Annual Silk Product of China. 501 



Three distinct qualities of raw silk are known in commerce, 

 viz. Tsatli L + , Taysam Ty -^% (the big worm), andYuen- 

 wha, or Yuen-fa |s| 'i^ (the flower of the garden). These 

 three leading descriptions are again subdivided into a great 

 number of sorts, which are usually known by the name of the 

 trader, or his '' hong" (business). 



The annual production of silk in China is estimated to 

 amount to from 200,000 to 250,000 bales, or from 20,000,000 

 to 25,000,000 pounds' weight. This, however, is a very 

 superficial estimate; that silk cultivation, however, must be 

 enormously developed in China is obvious, not alone from 

 the immense home consumption of the article, but also from 

 the circumstance that, notwithstanding the immense increase in 

 exports during the last ten years, the price of silk has not 

 merely remained stationary, but is on an average absolutely 

 less than at a period when barely one-fourth of the quantity 

 now exported found its way to England and France. The 

 price of silk is usually reckoned in Taels,* on the estimate of a 

 bale averaging 100 lbs. English. Between Shanghai and 

 London the bale loses on the average three per cent, in 

 weight. There is also usually an allowance made of 15 per 

 cent, for cost of transport and incidental charges from Shang- 

 hai to any English port. 



On the average only one-fourth of the entire quantity of 



* The value of a tael, as already stated, varies from 6s. to 6s. 6d It is estimated 

 that a bale of silk, until it is shipped at Shanghai for England, has cost from £80 

 to £100sterUng. 



