378 



PRICE OF RAW SILK. 



Chap. XVIII. 



visiting that country now could scarcely have be- 

 lieved that such a busy bustling scene had been 

 acting only a few days before. 



During my perigrinations in the silk country I 

 made many inquiries amongst the natives as to 

 the price of raw silk in the districts where it is 

 produced. An inquiry of this kind is always 

 rather difficult in a country like China, where 

 the natives are too practical to believe one is 

 making such an inquiry merely for the purpose 

 of gaining information. On several occasions 

 the reply to my question was another, wishing to 

 know whether I wanted to buy. Most of the 

 natives with whom I came in contact firmly be- 

 lieved my object in coming to the silk-country 

 was to purchase silks ; and neither my assurances 

 to the contrary nor those of my servants, who 

 were generally appealed to on the subject, were 

 sufficient to make them change their opinion. I 

 believe, however, the information I gleaned from 

 various quarters at diiferent times will be found 

 to be tolerably correct. At Mei-che the price 

 was said to range from twelve to eighteen dollars 

 for 100 taels of silk. At Hoo-chow and Nan- 

 tsin, where the silk is of a superior quality, the 

 prices in 1855 were from eighteen to twenty-two 

 dollars for 100 taels. The price of raw silk, like 

 that of everything else, no doubt depends in a 

 great measure upon the supply and demand, and 

 varies accordingly. 



