xMay 2, 1898.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 77 1 
“THE WOMDEHS OF THE YANG-TSE 
VALLEY; ” 
“KICE FOR THE WORLD;” AND THE 
“HISTORIC TEA COUNTRY.” 
Mr. Alfred Kinnear has supplied to the Loudon 
Daily Chronicle a very striking account of tiie 
region bordering on the navigable portion of 
China’ .s central and grande.st river— a region, 
moreover, whicli will now be rapidly exploited 
by British merchants and capitalists ; as it is 
bound year by year to come, more and more, 
under British ’ in'tluence. The prospect _ is one 
that concerns the tea planter.s of India and 
Ceylon very nearly ; but it is also one that 
opens up the bare possibility of a connection 
between China and this Colony, leaving'_ India 
out of view, which, without being sanguine as 
to its fulfilment, is at least worthy of consider- 
ation. The two great difficulties in the way 
of Ceylon adopting a silver currency of its own 
have always been,— how are we to pay for our 
Indian rice and our Indian coolies? Nothing, 
it is always said, but the currency of India would 
suffice for these two indispensable elements of 
the Ceylon Planter’s existence, as matteis stand 
at present. But how if we got our rice from 
the valley of the Yang-tsc— which is capa- 
ble of supplying the needs of the whole world 
with this staple— and paid for the same in 
the Ceylon doliar to be coined of the same value 
as the dollar current in China— in other words 
an honest .silver dollar ? It is of course a 
question which only time and practical 
experiments could answer, as to whetlier 
rice could be laid dosvn as cheaply at Co- 
lombo by steamers ft-om the “ Yangste ” as from 
the Hoogly, although surely “ exchange” for 
India, would give the former a certain advan- 
tage ? As to labour, the difficulty is greater. We 
gather that new regions are now likely to be tapped 
with millions of hardworking Chinamen, many of 
whom would come to Ceylon or elsewhere 
for much less wages than the Coast Cliina- 
men have hitherto demanded. But we doubt 
whether, under the most favourable circum- 
stances and with more and better work, 
the Chinaman would ever be so cheap as the 
Tamil cooly ; while there would always bo the 
difficulty of diverse races and how the pre.sence 
of Chinese would ali'ect our Sinhale.se as well as 
Tamils. True, in the Straits Settlements, the 
“ Klings” (Tamils) and Chinese seem to get 
on fairly well together, and we are anticipating 
that frqm the Yangste Valley, a quieter and 
more agricultural class of yellow labour- 
ers is likely to be available as emigrants. 
Be that as it' may and remembering how, year 
by year, more and more of our Tamil immi- 
niigrants seem to settle in Ceylon— 15 to 20 per- 
cent perhajis — would it be impossible to have the 
dollar and face the “exchange” question with 
“Ramasamy” so long as he had lus rice duly sup- 
plied as at present ? In other words when the 
time came for coolies to return to their country all 
that would have to be done would be to ex- 
change their dollar-balance of wages for Indian 
rupees. Even now it is pressed urgently on 
planters to get their departing coolies to allow 
their money be remitted by postal order in place 
of risking tlie carrying of silver in their cloths. 
The Post Office then would have no more diffi- 
culty in granting orders in “ Indian rupees ” 
for the ecpiivalent of “Ceylon dollars,” than for- 
issuing sterling orders in exchange for our cur- 
veut rupees. 
But leaving aside these questions of Currency, 
Rice and Labour Supply, there is another matter of 
unquestionable importance to our planters, aris- 
ing out of the opening of the valley and border- 
lands of the Yang-tse ; for, these include the his- 
toric tea region of China, and with the progress 
already made on the Co.ist in establishing fac- 
tories and securing machine-made teas, it is only 
reasonable to anticipate changes and improve- 
ments of special signilicance in the tea districts 
leading out from Hankow, as these come under 
the influence of British merchants, agents and 
possibly, of Briti.sh tea planters working with an 
honest silver dollar at an advantage of 60 or 
more i)cr cent over their brethren in India and (if 
it so be) in Ceylon. In proof of the importance 
of the advance and change that are fast approach- 
ing, we proceed to quote from Mr. Alfred Kinnear’s 
paper, the portions which boar expre.ssly_ on the 
fortunes of our planters in respect of their staple 
pioduct, their rice, and labour supply. Mr. 
Finn ear writes ; — 
In the scramble for China Britain’s place in the in- 
terests of herself and oi the world is in the Yang-tse 
Valley. Even as it is, we dominate the most magni- 
ficent, most virile territory in the world. There, ia 
nothing to be c mipared with it, not even upon the 
banks of the great rivers of America. It is a territory 
of illimitable possibilities, for it constitutes all that is 
best worth having in China. It is the richest in the 
empire, and with its undeveloped opportunities the 
richest in the world. It is the tea-garden of the his- 
toric tea country. It is the birthplace of the discovery 
of silk. It cuts China in half, and it is a belt magni- 
ficent to the eye and jewelled with the brightest gems 
of commerce. 
For 3,000 miles down to Shanghai, flowing between 
opulent valleys, the Yang-tse Kiang is nature’s ready 
carrier for the produce of 700,000 square miles of the 
most wonderful soil in the world. There are points 
at which it expands into an inland sea, so that the 
traveller standing upon the deck of one of the many 
fine English liner.s that connect Shanghai and Han- 
kow may look in vain for the banks that hedge this 
colossal artery. Then there are turns which suddenly 
switch the voyager into a defile of steep and rugged 
rocks, quaintly jagged, as with stony arms they 
would shake hands one frowning crag with another 
over the dark waters below. 
The towns are numerous, and some of them are from 
a trading as well as a European point of view places 
of importance. Bnt between them there are long 
tracts of open and wooded country glorious in its 
wealth of uncultivated vegetation, which only awaits 
reclamation by the pioneer. It might be made to grow 
RICE FOR THE WORLD. 
It grows wattles only. Wealth is a crime in China, 
and to conceal its possession is a virtue. The owner 
of the soil cultivates wattles because to cultivate rice 
would bring him under the suspicion of the Taotoi, and 
subject himself to the “squeeze” of the tax gatherer. 
So he remains poor that he may remain untaxed. 
That is political economy as “ she is taught’’ in China. 
While at Tientsin I was carried by an eminent Euro- 
pean resident into a native street, and was presented 
to a dismal individual in a squalid home, reeking ia 
filth. My friend informed ms later that I had been 
witn a subject of the Emperor who might put down 
sovereign for sovereign with Lord Rothschild. Ha 
simulated poverty to escape the Taotoi, who as it 
was taxed him and squeezed him on suspicion up to the 
income of an English Cha;\cellor of tne Exchequer. 
It is the fear of taxation that depresses native enter- 
price in Ghi-ua and keeps the valley of the Yang-tse for 
the -greater part a glorious wilderness. 
Vast quantities of game, wild geese, wild duck, 
snipe, and pheasant and deer abound about Chinkiang. 
The scenery almost throughout tho entire length of 
the Yang-tse Valley, which for -practical purposes 
begins at Shanghai and extends to Tehang is curiously 
English in tone. It is infinitely more English thaa 
