HQ.
191.0





THE TRADE AND
ADMINISTRATION OF
CHINA
HOSEA BALLOU MORSE, ll.d.
SOMETIME COMMIUIOKER OP CUSTOMS
AND STATISTICAL SECRETARY, INSPECTORATE GENERAL OP CUSTOM!
AUTHOR OP "THE CILDS OP CHINA"
"THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OP THE CHINESE EMPIRE" ETC
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, MAP AND DIAGRAMS
THIRD REVISED EDITION
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
I920
[Right of translation restrvtd


First Edition
Second Edition
Third Edition


DEDICATION
[1907]
THIRTY-THREE YEARS AGO FOUR YOUNG
MEN CAME TO CHINA DIRECT FROM THE
HALLS OF FAIR HARVARD. TO THE OTHER
THREE THE FOURTH DEDICATES THIS
WORK






us 70
PREFACE
This book is intended to portray the present state of the
Chinese Empire, with such record of the past as will show
by what process of evolution the existing state has been
reached. No attempt is made to forecast the future, or
even to refer to the revolution which, under the name of
Reform, has been begun. The development of many
centuries is to be recast, and within a year or a generation,
according as the pace is forced or not, it will assume an
unaccustomed garb; and the China of that future day,
near or distant, will not be the China of to-day. Whether
this revolution will follow the precedent of the English
Revolution or of the French, whether it will proceed by
logical development from step to step, or will rush on a
headlong course, will depend upon the wisdom and self-
restraint of the leaders in the government, and in the last
resort upon the nature of that public opinion which will be
created in the Chinese people. But, just as the history of
the England of the Georges cannot be well understood
without some knowledge of the Stuart period, and as an
acquaintance with the France of the Kingdom and the
Empire is necessary to a comprehension of the France of
the Third Republic, so also, to understand the China which
the student of the future will know, he must be able to study
its past. The China of to-day is, with minor differences,
the China of the past; and in this book it is hoped that the
future student will find, within the limits of the dozen
subjects treated, a succinct account of the foundation on
which the China of the future will be erected.
vii


PREFACE
I have written also for the reader of to-day. I can add
little to the knowledge of the sinologue; but the great
majority of the men of Western countries living in China
know little of the people among whom their lives are spent,
or of the Empire within whose borders they pursue their
avocations. Much interest, too, has been aroused of late
in the home lands in the study of Chinese affairs, and we
have seen members of Parliament and of Congress mani-
festing an intelligent interest and some adequacy of know-
ledge in matters connected with the Orient. All those
classes will, I hope, find in these pages some information
on subjects on which they may seek knowledge.
Excuses must be made to American readers for giving
the equivalence of Chinese currency values in English
currency only. The statements of value go back over half
a century, and readers must remember the state of the
American currency from 1861 to 1879.
To the number of works on China I venture to add this
one, and to commit it to the kindly attention of the reading
public, in the hope that in its pages they will find information
not readily accessible in other works.
H. B. M.
Shanghai,
December 1907.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The revolution has come, but it is yet too soon to declare
if it will be destructive or constructive. China, however,
remains unchanged, and a knowledge of the China of the
past is as necessary as ever to an understanding of the
China of the future. In this belief this second edition is
prepared for a public which has given a kindly reception to
its predecessor.
H. B. M.
G UK ten. Lake of Thus
October 1912,


PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
The continued demand for this work confirms me in my
belief that a knowledge of the China of the past, on which
is to be modelled the China of the future, is considered
desirable by those who are interested in the country.
While the volume was being revised, and as it goes to
press, China is everywhere in a disturbed state, divided
against itself, with a weak government dominated by a
lawless soldiery; at the same time the world is distracted
to such an extent that none but well-organised and well-
administered nations can hope to win through. And yet the
Chinese have shown in their three thousand years of history
that there is a vitality in the people which enables them to
emerge from troubles as great, even, as those which now
threaten themselves and the whole world. A true friend
of China, Sir Robert Hart, once wrote:—
"The country will stagger onwards through all sorts of
mistakes, but it will be an advance always, and, provided
wisdom increases with strength, I don't think the latter will
be misused more than, or even as much as, is the case
elsewhere."
That the wisdom which gives strength may increase, and
that the strength which wisdom gives may be used for good,
is the fervent wish of every true friend of China.
The oldest surviving nation in the world is, in some
respects, the youngest. While in past centuries the West
has learned much from the East, now, in this twentieth
century of unrest and progress, of democracy and strong
government, the East must learn of the West. In this task
of instructing the East in the principles of modern thought
iz


