130 



CHINA. 



wear. 1.X50.635 taels; of paper, 1,784,366 taels; of 

 c.ow and buffalo hides, 1,089.919 taels ; of chinaware 

 and pottery. 1.231.136 taels; of tobacco, 1,231,000 

 taels. The" quantity of tea exported was 1,862,312 

 piculs (1 pic;ul - 138J pounds), of which 757.287 

 pit-ills went to Russia, 403,197 to the United States, 

 :>i>7.504 to Great Britain, 165,504 to Hong-Kong, 

 and 80,323 to Australia. 



Neither the war with Japan nor the riots and 

 disturbances in certain provinces seriously inter- 

 fered with trade, which was remarkably active and 

 prosperous during 1895. The right to import ma- 

 chinery, conceded by the treaty of peace, gave an 

 extraordinary impetus to industry, especially cotton 

 spinning and" weaving, in which Chinamen and for- 

 eigners have now invested much capital. Cheap 

 labor and abundant raw material, with the continu- 

 ance of the advantage that the East enjoys by the 

 fall in the gold price of silver, hold out every pros- 

 pect of China becoming a most important manu- 

 facturing country, which will lead to a keen and 

 formidable competition in textiles between the 

 Kast and the West. The total volume of trade in 

 1895 was 314,989,926 taels, surpassing the previous 

 year by 24,000,000 taels. The total trade of China 

 has more than doubled in ten years, the figure for 

 1885 being 153,205,729 taels. In this period the im- 

 ports have increased from 88,200.018 to 171,696,715 

 taels, and exports from 65,005,611 to 143,293,211 

 taels, showing that there has been no change in the 

 relative position of imports and exports as in Japan. 

 The imports in 1895 amounted to 171,695,715 taels. 

 The increase of 9,593,000 taels was in part illusory, 

 owing to the inclusion of what was coastwise traffic 

 in former years by reason of the acquisition of 

 Chinese territory by Japan. The great decline in 

 the opium trade observed in 1894 continued in an 

 accelerated ratio, owing to restricted production in 

 India, higher prices, and increased production and 

 improved quality of the native drug. The import 

 of foreign opium has fallen from 67,800 piculs in 

 1836 to 51,306 piculs in 1895. There was a large 

 increase in the imports of morphine, showing an 

 alarming increase of the morphine habit through a 

 greater use of the so-called antiopium pills. An 

 increased importation of staple cotton fabrics, not- 

 withstanding the fall of silver, causing an advance 

 of over 27 per cent, in prices since 1886, is an en- 

 couraging symptom of improving economic condi- 

 tions. The yearly importation of over a million 

 piculs of Indian yarn affords evidence of the great 

 increase of the native hand-weaving industry 

 throughout the empire, stimulated by the high 

 price of foreign cotton fabrics. Besides native 

 cotton mills already established, 4 new ones, with 

 capacity for 143,000 spindles, were started and a 

 score of others were projected by European, Chinese, 

 and Japanese capitalists. 



The fall in silver has enhanced the price of woolen 

 goods to such a degree that ordinary silk and satin 

 cost little more. Metals have likewise suffered from 

 this cause. The importation of machinery was 

 nevertheless in ls<),-) twice as much as in 1894. The 

 exports in IS!).') amounted to 143,293.211 taels, show- 

 ing an apparent increase of over 15,000.000 taels, 

 which was partly due, as in the case of imports, to 

 including for the first time the trade with Formosa, 

 but there was a positive gain of over 9,000,000 taels 

 in exports of silk, tea, cotton, find other staples. 

 Silk is now the chief export, tea having receded to 

 1 place. The export of white, yellow, and 

 wild silk and China filatures in 1895 was 110620 

 piculs. 11.10(1 piculs more than in 1S!)4. Moreover, 

 the sale, of cocoons exceeded that of all previous 

 years, while the shipments of silk goods were nearly 

 8,000,000 tads more than in 1894. In ten years the 

 export of silk and satin goods has more than'doubled. 



