30 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAtf . 



A comparison of the two tables suggests that, contrary to the 

 statement quoted above, a considerable volume of trade passes 

 in both directions without coming through the Teng-yiieh Customs 

 House. There are several trade registration offices in the Bhamo 

 district which not only collect returns of the Western Chinese trade 

 but also that of certain parts of the Northern Shan States as well. 

 There are also routes leading across the frontier into Yunnan radiat- 

 ing from the nodal points of Bhamo and Myitkyina which do not 

 touch Teng-yiieh at all. Again, even if these are left out of consi- 

 deration and only the trade returns taken into account which 

 have been registered at stations on routes known to lead to Teng- 

 yiieh, it is impossible to correlate with any approach to equality 

 the figures of the Burma returns with those of the Chinese Customs 

 in Teng-yiieh, because certain amounts of trade, especially exports 

 of manufactured goods from Burma, are absorbed in the intervening 

 country, that is in the Kachin Hills and the Chinese Shan States. 

 After a careful analysis of the Burma returns I am reluctantly 

 forced to conclude that it is impossible to separate accurately the 

 through trade, between Bhamo and Teng-yiieh from them, just 

 as it is also impossible to estimate from the same publications the 

 value of the trade between the Southern Shan States and Ssu-mao. 

 In any consideration of this important question one is compelled 

 to use the Chinese figures and it is fortunate that such reliable 

 statistics are available for study. 



The more interesting features shown by both tables are the low 

 trade values for the two years 1909 and 1911. 1909 marked the 

 minimum point of the decade. In that year the cultivation of the 

 poppy had ceased for all practical purposes and the Yunnan 

 populace had not adapted itself to the new conditions. About the 

 same time an outbreak of plague in Bhamo interfered considerably 

 with the overland traffic. In 191 1 . the Chinese Government of 

 the day was overthrown and the general insecurity of life and 

 property caused by the revolution is held to account for the fall 

 in trade values, helped locally by a boycott of British goods in 

 Yunnan Fu and by the collapse of the Salween bridge on the main 

 artery of trade between Teng-yiieh and Ta-li Fu. The rise in 

 the total trade values in 1912-13 is a reflection of the more settled 

 state of the province and the return of confidence amongst its traders. 



Perhaps the most important point brought out by an investi- 

 gation of these figures is that the railway which put Yunnan Fu 



