CHILI. 



CHINA. 



125 



ing the past twenty years, while Anglo- Ger- 

 man merchants, more active than French, have 

 succeeded in substituting their manufactures 

 for ours. But this is not the only success 

 which English and German merchants can 

 boast of: with abundant means and good Eu- 

 ropean banking connections at their disposal, 

 they have boldly gone into the nitrate industry 

 and exportation, so that the bulk of this article 

 now goes to Liverpool and Hamburg. Nor 

 is this due to any very great superiority of 

 theirs in the way of steamship lines, for we 

 have our fine Havre line of steamers regularly 

 touching at all ports on the west coast. The 

 causes for this decay of French trade in this 

 direction lie deeper, and we have to search for 

 them in France, where both merchants and 

 manufacturers trouble themselves too little 

 about the changes going on in these distant 

 countries on the Pacific, and, instead of estab- 

 lishing branch houses or agencies in them, and 

 thus pushing the export trade to them, they 

 cling to time-worn methods, and are thus oust- 

 ed from connections once valuable." 



EXPORT OF NITRATE OF SODA DURING THE FIRST 

 TEN MONTHS. 



Chilian Trade with England, France, and the United 

 States. The import from Chili into the United 

 States in 1881 was $1,435,970 worth of goods 

 against $13,288,071 from Chili into England, 

 and $5,478,793 into France, while the export 

 from the United States to Chili was $1,614,836, 

 from England $13,075,526, and from France 

 $6,364,464. In 1882 the import from Chili 

 into the United States was $1,810,487, and the 

 export from the latter to the former $1,774,- 

 645 worth of goods. 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1883, 

 the United States imported from Chili only 

 $435,584 worth of goods, specie, and bullion, 

 and exported thither $2,837,551 worth of do- 

 mestic goods and $22,945 foreign ditto. This 

 shows an extraordinary increase of domestic 

 exportation from the United States to that 

 country in a single twelvemonth. 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1882, 

 the United States imported from Chili 67,018,- 

 386 pounds of nitrate of soda, and 2,534,219 

 pounds of wool, and exported thither of do- 

 mestic goods 5,259,858 yards of cotton goods ; 

 $304,335 worth of machinery and hardware ; 

 1,188,700 gallons of petroleum; 567,560 pounds 

 of lard ; 373,585 pounds of refined sugar, and 

 $263,687 worth of lumber and wooden-ware, 

 besides numerous other articles. 



Merchant Marine. There were sailing under 



the Chilian flag, in 1883, 131 sea-going vessels, 

 of a total tonnage of 53,070, comprising 27 

 steamers, which aggregated 12,512 tons. 



CHINA, an empire in Asia, officially called 

 Chung Kwoh (" The Middle Kingdom "). The 

 Government is organized on patriarchal prin- 

 ciples laid down in the books of Confucius and 

 other ancient sacred writings. The supreme 

 power is vested in the Emperor. There are 

 two high advisory bodies which guide the pol- 

 icy of the Emperor. One is the Neko, or In- 

 ner Council, consisting of four members and 

 two assistants, who see that the enactments 

 are in harmony with the laws of the sacred 

 books. Two of the active members and one 

 of the juristic assistants must be chosen from 

 the Manchu, and the other half of the Council 

 from the Chinese race. Under the supervision 

 of the Neko are the six boards of government, 

 which have charge respectively of the civil ser- 

 vice, finance, ceremonies, the army, justice, and 

 public works. The practical direction of affairs 

 has passed into the charge of a body called the 

 Council of State (Chun-chi-chu), which is free 

 from the rigid constitution and procedure of 

 the Neko. The same men are often found in 

 both councils, and also serving in some of the 

 six ministries or other high charges of state. 

 Besides the six ministries, there is a board of 

 censors, whose duty it is to investigate all the 

 departments of state and review the acts of 

 government; a ministry for the administra- 

 tion of the dependent states; the military 

 administration of Peking, which also superin- 

 tends the police service ; and an office for the 

 administration of foreign affairs. The eighteen 

 provinces have each a governor, who in the 

 case of most of them is subordinated to a gov- 

 ernor-general placed over two or three prov- 

 inces. 



The Emperor is Kwangsu, the ninth ruler of 

 the Tartar dynasty which conquered China in 

 1644. The law of succession prescribes that 

 each Emperor shall appoint his successor from 

 among the sons of the princes of the royal 

 house. Kwangsu was not regularly appointed, 

 the late Emperor having died suddenly, but 

 was by the management of the Empress dow- 

 ager and his father, Prince Rung, proclaimed 

 Emperor, Jan. 22, 1875, in the fourth year of 

 his age. 



The members of the Council of State are 

 Prince Kung, Pao Yun, Li-hung-tsao, Ching- 

 lien, and Weng-tung-ho. The Prince Kung is 

 president of the ministry for foreign affairs. 



Area and Population. The total area of the 

 eighteen provinces is 1,534,953 square miles, 

 and the total population, as given in the latest 

 official returns. 362,447,183; being 236 per 

 square mile. The density of population in the 

 province of Kiangsu is as great as 850 per 

 square mile; in Anhwei, 705; in Chekiang, 

 671 ; in Pecheli, the capital province, 475 ; in 

 Shantung, 444. The least thickly inhabited 

 provinces are Szechuen, with 128 inhabitants 

 per square mile, Kwangsi with 93, Kwei- 



