Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 828

SHANGHAI

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was taken over by the Chinese Imperial Railway Administration and vested in the Board of Commissioners of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway. The Shanghai terminus is too far from the Settlement to permit of the lines being of any use in handling cargo from Woosung. The line is to be extended to Chinkiang and Nanking. In April, 1904, the first sod of the Shanghai-Nanking line was cut by H. E. Sheng Kung Pao, as Director General of Railways. On November 18th, 1905, a section of twelve miles to Nanziang was opened to traffic and extended to Soochow in 1906. Considerable progress has since been made in the construction of the Soochow-Chinkiang section, where a great deal of tunnelling is required. There are several locally-owned lines of steamers running on the coast and the river Yangtsze. Many manufactories under both native and foreign auspices have sprung up of late years, and would have done so in large numbers long ago, had it not been that the native authorities offered strong opposition to any manufactures under the control of foreigners and tried to strangle the importation of foreign machinery. Although the right under the Treaty to import machinery is quite clear, the British Government hesitated to enforce it; but the Japanese, in the Treaty of 1895 which closed the war, obtained the insertion of a clause specially authorising its importation. The consequence was that five cotton spinning and weaving com- panies were floated, the Ewo under the auspices of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., the International under those of the American Trading Company, the Laou Kung Mow under the management of Messrs. Ilbert & Co., the Soey Chee by Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg & Co., and Yah Loong by Messrs. Fearon, Daniel & Co., of from 40,000 to 60,000 spindles each. With the number of mills working and others in course of construction, the place is rapidly assuming the appearance of a thriving district in Lancashire. At the present time there are nine Cotton Mills in operation, with about 167,000 spindles, and four Chinese-owned, with about 146,000 spindles. It is probable, how- ever, that not more than an average of 60 to 70 per cent. of the foreign-owned spindles are at work at one time, taking slack and busy periods together. The mills, however, have not proved so profitable as was expected owing to difficulties connected with the supply of the native raw material and the increased cost of labour. consequence of this Messrs. Fearon, Daniel & Co.'s Yah Loong Mill was closed and the machinery sold by public auction in December, 1901. Recently the mills have been showing more favourable results and handsome profits were realized by all the foreign- owned ones in 1906. Approaching Shanghai from Woosung the extensive mills of the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Administration (a native-owned business) meet the eye; the old premises were destroyed by fire in 1893, and the present buildings were completed in 1895. These mills were the first erected in Shanghai, and the late ex-viceroy, Li Hung-chang, had a considerable interest in them. Above these on the river side are the Laou Kung Mow, Ewo, and Soey Chee mills referred to above; while on the opposite or Pootung shore stands the large and busy mill of the International Cotton Manufacturing Co. There are also a number of ginning factories, foreign and native-owned. Much of this cleaned cotton is exported to Japan. Of Silk Filatures Shanghai has 25, with a total of 8,000 basins, of which five are foreign-managed. The export in 1895 was 6,276 bales of one picul (133) lbs.) each; in 1905 it was 12,791, but in intervening years the export was considerably larger; in 1900, for instance, the export was 14,738 piculs. One only of these Filatures is the property of a private firm; the others being owned by Foreign or Chinese Companies. These Filatures, which give employment to 20,000 Natives, are scattered over the Hongkew and the Sinza districts, with the exception of a large one of 300 basins at Jessfield-the Hing Chong Filature. Of other industries we may note Hydraulic Packing Factories, foreign and native-owned Paper Mills, two Chinese owned Match Factories, turning out between them some 80 cases, containing each 100 gross of boxes, per day.

There are also large foreign Flour Mills (for grinding native whent, which, it is said, makes excellent flour), two Kerosene Tank Oil and Tinning establishments and works, and various other industries which are fast increasing in number.

In

No notice of the important place taken by Shanghai in the industrial progress of the East would be complete without a reference to the large engineering and shinbuilding establishments which now form a conspicuous feature in the business of the place. Already in the early 'fifties, Mr. William Muirhead, an engineer officer in the service of the P. & O., had conceived the idea of starting a repairing shop. With the exception of the P. & O. S. N. Co., which then rana fortnightly mail service from Hongkong, there was no regular line of steamers trading with the port, and the visits of coasting steamers were few and far between. Still, as the northern terminal port in China, occasional jobs came in. After the opening of Tientsin and the northern ports, and more especially after the opening