196 report — 1859. 



On the Yang-tse-hiang, and its future Commerce. 

 By Captain Sherard Osborne, JR.N., B.C., F.R.G.S. 



The stand-point Captain Osborne wished his audience to take was in the province 

 of Hon-Peh, the central one of China, where a stream from the north-west of about 

 the volume of the Thames joins li the Great River"— Yang-tse-Kiang. They had 

 to deal with eight of the eighteen provinces. Rich in all the products for which 

 China is remarkable, and for which western nations insist upon a trade with her, 

 this zone, whence come all our silks, and nearly all our teas, was for 200 years only 

 reached by an overland commerce from Canton. In 1843, the establishment of trade 

 at Shanghai, on the eastern sea-board of this great central zone, without hardly affect- 

 ing the overland trade to Canton, proved incontestably the surpassing richness in pro- 

 ducts of the provinces of Central China, and the great demand there was for European 

 merchants there, if not as sellers, at any rate as buyers. The Great River, a sealed 

 route until 1858, lies opposite the great city of Hankow. On the western bank is 

 Han Yang, also a large city ; whilst facing them both, on the south side of the Great 

 River, extends another huge walled city — Woo-Chang-Foo. All three have lately 

 been subjected to a visitation from the Tai-pings or rebels. The latter, the residence 

 of the Viceroy of the two Hu's (Human and Hupeh), a region somewhat larger than 

 France, though far more rich and populous, was all but in ruins when Lord Elgin's 

 squadron visited it. Hankow, however, like all natural commercial emporiums, had 

 evidently revived directly the fires of the Tai-ping incendiaries were quenched ; houses, 

 all new, covering, as far as they were able to judge, the entire site of the old town. 

 All the three cities, which stand in one immense plain, with here and there a hill 

 rising out of it, like islands out of the sea, were felicitously described with great 

 minuteness. The river, it was stated, was in no place less than half a mile wide, and 

 the waters still range at the low season from 60 to 42 feet in depth. From this point, 

 600 miles from the sea, the distance to the source of the river is 2500 miles. 

 The difficulty of obtaining any information from the Chinese was extreme. 

 A missionary reported that in the far west provinces, 1200 miles from the sea, he 

 reached the Great River, and found it a mile and half broad, and Captain Osborne 

 thinks there is every reason to believe that it is navigable by native vessels, between 

 Wester Sochow and the great emporium of trade, at the point of which this missionary 

 spoke — Tchoun-King, and that many other rivers running into it are navigable. 

 There are rapids or falls, however, about 160 miles above Hankow, which, unless it 

 13 found that they can be surmounted by the aid of steam power, will be the furthest 

 point which vessels can reach, and will divide the river into the upper and lower 

 valley. With a flatter description of vessels, however, Captain Osborne is confident 

 the river will be found to be navigable even beyond this barrier. 



The traders' junks, with which they come from all parts of this great empire to 

 Hankow market, find a refuge in the mouth of the river Han. Iron is found in Han- 

 kow in great quantity, wrought and unwrought, the best quality, quite as good as 

 Swedish, coming from the province of Hunan, and costing about £14, while the 

 cheapest is sold at £5. It was also smelted with coals, which, from the southern 

 provinces of Hunan, can be purchased out of vessels afloat, at £2 5s. to £2 15*. per 

 ton. Tea, silk, wax, tobacco, and Chinese grass were to be bought to any extent — 

 the teas from the western provinces. Captain Osborne showed some of the teas to 

 merchants at Shanghai, who declared they were very valuable, but unknown to them 

 even there in trade. The Chinese grass makes clothing, sails, or ropes, and is in great 

 demand for all the purposes to which hemp and flax are applied in Europe. It sold 

 in Hankow for 25s. a cwt., and at Ningpo for 55s., a pretty good profit for a distance of 

 600 miles of carriage by ship, plainly showing that, when once the English get steam 

 set fairly a-going upon the Chinese rivers, they will be able to cheapen even their own 

 articles to them. There were stores full of native manufactured cottons, as well as 

 English ones, the different prices of which, and of silks, linens, and many other articles. 

 Captain Osborne presented in a tabular form for the information of those specially 

 interested in the subject, and from which it appeared that cotton has every likelihood 

 of being the chief article which could be imported with advantage direct from Europe. 

 Everywhere in Hankow there is a throb of commerce. It seems like what Shanghai 

 was before European merchants resided there, and that it only requires their presence 



