statistics]
CHINA
In the miscellaneous class the chief items of export are beans andbeancake, £1,524,000; raw cotton, £473,000; hides, £562,000; mats and matting, £552,000 ; oils, £475,000 ; furs and skin rugs, £461,000 ; sugar, raw, £311,000 ; tobacco, £576,000; strawbraid, £470,000 ; and wool, £214,000. The export of all cereals except pulse is forbidden. Movements of Bullion.—The following table shows the export and import of the precious metals for the past eleven years. The net import or export only is given. Imports, Exports, Value in H. Taels. Value in H. Taels. Silver Gold Gold Silver H. Tls. H. Tls. H. Tls. H. Tls. 1888 1,678,000 1,911,000 6,005,000 1889 1,625,000 1890 3,557,000 1,783,000 1891 3,693,000 3,113,000 1892 7,332,000 4,825,000 1893 9,873,000 7,459,000 1894 12,774,000 26,389,000 1895 36,685,000 6,624,000 1,720,000 8,114,000 1896 1,641,000 8,512,000 1897 4,722,000 7,704,000 1898 Total 'I 11 years/
87,035,000
67,298,000
13,406,000
There has thus been over the whole period a net import of silver of H. taels 73,629,000, equivalent to about 95,000,000 ounces. Nearly the whole of this, however, was imported during the years 1894-95, and was the proceeds of loans raised by the Chinese Government in Europe to meet the costs of the Japanese war. Very little comes into China in discharge of the annual balance of trade, inasmuch as the exports, including gold, and imports nearly counterbalance each other. There is a regular export of gold amounting on an average to about a million sterling per annum. A part of it would seem to be the hoardings of the nation brought out by the high price of gold in terms of silver, but a part is virgin gold derived from gold workings in Manchuria on the upper waters of the Amur river. Shipping and Navigation.—All the foreign trade of China and a great part of the coasting trade is carried on by foreign-owned vessels. The only Chinese-owned steamers are those of the China Merchants’ Steamship Company, which has its headquarters at Shanghai, and a few colliers belonging to the Kaiping Mining Company. The following table shows the nationality and tonnage of the vessels entering and clearing at the ports of China for 1898 :— Tonnage entered Percentage of Flag. total foreign. and cleared. British. 21,265,966 81-7 1,685,098 6-5 German 1,569,134 6 Japanese French. 1-6 420,078 0-9 239,152 American Russian 178,768 07 Other Powers 686,812 2-6 Total foreign! tonnage /
26,045,008
100
In addition to the foregoing, 8,187,572 tons of Chinese-owned shipping entered and cleared at the open ports during 1898. These were wholly small vessels engaged in the coasting trade. Treaty Ports.—In addition to the coast and river ports declared open to foreign trade under the treaty of Tientsin, the following places have since been thrown open at various times :— On the Canton or West River, Samshui, Wuchow, and Nanning. On the Yangtse, Wuhu, Shasi, Ichang, Chungking, and Yochow —the last being at the entrance to the Tungting lake. On the Shanghai inland waters the cities of Soochow and Hangchow were opened by the Japanese treaty of 1895. They are connected with Shanghai by canal. On the Tongking and Burma frontiers, the cities of Lungchow, Mengtze, Szemao, and Momien. The German naval station in Kiaochow Bay (Tsingtao) is also open to trade, and it is understood that Talienwan, which was similarly acquired on lease by Russia, and which is to be the commercial terminus of the Russian Manchurian Railway, will in due course also be thrown open. An anchorage termed Chingwan-tao, near Shanhai-kwan, in the Gulf of Pe Chili, was opened in 1900. It lies close to the Imperial Northern Railway, and being ice-clear during the winter affords access to Peking when the other northern ports are closed.
