08 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



for working, fixed the price of the metal annually and strictly 

 supervised the industry generally. 



In the report of De Lagree's mission there is a detailed transla- 

 tion of an important Chinese work known as Tien Nan Kouang 

 Tchang Ton Lio. It is really an encyclopedic account of Chinese mining 

 and metallurgical methods, but is chiefly interesting in that it 

 gives a complete list of all the mines working at the time it was 

 written, and full particulars of the official regulations which at a 

 later date exercised no small part in killing the mining industry 

 of the province. The work was written about 1850 by Ou Ki-tche, 

 Viceroy of Yunnan and Ilu Kin-sen prefect of Tung-ch'uan Fu, 

 perhaps the most important copper-producing district in Yunnan. 

 In the list there are thirty-five important copper mines enumerated 

 as well as many smaller ones. They are classified geograpliically 

 amongst thirteen prefectures of the province and figures are given 

 showing the quantities of copper each mine was compelled to supply 

 free to the Government. From it we learn that 10 per cent, of 

 the metallic copper produced was demanded for this imperial 

 tribute. The local officials were held responsible for its collection 

 and had to make good any shortage from the amounts assessed 

 by the Imperial Bureau of Mines. Another 4 per cent, was taken 

 for provincial purposes, and a third tax of 10 per cent, was levied 

 to meet transport costs and repairs to roads. No less than 24 per 

 cent, of the total copper production was thus requisitioned by the 

 Government. 



This monumental Chinese treatise became obsolete many years 

 ago, owing to the exhaustion of some deposits and the general 

 abandonment of mining during the great rebellion. On its 

 authority, about the year 1850 the contributions of metallic copper for 

 imperial and provincial purposes amounted to 6,000 tons. Too 

 great a reliance should not be placed on Chinese statistics of this 

 sort, but it can be asserted safely that copper mining was a most 

 important industry in Yunnan about the middle of the 18th century. 



The Mahomedan rebellion commenced about 1854 and was 

 not quelled until 1873. In the general devastation of the country 

 during these years the mining industry suffered a check from which 

 it has not yet recovered. 



The French metallurgist, Rocher, who at a later period became 

 an official in the Imperial Chinese Customs Service, arrived 

 in Yunnan in February 1871 and left it again in November 1873. 



