Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 837

682

TIENTSIN

(Tientsin Club and Concordia, the latter chiefly German), two excellent libraries and three churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Union). Electric lighting was introduc- ed in June 1905.

Distilling is one of the largest local industries; it is chiefly from kowliang (sorghum) or millet. Although a spirit, it is called “wine,” and is exported to the south in large quantities. The manufacture of coarse unrefined salt by the evaporation of sea water is also carried on near Taku; the produce is stacked some distance down river at the first cutting where all the salt junks now go. It was formerly stacked on the river bank opposite the British concession, and sometimes gave off very offensive smells, rendering life a burden. The trade in salt is a Government monopoly. Carpets, shoes, glass, coarse earthenware, and fireworks are also made in large quantities in the city, but Tientsin is at present essentially a centre for distribution and collection rather than for manufacture. The exports include coal, wool (from Kokonor, Kansuh, etc.), bristles, straw braid, goat skins, furs, wine, etc. The export trade is a creation only some 15 or 20 years old, and is largely due to foreign initiative. Wool cleaning and braid and bristle sorting are the chief industries in the foreign hongs except those of the Russians, who are exclusively engaged in the transit of tea. The imports are of the usual miscellaneous nature: arms, tea for the Desert and Siberia, mineral oil, matches, and needles figure next to piece goods. The fine arts are unknown to the Tientsinese except in the shape of cleverly made mud-figures; these are painted and make really admirable statuettes, but are difficult to carry away, being remarkably brittle.

The export coal trade may be expected to develop rapidly, as the Chinese Corpora- tion has been replaced by a strong combination of British and Belgian capitalists registered as an English limited liability company. The output and sale of the Kaiping collieries is about 700,000 tons a year, of which about 25,000 tons is ship- ped from Tientsin, and 200,000 tons from Chinwangtao, which may be regarded as one of the auxiliary ports of Tientsin. The general trade is increasing, and no wonder, as Tientsin is practically the only sea outlet for the entire trade of the provinces of Chihli, Shansi, Shensi, Kansuh, and part of Honan, with a population not far short of 100,000,000. The total net value of the trade in 1907, less re-exports, was Tls. 96,778,966 as compared with Tls. 112,864,555 in 1906 and Tls. 96,565,672 for 1905. The net foreign imports in 1907 were valued at Tls. 61,208,744 as compared with Tls. 64,422,439 for 1906, Tls. 59,649,982 in 1905, Tls. 36,178,819 in 1904, and Tls. 37,463,829 in 1903; and the native imports at Tls. 18,317,007 in 1907 as compared with Tls. 26,616,808 in 1906, Tls. 22,185,331 in 1905, and Tls. 36,178,019 in 1904. The export trade, which twenty years ago was practically nil, was in 1907, not including re-exports, Tls. 17,253,215. In 1905 the trade of the port was described as beating all records, "both in value of trade, tonnage, and revenue, the latter having increased by about fifty per cent." That record was handsomely beaten in 1906, and also in 1907, though the trade of the latter year showed a decline of over three mililon taels compared with that of 1906. The total steam tonnage entered and cleared was 2,188,074.

Tientsin has played a great part in the history of China during the momen- tous years of the Boxer outbreak; after the capture of the Taku Forts and its own relief from twenty-seven days' siege in June-July, 1900, it became the primary base for the Allied

Allied invasion of North China. As the centre of the foreign influence, and the new learning in North China, it incurred the particular odium of the Boxers, and was the first object of their attack when they_left Paotingfu at the end of May. They arrived in the city at the beginning of June and at once overawed the provincial authorities; indeed the latter promptly entered into collusion with them, supplying them both with food and funds, as the cash- books captured at the Yamen later on proved. As in Peking, the actual hostilities broke out in the destruction by fire of Mission premises, and in personal attacks on those suspected of association with foreigners. So great was the animosity towards the latter, that great numbers of the compradore clerks and shroff classes came into the Settlements to obviate certain death. The Boxers attacked the Settlements and the Railway Station in great force on the night of the 15th of June, but were easily beaten off by the 560 marines of all nationalities who had come up from the Fleet to conduct the defence. By great good fortune, as it afterwards turned out, a body of Russians, numbering 1,700 men, and including a battery of well-found artillery had been precluded from following Admiral Seymour in his gallant effort to rescue the Legations by the fact that the railway was cut: these men had perforce to remain in Tientsin. Even with their presence the fierceness and determination of the Chinese attacks were phenomenal and were with difficulty met. It is terrible to think of the