Directory_and_Chronicle_1904 — Page 698

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CHINA

Tea, as against 86,747 piculs. This is explained by the fact that the War Tax of 10 gold cents per pound was to be removed on the 1st January, 1903, and stocks had been reduced to a minimum to escape the expense of bonding. Moreover, it is anticipated that lower prices in consequence of the removal of the Duty will increase the demand. Black Tea, via Kiakhta, rose from 17,705 to 66,464 piculs, presumably because the route was safe again after the late disturbances. The export of Brick Tea showed a considerable advance, Black Brick having improved from 244,565 to 483,105 piculs, and Green Brick from 48,957 to 86,932 piculs. Congou Tea consumed east of Irkutsk was formerly free from Duty, which has now been imposed; the consequence has been that its place is being taken by Brick Tea, of which a finer quality is now demanded. Ceylon Dust, which is blacker in colour than China Dust, is imported to improve the quality and appearance of the Bricks.

appearance of the Bricks. It may be mentioned that the export of Green Tea from Ceylon to the United States, which was till lately the monopoly of China, rose from 797,796 pounds in 1901 to 1,968,456 pounds in 1902. It is to be regretted that the Chinese Government and the Tea Guilds do not take more energetic measures to assist this valuable but moribund trade.

"The year was not favourable to the Silk industry. Warm weather in the early part of April hatched the eggs before the mulberry leaves were ready, and a large proportion of the young worms had to be destroyed. The weather during the rearing season was damp and cold, and the surviving worms, enfeebled by the disease which nothing has been done to check, and having no proper protection against variations in temperature, yielded a crop of silk poor in quality and quantity.

The second crop,

produced under more favourable conditions as regards weather, turned out unusually well; but the total production is said to have been very short of the average. Owing to a steady demand from Europe and America, the short outturn, and the fall in exchange, prices rose so much that the silver value of the trade exceeded that of the previous year. Steam filatures began the year under unfortunate cirumstances, as the owners had made contracts for cocoons at reasonable prices early in March and April, and, having sold part of their production forward at prices yielding a fair profit, found the cocoon contractors unable to carry out their contracts, owing to the unprecedented prices asked for cocoons by the farmers. Fortunately, cocoons of the second crop were obtained at comparatively cheap rates, so that the final result of the year's worknig was fairly satisfactory."

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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, as well as the famine in Kiangsi last year when the scarcity of food was so great that in numberless instances men even publicly sold their wives and children to escape the responsibility for feeding them which they were powerless to meet. The enormous mineral wealth of Shansi is practically non-existent for the same reason. 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 them 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. The railway from Shanghai to Woosung was re-opened in 1898, as forming part of a line to Soochow which the provincial authorities had obtained permission of the Throne to construct. Several important lines are now in course of construction 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 Kin- chow 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 viâ 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 electric 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 eighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the