SALT. 



J?;) 



be increased, and lie further asked me where favourable places 

 might be found in which to commence new drifts and wells. The 

 well is a large one, situated in the middle of the village with 

 its storage tanks close at hand ; it is deep and is worked in the 

 usual manner. The output of brine appeared to me to be greater 

 than at some of the other places, but it does not contain so large 

 a percentage of soluble sodium chloride, which accounts for the 

 fact that there are over 70 batteries of pans used for boiling down 

 brine in Tien-erh-ching. The monthly production of salt is said to 

 be about 40,000 catties. The organization differs little from 

 that of the Ta-ching well and the prices paid are the same, viz., 

 buying price from the maker, Tls. '9 per 100 catties. The 

 licenses for all the wells in this valley are the same as the Shih- 

 men-ching one, i.e., Tls. 64 per mensem. 



In every part of the province of Yunnan the supply of salt 

 Future developments is nard ly equal to the demand of the popula- 



of the Yiin-lung Chou tion for it. The area under description is no 

 salt-field. ,. j, . , . _ , r 



exception to this rule although the consump- 

 tion per individual is probably reduced to a very low limit. The 

 cost of native salt in districts far removed from the centres of 

 production is so prohibitive that the article is a luxury to be 

 purchased occasionally only by the poor, and forms to this day one 

 of the principal media of exchange between the Chinese and 

 the indigenous tribes who surround them. Illicit salt manufac- 

 ture is an offence nominally punishable with the extreme penalty 

 of the law, and it is only by dealing with the law-breakers in a 

 severe manner that the Government monopoly can be strictly 

 maintained. The quality of the salt supplied is of the very poorest 

 grade, and cannot be in any way compared with the material 

 to which Europeans are accustomed. Injurious salts and insoluble 

 matters must be present in most specimens, for no attempts at 

 refining are ever made. The excessive cost of salt in Yunnan 

 is due partly to the heavy taxation which it has to bear in every 

 stage of its manufacture and partly also to the great cost of trans- 

 portation by mule caravan and porters over rough tracks in an 

 exceedingly mountainous country. Railways running through 

 Yunnan- will certainly capture much of the salt traffic and do away 

 with the latter evil to a great extent. A railway from JShamo or 

 Teng-yiieh to Ta-li Pa would cross the route of the salt caravan 

 from Yiin-lung Chou near Yung-ping Hsien, and would at once 



