Directory_and_Chronicle_1918 — Page 784

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SHANGHAI

Amherst, with a view to opening up trade, and from that time begins its modern history. Mr. Lindsay in his report of the visit says that he counted upwards of four hundred junks passing inwards every day for seven days, and found the place possessed commodious wharves and large warehouses. Three years later it was visited by Dr. Medhurst, who confirmed the account given by Mr. Lindsay. On the 13th June, 1842, a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, and a military force of 4,000 men under Sir Hugh Gough, captured the Woosung forts, which mounted 175 guns, and took the hsien (district) city of Paoshan. On the 19th, after a slight resistance, the force gained possession of Shanghai, the officials and a large proportion of the inhabitants having fled the previous evening, although great preparations had been made for the defence, 409 pieces of cannon being taken possession of by the British. The people, however, rapidly returned and business was resumed. The same force afterwards captured Chapoo and Chinkiang, after which the fleet, having blockaded the Imperial Canal and anchored opposite to Nanking, the treaty of Nan- king was signed, and the ports of Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai were opened to trade. The city was evacuated on the 23rd June. The walls, which are three and a half miles in circuit with seven gates, were erected at the time of the Japanese invasion, in the latter part of the sixteenth century.

The ground selected by Captain Balfour, the first British Consul, for a Settlement for his nationals lies about half a mile north of the city walls, between the Yangking- pang and Soochow creeks, and extends backward from the river to what was till last year a ditch connecting the two, afterwards called the Defence Creek, thus forming what may be termed an island a mile square. This creek has now been culverted and made into a broad roadway. The port was formally declared open to trade on the 17th November, 1843. Some years were occupied in draining and laying out the ground, which was mostly a marsh with numerous ponds and creeks. The foreigners in the meantime lived at Namtao, a suburb between the city and the river, the British Consulate being in the city. In two years a few houses were built in the Settlement, and by 1849 most foreigners had taken up their residence in it. By that time twenty-five firms were established, and the foreign residents numbered a hundred, including seven ladies. In that year an English Church was built, and on 21st November the foundation of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Tungkadoo was laid. The French were in 1849 granted the ground between the city walls and the British Settlement on the same terms; and, in exchange for help rendered in driving out the rebels who had seized the city in 1853, got a grant of the land extending for about a mile to the south between the city walls and the river. They have since by purchase extended the bounds of the Concession westward to the "Ningpo Joss House," a mile from the river. Negotiations were instituted for an extension of the Concession to Sicawei, a village chiefly occupie! by the Jesuits and their converts, situated at the end of the French Municipal Road and five miles from the French Bund, but in this the French were only partially successful, a small extension as far as the Old Cemetery being granted them in 1899. In the later fifties the Americans rented land immediately north of Soochow Creek, in the district called Hongkew, so that the ground now occupied by foreigners extends for nearly eight miles on the left bank of the river. Including the creeks there are now fifteen miles of the Settlement with water frontage.

By the land assessment made in 1907, on land in the Central District the assessment was on an area of 2,224 mow, Tls. 77,205, 106. This shows an increase of 1563 per cent. over the value in 1902 of Tls. 30,086,586. The Northern District, area 2,127 now, was assessed at Tls. 23,146,844, increase of Tls. 13,432,310, or 1384 per cent. on that of 1902; the Eastern District, 5,753 mow, at Tls. 24,306,233, an increase of 933 per cent., and the Western (foreign residential) District, 5,538 mow, at Tls. 26,389,074, against Tls. 8,081,572 at the previous quinquennial period, an increase of 226 per cent., a total on 15,643 mow of Tls. 151,047,257, against Tls. 60,423,773 on 13,126 mow in 1902, equal to 150 per cent. for the whole Settlement (exclusive of the French). The assessment of the British and Hongkew divisions, respectively, was in 1880 Tls. 6,118,265 and Tls. 1,945,325, total Tls. 8,063,590; in 1890 Tls. 12,397,810 and Tls. 5,110,145, total Tls. 17,507,955. The totals in 1907 were thus nearly twenty times those of 1880 and over eight and a half times those of 1890. A new assessment was made in 1911. "Although in a certain number of cases the new values are higlier than under the assessment of 1907, the fall in gross values aggregates about eleven million taels, with an estimated fall in income of Tls. 69,000." The assessment for 1917 was for the Central District, Tls. 72,000,000, Northern District, "Tls. 26,700,000, Eastern, Tls. 31,900,000, Western, Tls. 22,884,000, a total, after deducting rebates on ground occupied by churches, cemeteries, and municipal properties, of Tls. 150,000,000, on which a tax of 6/10th of one per cent. less 15% was levied, estimated to