X
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
and the methods of modern science, the United States of
America have taken a leading part, worthy of all praise.
If England and France could do as much, not even the
time-honoured conservatism of China could resist the-united
impulse given by the three great democracies of the West;
and the whole world would be the gainer.
H. B. M.
Camberley,
April 1920.


CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY ... I
II. THE GOVERNMENT: IMPERIAL CHINA . . 32
III. THE GOVERNMENT: REPUBLICAN CHINA . 67
f IV. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE . ... 92
X V. THE CURRENCY I36
VI. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES .... I90
VII. EXTRATERRITORIALITY .... 195
VIII. THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS . 225
IX. FOREIGN TRADE 297
X. INTERNAL TRADE 330
XI. OPIUM 350
XII. THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS . . . 385
XIII. THE POST OFFICE 411
XIV. RAILWAYS 431
APPENDICES 449
index 495





ILLUSTRATIONS
fac1kq page
Diagram illustrating Provincial Administration ... 54
Illustration, Sword Cash 136
„ Early Cash 138
„ Later Cash ....... 140
„ Token Coins ....... 144
„ Ming Government Note ..... 160
,, Shanghai Shoe of Sycee ..... 167
Diagram illustrating Foreign Trade, 1864-1911 . . . 297
Illustration, The West River at Lungchow. . . .33*
„ Monumental Arch at Wusih on Grand Canal . 340
„ Pagoda at Wusih on Grand Canal . . . 340
„ Bridge over Grand Canal at Wusih . . 341
„ Grand Canal passing through Wusih . . 341
„ Types or Bridges on and near Grand Canal . 342
„ Shanghai Custom House, 1854-1893 . . .385
„ Shanghai Custom House, 1894 .... 400
xiii





NOTE
Currency.—In the following pages the value of com-
modities is expressed in taels of silver as accepted at the
Custom House. The gold exchange value of these Haikwan
or Customs taels (symbol Tls.) has been as follows:
In 1864
.. 80 pence English currency (6s. 8d.)
1874
76 »
99
(6s. 4d.)
„ 1884
• • 67 „
99
„ (5s. 7d.)
1894
• • 38 „
99
(3s. 2d.)
„ 1904
• • 34 »
99
„ (2S. 1od.)
„ 1911
.. 32 ,.
99
„ (2s. 8d.)
„ 1918
63 „
91
(5s. 3d.)
In the first months of 1920 it rose to 106 pence
(8s. 1od.) in English currency, which was then depreciated
about 30 per cent.
Weight.—Weights are expressed in piculs, catties, and
taels.
One picul = 133J lb. av. = 60-453 kilogrammes.
J1^cwt. English.
[1j cwt. American.
16.8 piculs = 1 long ton.
15-0 ,, = 1 short ton.
16'54 ,, = 1 metric ton.
One catty = 1$ lb. av. = 604-53 grammes.
One tael = 1i oz. av. = 583-3 grain3.
= 37783 grammes.
XV





The Trade and Administration
of China
CHAPTER I
SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
The autochthonous peoples of China are still to be found
in the various tribes of Miaotze, Lolo, To, Li, and others
occupying the mountainous districts of the provinces of
Kweichow, Szechwan, Yunnan, Kwangtung, and Kwangsi,
and of the island of Hainan, driven there for refuge by the
conquering Chinese, and preserving their own customs
and habits. They have generally preserved their own tribal
government and given but a nominal submission to the
established government of the country, and, in modern
times, have never been prominent in brigandage or in
rebellion.
The Chinese came into the country at a date which,
in the absence of any positive proof, may be assumed to
have been about B.C. 2500. They first settled with their
flocks in what is now the province of Shensi, west of the
Yellow River, and from there spread to the east and south
of that river. From this region they followed the valleys,
first westward by the valley of the Wei toward Szechwan;
then, crossing the Yangtze, they occupied the basin of
Kiangsi, draining into the Poyang Lake; and later, by the
Tungting Lake and the valley of the Siang, they occupied
1


