CHINESE COMMERCE. 203 



of Chinese export, as was shown above, are silk and tea. The output 

 of silk is increasing steadily, especially in the manufactured form. The 

 amount of tea exported, however, is not on the increase, being about 

 the same that it was ten years ago, the tea trade having been adversely 

 affected by the competition of Japan, Ceylon and India, where more 

 favorable transportation facilities have given advantages. Both tea and 

 silk, however, are staple articles, with no chance of substitutes being 

 found, and the world's demand for both is steadily increasing. The 

 possibility of enlarging the output of silk is great, for there are in 

 Northern Kwang-tung alone large areas of land capable of producing 

 mulberry, that are lying idle at present because there are no transporta- 

 tion facilities. 



The idea we have of the interior of China as overpeopled, and with 

 every square foot of land under cultivation, is entirely without founda- 

 tion, except possibly in certain portions of the great loess plain in the 

 north. There is a great amount of land, capable of producing crops of 

 various kinds and of supporting a population, that to-day lies fallow and 

 unfilled. Given the means of sending their produce to the sea and so 

 to the foreigner, the people of the interior will see to it that the produce 

 is ready. 



Then there are vast mineral resources that are practically un- 

 touched. China, with coal-fields exceeding in quantity those of Europe, 

 imported last year no less than 859,370 tons of coal, valued at $4,477,- 

 670 gold, nearly the whole of which came from Japan. With railways 

 to bring the output of the mines to market, there will not only be no 

 importing, thus permitting at least that amount to be expended for 

 other foreign goods, but there should be a large export of coal to 

 Hongkong for foreign shipping, and to other Eastern countries for local 

 consumption. In addition to the coal, there are beds of copper, iron, 

 lead and silver that, to-day untouched, are only awaiting the screech of 

 the locomotive whistle. 



In short, the resources, both agricultural and mineral, are at hand 

 to permit a foreign commerce to be carried on — to pay the cost of build- 

 ing of railways and to provide sustenance for a commercial invasion. 



But as yet China has made no effort to develop her latent powers. 

 As was shown, the bulk of her exports are confined to two articles, due 

 to her people not utilizing their natural advantages in diversity of soil 

 and climate. Each locality produces that single article which gives the 

 best local result, without considering broad market conditions. Thus 

 in the south it is mostly silk and rice; in the central zone, rice and tea, 

 and in the north, millet and wheat. Every bit of valley land is culti- 

 vated, but the hills are let go waste. There are great areas of grazing 

 land where some day the Chinese will let herds roam, producing beef 

 and hides, which they will turn to commercial profit; while on other 



