154 



CHINA. 



ports. The main expenditure is for the main- 

 tenance of the army, which is estimated to 

 cost 60,000,000 taels per annum. The total 

 external debt was estimated at $25,000,000 in 

 1887. A preliminary agreement was made 

 with an American syndicate, contracting for 

 the minting of money, and granting conces- 

 sions for banking, negotiating loans, building 

 and operating railroads, and opening and work- 

 ing mine?. Revelations regarding the charac- 

 ter of the intermediary, a Polish adventurer, 

 and the opposition of British and German 

 rivals of the concessionaires, led the Tsung- 

 li-Yamen to reject the arrangement. The 

 Chinese Government subsequently obtained 

 from an English manufacturer the machinery 

 and dies for coining new copper cash, which 

 will be composed of less brittle metal than 

 those now in circulation, and also silver taels 

 or dollars, and 50, 20, and 10 cent pieces. 



The Army. The army consists in time of 

 peace of about 250,000 men, and this number 

 can be increased to about 850,000 in time of 

 war. Most of the troops are armed with either 

 Mauser or Remington rifles, and the Govern- 

 ment possesses a good supply of Krupp 8-centi- 

 metre field-cannon. Large quantities of foreign- 

 made arms have been purchased, and the 

 arsenals of China, under foreign supervision, 

 are beginning to turn out both arms and am- 

 munition. Besides the Chinese and Manchu 

 militias, each province possesses a regular army 

 of enlisted troops under the command of its 

 viceroy. The army of Pechili, which served 

 as a model for the rest, has been instructed by 

 European officers, and is well armed and uni- 

 formed. Fears of Russian aggression in the 

 west and on the side of Corea have led to the 

 reorganization of the army of Manchuria. 

 There are 30,000 troops constantly under arms, 

 including 15,000 from the Pechili army, which 

 form a nucleus. The total military strength of 

 the three districts into which Manchuria is 

 divided is from 250,000 to 300,000 men. There 

 are breech-loading rifles provided for about 

 one third of them, while the others are armed 

 in part with muskets. The cavalry carry Win- 

 chester or Remington repeating-rifles. The 

 Russian Ussuri frontier is fortified, and the 

 towns of Kirin and Ningati are girdled with 

 forts, some of which are strengthened by steel 

 plates. There is a line of telegraph from Pekin 

 to Aigun on the Amoor river. The adminis- 

 tration of the Hi territory was reorganized in 

 June, 1888. The soldiers receive good pay and 

 food unless they are defrauded by their offi- 

 cers. The garrison at Umritsi, which had not 

 been paid for six months, formed a plot in 

 June to murder Liu Tsin Tan, their commander- 

 in- chief and the governor of the new dominion. 

 They laid a mine of powder under his residence, 

 but the plot was divulged just before the time 

 for its execution, and the chief conspirators, 

 numbering thirty men and officers, were cruelly 

 put to death. The Central Government seeks 

 to make the military organization a means of 



settling the thinly peopled expanse of Man- 

 churia and Mongolia, and apportions lands 

 among the soldiers. This policy is followed 

 not only for the purpose of raising a more 

 effectual bulwark against Russian encroach- 

 ments, but also to relieve the congested parts 

 of China, and create a field for colonization 

 where the Chinese emigrants will escape the 

 hostile edicts and oppressive regulations that 

 are driving them back from foreign shores. 

 The Bannermen, or Manchu soldiery, number 

 90,000 or 100,000 at Pekin, where they 

 form an imperial guard to protect the dynasty 

 against external or internal foes, while 20,000 

 more are distributed among the chief cities of 

 China. They are not pure Tartars, because 

 there are not more than 1,000,000 people of 

 unmixed Manchu blood among the 23,000,000 

 now inhabiting Manchuria, where a reserve 

 army of 183,000 Bannermen is kept up. 



The Navy. The iron-clad navy in 1887 con- 

 sisted of two powerful armored ships, built in 

 Germany, of 7,335 tons displacement, 6,000 

 horse-power, and a speed of 14 knots. Each 

 is protected by 14-inch armor, and carries four 

 12-inch Krupp breech-loading guns in two bar- 

 bette towers, en echelon, protected by 12-inch 

 armor ; one armored cruiser, built in Germany, 

 of 2, 800 tons displacement, carrying two 8-inch 

 Krupp guns, en barlette, protected by 10-inch 

 armor, and one 6-inch Krupp; two unarmored 

 steel cruisers, of 2,200 tons displacement, carry- 

 ing two 8-inch Armstrong guns, besides 40- 

 pounders and machine-guns; two unarmored 

 steel cruisers, of 1,400 tons displacement, each 

 carrying two 25-ton Armstrong guns and four 

 40-pounders; twelve gunboats, each mounting 

 a single heavy gun ; two strongly armed cor- 

 vettes, built at Stettin ; and two fast armored 

 cruisers, built in 1887 by Sir William Arm- 

 strong. The squadrons of Foochow, Shanghai, 

 and Canton include between forty and fifty 

 unarmored cruisers, corvettes, sloops, and gun- 

 boats. One cruiser of 2,150 tons displacement 

 and 2,400 horse-power has been built in China, 

 and others are in course of construction. 

 There are also several swift torpedo-boats. 



Commerce. The total value of imports 

 amounted in 1886 to 87,479,323 haikwan 

 taels, or $105,849,980, and the total exports 

 during the same year to 77,206,568 haikwan 

 taels, equal to $93,419,947. The chief im- 

 ports and exports, and their values for 1886, 

 are as follow : 



IMPORTS. Haikwan taels. 



Opium 24,988,561 



Cotton goods 29,049.658 



Raw cotton 825,624 



Woolen goods .... 5,630,948 

 Metals 5,319,102 



EXPORTS. Haikwan taels. 



Tea 88,504,820 



Silk 28,884,848 



Sugar 1,688,403 



Straw braid 2,089,185 



IMPORTS. Haikwan taels. 



Coal 1,798.956 



Oil 2,215,027 



Seaweed, shell-fish, 



etc 2,192,052 



EXPORTS. Haikwan taels. 



Hides 996.247 



Paper, tinfoil, etc 678,583 



Clothing 948,522 



During 1886 the principal countries partici- 

 pated in the trade with China as follows, the 

 values being given in haikwan taels: 



