Directory_and_Chronicle_1905 — Page 681

CHINA

141

included in Unenumerated Sundries. Sugars fell off to less than half the 1902 figures; Kwangtung growers, unable to face the increasing Foreign competition, are said to be planting their sugar fields with other crops.

Tonnage increased by 3,300,000 tons, all flags sharing in the increase except the Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The British flag shows the largest absolute increase, and among the important commercial nations the French flag shows the largest, and the German the smallest, per-centage of increase. To the total tonnage employed, 57,290,389 tons, Great Britain contributed 49 per cent.; China, 17 per cent.; Japan, 14 per cent.; Germany, 13 per cent.; Norway and France, each 2 per cent.; America and Russia, each 1 per cent.

"Treasure-Import and export of Gold, each valued at about Hk. Tls. 4,000,000, balanced each other. Silver Bars and Sycee were imported to the amount of Hk. Tls. 6,822,720, and exports were Hk. Tls. 4,152,880; and of Silver Coins, Hk. Tls. 16,178,445 were imported and Hk. Tls. 24,893,652 were exported; the net export of Silver being Hk. Tls. 6,045,367."

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 in 1903 when the scarcity of food was so great that in numberless instances men even publicly sold their wives and children when powerless to meet the responsibility for feeding them. 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 via Manchuria. A line fron l'eking 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 cighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the province of Chihli; 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 were all more or less 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 bridges, firing the sleepers and carrying off the metals. Later on, track destruction was a strong feature of the strategy of the Imperial troops, and from their point of view wisely so. It was the cutting of the Railway that was the sole cause of Admiral Seymour's failure in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations. All the lines in North China were attacked and badly cut. The terminus at Peking has been brought inside the Chinese City and is at the Chien Men or Southern Gate of the Manchu City. A branch line has been made from this terminus toTung Chow, the head of the water- ways; and both the French and Germans have pushed on the trunk lines being built under their exclusive auspices in Chihli and Honan, and in Shantung respectively. Railway vandalism was the first evidence of the savagery and magnitude of the Boxer sedition. It is significant that the Imperial Government was so inert in protecting its own property.

Google

viâ

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN