96 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



Future of the Iron Industry in Yunnan. 



The later French writers do not consider that there is any scope 

 for the treatment of iron ores in Yunnan by modern methods. 

 Leclere does not think that the deposits can ever contribute much 

 to the mineral wealth of the province and believes that future 

 demands will be met by the opening up of the vast deposits in the 

 older rocks of Tongking. He mentions that the price of metallic 

 iron reduced by wood charcoal was about 250 francs per metric 

 ton and that it was employed in the arsenal at Yunnan Fu for the 

 manufacture of guns and cannon. During the time he spent in 

 the province, he noticed how the least fragments of the metal were 

 collected and sold. He recalls the sale of nails extracted from 

 European packing cases, and the surreptitious substitution of (he 

 telegraph wires by cotton threads. But these instances seem to 

 me to be due rather to the intense frugality of the Yunnanese 

 peasantry, and to their quick appreciation of a new and better 

 article than their own, rather than indications of any general short- 

 age of iron. (Lc., p. 470). 



The prices quoted by Lantenois are much the same, when 

 allowance is made for the heavy transport charges from the mines 

 to the cities. This writer is very emphatic in advising against the 

 attempted creation of a modern iron industry in Yunnan, as he 

 believes that it is bound to result in complete failure from the very 

 commencement. His reasons are based on the complexity and the 

 immense difficulties peculiar to China which may be summed up in 

 his own words, " la mauvaise volonte incoercible des mandarins et 

 de la population." 



Again, he argues that the cost of local production cannot in any 

 case be less than that of the great European works, and that the cost 

 of transport from Yumian Fu to Haiphong for example, would 

 be much the same as the ocean freight from Europe to Indo-China 

 or Japan. The consumption of iron in Yunnan and also in Tong- 

 king is small, and, as a consequence, iron manufactured in Yunnan 

 can never, or perhaps it would be better to say, cannot before a 

 very long time, compete with European material either in Tong- 

 king or more distant markets like Hong-kong, Singapore, etc. 

 Lantenois concludes that an enterprise of this kind has no possible 

 chance of success, either in the near or distant future. (La., pp. 

 420-421). 



Deprat in 1912 agreed with the views of his colleague. (D., p. 246). 



