CHINA. 



113 



urn, 32,330,506 taels ; metals, 6,887,123 taels ; 

 woolen goods, 5,097,605 taels ; sea and fishery 

 products, 4,517,054 taels ; kerosene oil, 2,219,332 

 taels ; coal, 1,657,164 taels. The export of silk 

 and manufactures of silk amounted to 32,180.298 

 haikwan taels; tea, 30,293,251 taels; sugar,' 2,- 

 489 989 taels ; clothing, 2.106,970 taels ; straw 

 braid, 1,989,842 taels ; paper, 1,650,298 taels ; 

 hides, 922,343 taels ; chinaware and pottery, 

 761.128 taels. The total quantity of tea exported 

 was 2,167,552 piculs of 133J- pounds, of which 

 638 216 piculs went to Great Britain, 675,177 to 

 Russia, 302,071 to the United States, 149,769 to 

 Hong-Kong, 163,852 to Australia, and 74,133 to 

 other countries. Imports of merchandise of the 

 value of 68,433,543 haikwan taels and exports 

 of the value of 36,460,737 taels passed in 1888 

 through the port of Shanghai ; 11,775,141 taels 

 of imports and 14,228,733 of exports through 

 Canton ; 6,501,811 taels of imports and 4,355,012 

 taels of exports through Amoy ; 3,303,668 taels 

 of imports and 8,841,818 of exports through Foo- 

 chow ; 7,347,099 taels of imports and 1,608,248 

 of exports through Swatow ; and 1,981,076 taels 

 of imports and 4,776,776 of exports through Ti- 

 entsin. Of the other open ports Hankow had a 

 trade of 4,143,138 taels ; Pakhoi, of 3,512,749 taels ; 

 Takow, Tamsui, Chefoo, and Kiungchow, of be- 

 tween 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 taels ; Newchang, of 

 350,261 taels: and Chinkiang, Kiukiang, Ningpo, 

 Wuhu, Wenchow, Kelung, Taiwan, and Ichang, 

 little or none. The port of Nanking, which the 

 Chinese Government promised in the treaty with 

 France in 1858 to throw open to foreign com- 

 merce, has not yet been opened. The expecta- 

 tions of a large* expansion of the import trade 

 from the commutation of the transit duties 

 have not been realized. The foreign imports at 

 Shanghai in 1889 actually relapsed to a lower 

 figure than in 1885. The transit passes obtained 

 on payment of one half the import duties are 

 not used in many places, the provincial authori- 

 ties having lowered the likin rates to compete 

 with the imperial duty. The future of the great, 

 tea and silk trades is very uncertain. The tea 

 trade seems to have passed to other countries, 

 and silk production is threatened with extinction 

 unless measures are taken to combat the silk- 

 worm disease. From Shanghai there is now a 

 considerable export of raw cotton to Japan, 

 where there are flourishing spinning establish- 

 ments. The place of the great staples may be 

 supplied by smaller exports suited for the for- 

 eign markets that may be brought out when the 

 country and its products are better known and 

 its means of transport improved. The many 

 inland barriers are an obstruction to the ex- 

 port as well as to the domestic trade, and the 

 removal of a large proportion of them, if not 

 their total abolition, is urgently wanted in the 

 interest of commerce. 



Navigation. In 1888 there were 28,161 ves- 

 sels, of 22,307,859 tons, entered and cleared at 

 Chinese ports, and of these 23,249, of 21,311,651 

 tons, were steamers; 15,115, of 14,069,260 tons, 

 were British vessels; 9,054, of 5,744,529 tons, 

 Chinese ; 2,762, of 1,570,035 tons, German ; 326, 

 of 281,900 tons, Japanese ; 234, of 84,455 tons, 

 American ; and 176, of 268,644 tons, French. 



Telegraphs and Postal Service. Remote 

 parts of the empire are already connected by 

 VOL. xxx. 8 A 



telegraph lines, which are being rapidly extended 

 by the Government into new regions. There are 

 three main lines, with many branches. One, the 

 old line, starts from Tzechulin, the foreign con- 

 cession at Tientsin, and sweeps in a gigantic 

 curve through Chining and Chinkiang, Soochow, 

 Hangchow, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, and Can- 

 ton up the West river to the frontier of Tong- 

 king. Another starts from Chinkiang up the 

 valley of the Yangtse to Luchow (above Chung- 

 king), thence through Kweiyang (the capital of 

 Kweichow) to Yunnan and the Burmese frontier 

 at Momein. A branch runs from Yunnan to 

 Mungtze and Kai-hua, on the western Tongking 

 border, to within sixty miles of the terminus 

 of the coast line at Kwang-nan. Messages be- 

 tween these two stations of Kia-hua and Kwang- 

 nan had at first to travel over the long stretch 

 down the Yangtse, and thence south through 

 Chinkiang and Canton. Now a short line unites 

 Kai-hua with Pase, and the circle is complete. 

 The third main line runs from Peking through 

 Tientsin to Kirin, thence in three directions to 

 Aigun, on the Amur, to Wenchuen, the point 

 where the Russian, Chinese, and Corean borders 

 meet, and to Taku. Shansi, Shensi, Kansu, and 

 Honan were the only provinces without telegraphs 

 at the end of 1889. From Taku there is connec- 

 tion with Seoul, the capital of Corea, and with 

 the international cable at Port Arthur, and by a 

 recent arrangement with Russia the Chinese sys- 

 tem will join the Siberian line in the Amur re- 

 gion, bringing about direct overland communi- 

 cation with Europe. The Chinese telegraph 

 administration has prevented the connection 

 with the Siberian or the Burmese systems from 

 being of any use to the mercantile community 

 by entering into an arrangement with the Eng- 

 lish and Danish cable companies, fixing the price 

 of all messages between China and Europe at 

 $2 a word. Col. Denby, the United States min- 

 ister, in behalf of American merchants, protest- 

 ed without avail against this Chefoo telegraph 

 convention, which was ratified early in 1890. 



The postal service, which is under the direc- 

 tion of the Ministry of War, is carried on by 

 means of couriers and carts. There are 8,000 

 stations for post carts and 2,040 for runners. 

 The custom-house authorities maintain a sepa- 

 rate service between the treaty ports and the 

 capital. 



Railroad Projects. A large internal com- 

 merce is carried on over the navigable rivers and 

 canals and the unpaved roads that connect the 

 towns throughout the empire. The railroad built 

 for the conveyance of coal from the Kaiping 

 mines to deep water on Petang river has been 

 continued, byway of Taku, to Tientsin, its total 

 length being 86 miles. The Government ordered 

 it to be extended to Tungchow, within a few 

 miles of the imperial capital, near the close of 

 1888, and a few months later recalled the decree. 

 At the further end it is being continued to a coal 

 mine 15 miles beyond the present terminus. In 

 the summer of 1889 the Emperor approved a 

 project for a line from Pekin through the north- 

 western part of the empire to Hankow, on the 

 Yangtse-Kiang, appointing Chang-Chi-Tung to 

 the viceroyalty of Hupeh and Honan, and order- 

 ing him to construct the line. The chief obstacle 

 to railroad construction is the opposition of the 



