84 NAMES AND NICKNAMES OF THE 



The Li Chia Chang simply meant the enclosure of the 

 Li family, but as is customary in such areas there were many 

 part owners. Curiously enough this name is occasionally 

 found as if covering the whole settlement, which is now and 

 then referred to as the Li 1 Chia Chang, a part standing for 

 the whole. Similarly in early years we find the settlement 

 area known as "the Yangkingpang Ground," and even as the 

 'Yangkingpang. " Sometimes it was called "New Shang- 

 hai," the "Foreign Quarter," the "English Ground," the 

 "British Limits," and so on. More fully it was "the site 

 set apart for the residence of British merchants." Our 

 Consuls in their annual reports, however, always spoke of 

 their returns as covering those of "the port of Shanghai." 

 There has been considerable discussion as to what constitutes 

 that portion of the "port of Shanghai ".which is made up of solid 

 soil, but there was never any doubt as to the extent of the 

 port afloat. That extended from the Yangkingpang to the 

 mouth of the river at Woosung. 



All these varieties of nomenclature point to the fact 

 that there had not in the earliest years been found a name 

 wiiich everybody accepted. The first official use of the 

 word "Settlement" which I know of, is found in a despatch 

 dated the 14th June, 1847, when the port had been opened 

 almost three years. It is easy to surmise why our original 

 residents fought shy of the term "settlement." It was not 

 a word of high historic fame. Bather the reverse. Sir 

 Walter Baleigh and others had founded settlements in 

 America which had come to utter grief, and then there was 

 that terrible adjective "penal" which so frequently ushered 

 in the word "settlements." Furthermore out of the various 

 meanings which the word "settlement" bears, the last that 

 would have occurred to our British and American pioneers 

 here was the one which refers to "taking up one's permanent 

 abode in a place." Nothing was further from their thought 

 or their desire than that. They were here to make their 

 fortunes and go home — the sooner the better. Only by 

 remembering this fact is it possible to forgive our first 

 residents for their shortsightedness. Had they but foreseen, 

 as the Americans foresaw when they laid out Washington, 

 the future greatness of the place, had they but imagined it 

 the hub of trade and industry it is now, they would, doubt- 

 less, have acted in a very different manner. 



But, of course, our own ideas of what a settlement 

 means have greatly expanded since 1847. We go from the 

 simple to the complex, from the homogeneous to the hetero- 

 geneous, and so it is that in these days we find it necessary 

 to classify settlements. Including concessions, there are 



