destroyed by the Chinese so as to preclude the advance of Russian forces on Peking via Manchuria. It is at present broken for a distance of some thirty miles eastwards of Kinchow. A line from Peking to Tientsin was opened in 1897, the Peking terminus being at Machiapu, a point two miles from the Tartar city, whence a short clectric line connects it with one of the principal gates; the traffic developed so rapidly that in 1898-9 the line had to be doubled." From Lukouchiao (or Marco Polo's Bridge) a line of about cighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the province of Chinli; this line, in October, 1899, was handed over by the British con- structors to the Belgian Syndicate as an integral factor in the great trans-continental road from Peking to Hankow. These roads have all more or less been deliberately and in some parts completely destroyed by the Chinese during 1900. The Railways, as foreign innovations, were particularly hateful to the Boxers, who in many cases attacked the lines with a fury as intense as it was insensate; burning the stations, destroying