2 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Hunan and penetrated into the Two Kwang. Their absorp-
tion of the kingdom of Wu, stretching along the sea coast
from the Yangtze south, was accomplished during the Han
dynasty.
The age of the Five Rulers begins with the reign of Fu-
hsi (B.C. 2852), who taught the people to fish with nets, to
rear domestic animals, and to play on musical instruments;
he also regulated the marriage laws and invented hiero-
glyphic writing. His successor was Shen-nung (b.c. 2737),
who taught the people agriculture and herbal medicine.
He was followed by Hwang-ti (B.C. 2697), who devised the
Chinese calendar and introduced the rearing of the silk-
worm. The fourth was the great Yao (B.C. 2356), who
associated with himself in the government Shun and Yii.
These three, whose doings were recorded by Confucius
and Mencius, governed wisely and increased the happiness
of their people; but their chief claim to fame is derived
from their control over great fl00ds which devastated the
country, and from a system of canals by which the land
was drained and reclaimed. Yao handed down the govern-
ment to Shun (B.C. 2255-2205) and he in turn to Yii, by
whom the Hsia dynasty was founded.
The Hsia dynasty lasted from B.C. 2205 to B.C. 1766,
when it was overthrown by a rebellion raised by Tang,
the Prince of Shang, who founded the Shang or Yin dynasty.
This was overthrown in B.C. 1122 by Wu Wang, the Duke
of Chow, who founded the Chow dynasty, which endured
until B.C. 255. Then followed a period of confusion until,
in B.C. 221, the Duke of Tsin established himself on the
throne.
During the Chow dynasty the administration of public
affairs received a high degree of organisation. A currency
was introduced, the token simulacra of swords and spades,
which had formed the medium of exchange, being replaced
by token coins of copper, round and flat, with a hole in the
middle, the earliest of this form being assignable to about
B.C. 660. The government was not yet in name an Empire;


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
3
but the overlord governed through a feudal nobility of
graduated rank (duke, marquis, count, etc.), the members
of which were in command each of an assigned district, as
was the case in the Holy Roman Empire in Europe; and,
as in that Empire in its latter centuries, these feudal nobles
by degrees asserted their semi-independence, giving only a
nominal allegiance to their sovereign.
The Chow dynasty was distinguished by the teaching
of the three great philosophers Laotze, Confucius, and
Mencius, who were, respectively, contemporaries of Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle.
Laotze (the "Old One") was born about B.C. 604, in
the eastern part of what is now Honan. His name records
the tradition that at birth he was already an old man, with
bald head and a beard. His system of philosophy is mystical,
teaching men to live in harmony with "Tao" (Right or
Reason), the great absolute impersonal principle which
is the source of all things and immanent in all things.
Taoism, one of the religious cults of China, claims him as
its founder.
Confucius (Kungfutze) was born B.C. 551 in the dukedom
of Lu, in the south-western part of Shantung. He collected
and edited the writings and historical records of the past,
giving lectures on them to his pupils. A minister of the
Duke of Lu, he left the Court when he failed to persuade
his master to govern according to the practice of the wise
men of old (a Clarendon to a Charles II), and visited Court
after Court of the feudal rulers, seeking in vain for a prince
wise enough to accept his counsels. His philosophy was
collected by his disciples of a later age and has served
as the ethical guide of the Chinese race for over two thou-
sand years. He died in B.C. 479; his lineal descendant
was created an hereditary duke in the Tang dynasty; and
he himself was canonised by Imperial decree in 1906.
Mencius (Mengtze), also a native of the state of Lu,
was born B.C. 372. In some ways he was a more original
thinker than Confucius, whom he called his master; but


J THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OP CHINA
in the eyes of the Chinese race his chief claim to fame comes
from his having collected and annotated the sayings of the
Master, and taught the Master's system of philosophy.
The Tsin dynasty was established B.C. 221 by the Duke
of Tsin, who was the first to adopt the title of Hwangti
or Emperor; it ended soon after the death of its first
Emperor, B.C. 209, but in that short space of twelve years
much was accomplished. The Empire was extended until
it included from the Great Wall on the north to the Yangtze
on the south, and from the Yellow Sea on the east to
Szechwan on the west. The feudal system was abolished
and the government centralised. The currency and the
standards of weight and measure were reformed. During
this reign the Great Wall of China, the marvel of future
ages, was greatly extended. It stretches, through a length
of 1,500 miles, from 980 to 1200 E. longitude, and was de-
signed to protect the Empire from the incursions of the wild
Tartar tribes on the north, who had then begun to be a
menace to the Chinese and who dominated the Empire
during many of the centuries following. The Emperor
entirely reorganised the nation, and, desiring that it should
look forward and not back, he decreed that all books and
records relating to the past should be burnt. In this he
succeeded only in making his name execrated by scholars
in all future ages; but his reforms stood the test of time,
and, in its organisation, China retained his impress for
two thousand years.
The Han dynasty was established B.C. 206 by Liu-pang,
Prince of Han. It carried Chinese arms and civilisation
south of the Yangtze (Kiangsi, Hunan, Kweichow, Kwangsi,
and Kwangtung}, following the lines through the Poyang
and Tungting Lakes; and it also included Kansu in its
dominion, and subjugated the northern part of Korea.
Through Kansu the Chinese thus came, by the trans-Asian
trade routes, into communication with the West. This
period is looked back to as the Golden Age of Chinese history;
and "Sons of Han" is the name given to themselves to


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
5
this day by the Chinese, except the Cantonese, who call
themselves "Sons of Tang." During this period, too,
the incursions of the Tartar tribes became more trouble-
some, the most insistent being the Hiung-nu, to whom
for many years the Han Emperors paid an annual subsidy
of silks, rice, and wine.
The Han dynasty came to an end a.d. 25, and a period
of two centuries of confusion followed. In this were
distinguished the three great traitors of Chinese history,
Wang-mang, Tung-cho, and Tsao-tsao. This was followed
by the romantic and chivalrous period of the "Three
Kingdoms" (a.d. 221-265)—the kingdom of Wei, com-
prising the central and northern parts of the Han Empire;
Wu, bordering the Yangtze and comprising Hunan, Hupeh,
Kiangsi, Anhwei, Kiangsu, and Chekiang ; and Shu, includ-
ing Szechwan and adjacent territory. These kingdoms
waged incessant war with each other; but finally the
kingdom of Wei was victorious and, absorbing the others,
its ruler established the Western Tsin dynasty (a.d. 265-317).
During the whole of this time the country was subject to
the incursions of the Tartars, who seemed to consider the
Great Wall as only an incitement to invasion, and to regard
with scorn the weak pretensions of the " man behind the
wall." Finally the Chinese rulers were driven from their
capital at Kaifeng and pushed south of the Yangtze, the
Tartars holding the country to the north; and in that
southern territory, with the capital at Nanking, there was
a succession of weak and short-lived dynasties—Eastern
Tsin (317-420), Sung (420-479), Tsi (479-502), Liang
(502-557), Chen (557-589) and Sui (589-618)—each throne
set up by a strong commander and lost by his degenerate
successor.
The Tang dynasty (618-907) is another glorious period
of Chinese history. Its founder remodelled his army and
was able to drive back the Tartar invaders, establishing
his capital at Changan in Shensi; he reorganised the govern-
ment and re-established order; he brought the Cantonese


