CHINA. 



127 



native merchants and capitalists, to invest in 

 enterprises carried on by foreign companies. 

 Companies were started with native capital, 

 under purely native management, for the work- 

 ing of coal, copper, and other mines. The 

 numerous projects started in this speculative 

 period include also gold and silver mining, and 

 paper, glass, and cotton manufactories. Chi- 

 nese capital was invested even in remote en- 

 terprises carried on by foreigners in Perak, 

 North Borneo, Selangor, and Colorado, and 

 much of it was consequently lost. 



Navigation. The movement of shipping in 

 Chinese ports is shown in the following table, 

 which gives the number and tonnage of the 

 vessels arriving and of those sailing under each 

 flag, added together : 



Of the total number of ships entered and 

 cleared in 1882, 19,607, of an aggregate ton- 

 nage of 16,102,574, were steamers, against 

 18,170, of 15,350,954 tons, in 1881. 



Communications. The only railroad in 1882 

 was one eight miles long, running to the Kai- 

 ping coal-mines. Besides short local lines, there 

 was completed in 1881 a telegraph line from 

 Tientsin to Shanghai, 950 miles. A line from 

 Shanghai to Canton was under construction in 

 1883. 



Finance. The accounts of the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment are not made public. The approxi- 

 mate yield of the various sources of revenue 

 is estimated as follows: 



SOURCES OF REVENUE. Taels. 



Land-tax ' 18,000,000 



Land-tax paid in kind 18,100,000 



Likin (new impost on merchandise) 20,000,000 



Customs under Administration of Progress ...... 12,000,000 



Customs under native administration 8,000,000 



Salt 5,000,000 



Sale of titles of rink 7,000,000 



Other sources 1,400,000 



Total 79,500,000 



In 1882 the European custom-house admin- 

 istration collected import duties to the amount 

 of 4,684,007 taels; export duties, 8,068,435 

 taels; pilotage, 740,078 taels; tonnage dues, 

 279,799 taels ; transit toll, 313,353 taels total, 

 14,085,672 taels. 



The Chinese Government raised a foreign 

 loan of 13,500,000 taels in 1874. Of this 7,- 

 000,000 taels have been repaid. There are 

 domestic debts amounting to 30.000,000 taels. 



Army and Navy. The army has been divided 

 since the Manchu conquest into the Banner 

 army and the Green Flag militia. The for- 

 mer, recruited from an hereditary military class, 



and constituting the garrison with which the 

 Tartar conquerors long held the country in 

 unwilling subjugation, is the most efficient 

 branch, and may be considered as the regular 

 army of China. Much attention has been paid 

 in recent years to the improvement of its 

 organization, training, and equipment. First 

 American and French, and subsequently Brit- 

 ish military men, have been its instructors in 

 tactics. The Bannermen are divided into three 

 branches, one recruited from the descendants 

 of the Manchu army, one from their Mongol 

 and one from their Chinese allies who helped 

 conquer China. The Manchus are the most 

 numerous, and are the subjects of the greatest 

 care, as the majority of the officers and of the 

 Board of War belong to this race. Their effi- 

 cient force is 67,800 men, that of the Chinese 

 or Hankiun Bannermen 27,000, and that of 

 the Mongols, 21,100 making altogether 115,- 

 900 men. Of these, about one half are sta- 

 tioned in the Pecheli province, and the rest 

 distributed through the empire to form the 

 Tartar garrisons in the chief cities. The war 

 strength of the Banner army can be largely 

 augmented, since there were five times the 

 present numbers on the rolls thirty years ago. 

 The Chinese Government has further fighting 

 material at its disposal in the frontier tribes 

 and the Mongols of Mongolia, who alone can 

 be levied on for 200,000 men, one third of 

 them mounted. The national militia, or Green 

 Flag troops, have formerly been discouraged 

 by the military caste, and are still kept in a 

 state of military inefficiency through the not 

 groundless fears of the Peking Government of 

 the danger of the dynasty from a powerful 

 national army. For many years Li Hung 

 Chang has devoted great -pains to the training 

 of the Tartar force in the capital province by 

 European tacticians. About 70, 000 troops h a ve 

 thus been made capable of rapid military move- 

 ments. The number of troops in the empire 

 who are trained in the European way, and 

 armed with modern weapons, is between 100,- 

 000 and 200,000. The forts which guard the 

 approaches to the capital are defended by a 

 large number of Krupp and Armstrong guns. 



The Chinese Government some time ago ac- 

 quired several European naval vessels, and has 

 recently been at great expense to secure others 

 of a more perfect type, which are being con- 

 structed at Kiel. In 1880 the fleet contained 

 two frigates, a corvette, and 47 gunboats, with 

 transports and smaller craft the total arma- 

 ment consisting of 283 guns. 



Political Situation. The diplomatic dispute 

 with France regarding the suzerainty of China 

 over Annam absorbed the attention of the rul- 

 ing powers in China in 1883 (see TONQTJIN). 

 Li Hung Chang, the liberal minister, who has 

 had much to do with guiding the foreign policy 

 of China for several years past, was recalled 

 by the Empress Regent from the three years' 

 seclusion into which he had just entered to 

 mourn the loss of his mother, according to the 