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Internal Communication—Railways.—The ninth edition article on China closed with the notice of the opening of a short line of railway between Shanghai and Woosung, and the writer hazarded the remark, that notwithstanding the fact that the trains were daily crowded with passengers, the approbation was that of the people only, and that the Government were more determined than ever to withstand the adoption, of the iron road (v. 672). The fate of this pioneer railway may be mentioned as an introduction to what follows. It must be admitted that the officials had some justification for their opposition. The railway was really built without any regular permission from the Chinese Government, but it was hoped that once finished and working, the irregularity would be overlooked in view of the manifest benefit to the people. This might have been accomplished but for an unfortunate accident which happened on the line a few months, after it was opened. A Chinaman was run over and killed, and this event, of course, intensified the official opposition, and indeed threatened to bring about a riot. The working of the line was stopped by order of the British minister, and thereupon negotiations were entered into with a view to selling the line to the Chinese Government. A bargain was struck sufficiently favourable to the foreign promoters of the line, and it was furtheragreed that, pending payment of the instalments which were spread over a year, the line should continue to be worked by the: company. The expectation was that when the officials once got the line into their own hands, and found it a paying concern, they would continue to run it in their own interest. Not so, however, did things fall out. The very day that the twelve months wereup the line was closed ; the engines were dismantled, the rails, and sleepers were torn up, and the whole concern was shipped oft’ to the distant island of Formosa, where carriages, axles, and all the rest of the gear were dumped on the shore and left for themost part to disappear in the mud. The spacious area of the Shanghai station was cleared of its buildings, and thereon was. erected a temple to the queen of Heaven by way of purifying the sacred soil of China from such abomination. This effectually put, a stop to all efforts on the part of foreigners to introduce railways, into China, and more than twenty years elapsed before the subject was taken up again. It is only within quite recent years that the Chinese Government have been induced to move in the matter. The first short line built was a mineral line, to connect the coalmines of Kaiping in North Chihli with the mouth of the Peiho river at Taku. The Government next authorized the formation of a Native Merchants’ Company, under official control, to build a line from Taku to Tientsin, which was opened to traffic in 1888. It was not, however, till nine years later, viz., in 1897, that theline was completed as far as Peking. Meantime, however, the extension had been continued north-east along the coast as far as, Shanhai-kwan, and a further extension will connect with the treaty port of Newchwang. The money for these extensions was mostly found by the Government, and the whole line is now known as the Imperial Northern Railway. A loan of £2,300,000 for the Newchwang extension was raised through the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in 1899, and secured by a mortgage on the completed section as far as Shanhai-kwan. The length of the line is 340 miles, and, including the Newchwang; extension, it will be when completed 600 miles in length. Meanwhile the high officials of the empire had gradually been brought round to the idea that railway development was in itself a good thing. Chang Chih-tung, then viceroy of the Canton provinces, memorialized strongly in this sense, coupled, however, with the condition that the railways should be built with Chinese capital and of Chinese materials. In particular, he urged the making of a line to connect Peking with Hankow for strategic purposes. The Government took him at his word, and he was transferred from Canton to Hankow with authority to proceed forthwith with his railway. True to his purpose he at once set to work to construct iron-works at Hankow. Smelting furnaces, rolling mills, and all the machinery necessary for turning out steel rails, locomotives, &c., were erected. Several years were wasted over this preliminary work, and over £1,000,000 sterling was spent only to find that the works after all were a practical failure. Steel rails could be made, but at a cost two or three times what they could be procured for in Europe. After the Japanese war the hope of building railways with Chinese capital was abandoned. A prominent official named Sheng Hsuan-hwai was appointed director-general of railways, and empowered to enter into negotiations with foreign financiers for the purpose of raising loans. It vras still hoped that at least the main control would remain in Chinese hands, but the diplomatic pressure of France and Russia caused even that to be given up, and Great Britain insisting on equal privileges for her subjects, the future of railways in China will be in the hands of the various concessionaires, at least until their redemption by the Chinese Government. The following is a list of the several railway concessions which have been granted up to date :— (1) English.—. (a) Shanghai to Nanking; (6) Shanghai to
