Directory_and_Chronicle_1912 — Page 830

CHINA

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The speculation in rubber companies, which began to take hold of the public in the last months of 1909 and ended disastrously with the June settlement of 1910, was perhaps the most important fact in the commercial history of the year. By diverting a large capital from ordinary uses and, in the end, by the injury to credit caused by its collapse, the "rubber boom seems to have deprived legitimate trade of any chance it may have had of recovering from a long fit of depression. During the six or seven months of the boom's duration some 35 local rubber companies, absorbing a capital of some 20 million taels, were added to the list of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and a further large amount was paid locally for shares in London companies. When the crash came, not a few of the leading Chinese banks in Shanghai and other centres - closed their doors, and native bank orders, the chief medium of commercial transactions in Shanghai, were so discredited that official funds and loans from foreign banks had to be resorted to for their redemption and rehabilitation. Speculation in opium, growing in strength with the progressive diminution of supplies of the drug, was continued from the preceding year, and tied up more capital. Money was scarce everywhere, and many failures are reported from different parts of the Empire. Scarcity of food and high prices were general throughout the country in the first half of the year, and rice riots were common. In the spring and early summer the Yangtze provinces suffered from too much rain; but they were indemnified by fine autumn crops of rice and cotton. - The provinces of Kwangtung and Fukien, which had been visited by early drought, were less fortunate in their later experience, their harvests being, on the whole, below the average. Excellent crops were reported generally from the northern and western provinces; but that section of the Great Plain which crosses the northern parts of Kiangsu, Anhwei, and Honan was inundated in the autumn, its agricultural population being stricken with famine, to which were soon added the hardships of winter. Of the copper currency, the best that can be said is that its condition was little worse in 1910 than in 1909. The average number of 1-cent, or 10-cash, pieces exchangeable for 1 dollar on the Yangtze was about 132, while in some parts of China it rose as high as 144. Coining seems to have been suspended, and importations of copper ingots and slabs were insignificant. An exhibition, the first serious undertaking of this kind seen in China, was opened at Nanking on the 5th June. An extension of the Peking-Kalgan Railway from Kalgan to Suiyuan, in Shansi, via Tatungfu, has been proceeding during the year. Work on the Kirin-Kwanchengtze Railway was begun in the spring, and its completion is looked for in the autumn of 1911. The conversion of the Antung-Moukden Kailway to the broad gauge made good progress ; but the completion of the undertaking is not expected before the end of the present year. In December, 1910, the reconstructed line was open for traffic for a distance of 64 miles from Antung. On the no thern section of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, the anticipations of a year ago were realised, and the line was open as far as Tehchow in April. In October Tsinanfu was reached, and by the end of the year Taianfu, the Yellow River being crossed by a steam ferry. The total length of line opened is 288 miles. The southern section of this line was so far ad- vanced in January, 1911, that it was possible to commence passenger traffic by con- struction trains from Pukow to Linhwaikwan, a distance of about 100 miles. On the Ichang-Siangki section (110 miles) of the Ch'uan-

-Han Railway, it is r ported that work proceeded energetically throughout the year. The Yüeh-Han line advances very slowly. In the Hupeh section there was no work in 1910; the Chuchow-Changsha section made but moderate progress of serving the Pingsiang coal mines. In the Kwangtung section only a few miles were added to the length of open line, which now extends 60 miles from Canton. The work on the Kiukiang-Nanchang line has not quite fulfilled expectations; but by end of December rails were laid to a distance of 65 l¿ from Kiukiang, and hopes are entertained that communication with Teianhsien, some 30 to 40 miles distant, may be opened in the coming summer. The extension of the Chekiang Railway from Hangehow to Ningpo has made no great advance. The British section (22 miles) of the Canton-Kowloon Railway was opened to traffic on the 1st October, and the first part of the Chinese section, from Canton to Sintsün a distance of ≥9 miles, on the 6th December. The Yunnan Railway, the construction of which has occupied eight years, was formally opened to traffic on the 1st April, and a branch of the Meng- tsz Custom House was established at Yünnaufu. The line from Wuhu to Kwangteh- chow has made no progress; but that from Amoy to Changchow is open to traffic for a distance of some 56 li from Amoy. The Sunning Railway was open from Kungyik to Towshan in July, and the extension of the line from Kungyik to Kongmoon via Sunwei is proceeding vigorously. Other railways which have made more or less progress dur- ing the year are the Tungkwan-Honanfu and the Tsingkiangpu Süchowfu lines. Full crops were harvested in Manchuria; but the export trade in beans for 1910 reflected

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