The Pasteur system of detecting and eradicating 

 the silkworm disease has been successfully em- 

 ployed in Canton province. The Russian demand 

 for black tea is increasing, and the purchases, at 

 exceptionally high prices, both for the Black Sea 

 and the Kiakhta overland route, were in 1895 the 

 highest yet recorded. This trade has grown from 

 287,900 piculs in 1891 to 384,300 piculs in 1895 ; but 

 this increase does not make up for the decline in 

 the black tea trade with Great Britain, which has 

 fallen from 409,300 piculs in 1891 to 250,400 piculs 

 in 1895, when it was 94,000 less than in the previous 

 year. Raw cotton is an export that is increasing 

 very rapidly, owing to the demand of the Japanese 

 mills. The export amounted in 1895 to 896,000 

 piculs, of which Japan took 744,000. The export of 

 skins of dogs, goats, and sheep, both tanned and un- 

 tanned, for clothing and rugs has grown from 881,000 

 taels in 1891 to 2,649,000 taels in 1895. Another 

 remarkable development is the export of nankeens 

 for Chinese abroad, who find this durable homespun 

 cheaper than the more flimsy European fabrics 

 since these have been enhanced in price by the ap- 

 preciation of gold. Of the total trade of nearly 

 315,000,000 taels in 1895. the share of the British 

 Empire was over 215,000,000 taels; of Japan, 32,- 

 000,000 taels ; of the Continent of Europe, outside 

 of Russia, 29,000,000 taels; of the United States, 

 20,500,000 taels ; of the Russian Empire, 17,000,000 

 taels. The share of the port of Shanghai in the 

 total trade was nearly 219,000,000 taels. 



Navigation. During 1894 there were 38,063 ves- 

 sels, of 29,622,001 tons, entered and cleared at the 

 ports of China, of which 20,527, of 20,496,347 tons, 

 were British; 13,123, of 5,539,246 tons, Chinese; 

 2,429, of 1,983,605 tons, German; 420, of 379,044 

 tons, Japanese ; 107, of 129,127 tons, American ; and 

 293, of 348,291 tons, French. Of the total number, 

 30,027, of 28,506,074 tons, were steamers. 



Communications. The means of internal com- 

 munication are innumerable roads and paths, much 

 traveled, but badly kept, and numerous canals and 

 navigable rivers. The railroad that brings coal 

 from the Kaiping mines to deep water on the Petang 

 lias been extended to Tientsin and northeastward to 

 Shan-IIai-Kwan, a total length of 167 miles, while 

 surveys have been made for 200 miles beyond the 

 Great Wall to Kirin, the capital of Manchuria. The 

 Emperor in 1889 ordered a railroad to be built from 

 Pekin to Han-Kow, but this has not yet been begun. 

 A line from Tientsin to the capital, 80 miles, has 

 been actually begun. The cost is estimated at 

 2,400,000 taels. A survey has been made for a line 

 from Shanghai to Soochow, which will be extended 

 to Hangchow. In a recent edict, in reply to a me- 

 morial of the Minister of War recommending the 

 appointment of a high officer to take charge of the 

 construction of railroads, the Emperor observed 

 that these are most important for the maintenance 

 of trade as well as for the employment of the masses 

 of the people ; hence he has decided to encourage 

 railroads in every way. lie appointed Hu, who 

 first suggested and has charge of the construction 

 of the Tientsin-Pekin line, to be director general of 

 railroad construction. The grand trunk line from 

 Pekin to Han-Kow is being built as a commercial 

 undertaking, with which Government officials may 

 not interfere, by wealthy men of the provinces who 

 can raise a capital of 10,000,000 taels. Permission 

 has been granted to run a branch of the Russian 

 Trans-Siberian Railroad from Stratensk through 

 Chinese Manchuria to some open port. A Russian 

 bank undertook to finance the enterprise and 

 French engineers obtained the contract. 



A Russian steamship company, through its agent, 

 an American named J. Smith, obtained a concession 

 and undertook to build wharves at the treaty port 