6 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
under more perfect control; and he encouraged the study
of the Confucian classics, declaring that " Confucian thought
is to the Chinese what the water is to the fish." The
culminating point in this period was the domination of the
Empress Wu-how, who first ruled jointly with her husband,
the Emperor Kao-tsung (650-684) and then as Empress
Dowager-Regent for her son Chung-tsung, until in 705
she was forced by advancing age to abdicate her power.
Her ability has been recognised by the Chinese, but her
memory has been execrated because of the impropriety
of her conduct in presuming to govern the Empire. In
fact, however, she was the last of the strong rulers of the
dynasty, and for the remaining two centuries the throne
was for the most part filled by men weak in character and
of small capacity. Literature flourished and the arts
advanced; but the country was disturbed by internal
rebellions and Tartar incursions. Korea was fully con-
quered in 667 and reduced to a vassal state, remaining in
that position until 1895; this secured the north-eastern
frontier, but along the northern border for more than two
centuries there was no peace.
Nestorian priests, coming from Persia, brought the first
teaching of Christianity into China during this period.
They were favourably received; and by Imperial sanction
a stone tablet recording the tenets of their Church was
erected at Sianfu in Shensi.
After the Tang dynasty followed the period of the
Five Dynasties (907-960)—Later Liang, Later Tang, Later
Tsin, Later Han, and Later Chow—a period of military
despotism.
The Sung dynasty followed in 960. Peace was again
restored and order established, and for a time one ruler
governed the whole Empire. The incursions of the Tartar
tribes were, however, soon resumed; and in 1125 the Kin
or Nii-chen Tartars—"the Golden Horde "—gained the
predominance and made serious inroads upon the Imperial
domain. At an early date they seized the capital, Kaifeng,


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY J
and required the .Emperor to pay an annual tribute; and
in no long time they drove the Imperial forces south of the
Yangtze, establishing their own dominion over the territory
to the north of the great river. The Chinese rulers of what
is called in history the Southern Sung dynasty set up their
capital at first at Nanking, and afterwards at Hangchow.
Incessant war was waged between the North and the South,
between the Chinese dynasty of the Southern Sung and the
Golden dynasty of the Tartars, across the moat of the
Yangtze, but neither side succeeded in gaining ground;
and the Yangtze remained the frontier until the establish-
ment of the Yuan dynasty of the Mongols in 1280.
The Mongols, originating in the district south-east of
Lake Baikal, made their first assaults on the northern
frontier in 1135. Under Genghis Khan (1162) they entered
on their marvellous career of conquest. He first con-
solidated the loosely knit Mongol confederacy, and then
made many successful raids into Northern China. In
1213 three expeditions, one under Genghis himself, overran
the country, subjugating as far as the Shantung peninsula.
Next the Mongols set out to conquer Asia. They sub-
jugated the country to the south-west of China, pierced the
mountain passes of the Himalayas, won a great victory
on the Indus, and carried their victorious arms to the borders
of the kingdom of Poland. Whenever Genghis conquered
a city, he razed it to the ground and put its inhabitants
to the sword. Genghis was succeeded in 1229 by his son,
Ogotai Khan, who continued his father's career of conquest.
He repeated the raid into Europe, pursuing his victorious
course through Russia, Poland, and Hungary.
The Chinese Emperor Li-tsung (1225-1265) saw in the
rise of the Mongols an opportunity to throw off the domi-
nation of the Golden Tartars; and, setting dog to eat dog,
he made an alliance with the Mongol leader. Their com-
bined armies overcame the forces of the Golden dynasty
and conquered the country north of the Yangtze still in
its possession; but when the Chinese Emperor proposed to


8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
reoccupy Kaifeng and re-establish there the capital of
his Empire, he found that the Mongols saw no reason for
surrendering conquests which their arms had made, and was
summoned to return to his former domain in the south.
War was thereupon declared between the allies, and the
Mongols entered upon the subjugation of Southern China.
Their forces were victorious, and the Chinese Emperor was
driven to his last refuge in the island of Yaishan, south of
Canton; there he was blockaded, and finally, to avoid
falling into the hands of his enemies, he and all his family
committed suicide by throwing themselves into the sea.
This established the Yuan dynasty (1260-1368), which
again, and for the first time under Tartar rule, reunited the
whole of China under one sovereign. The consolidation of
the Empire was mainly effected by Kublai Khan (1260 -1295).
He failed in an attack on Japan, his sea power being inferior
to that of the island Japanese; but, after subjugating the
Chinese provinces, and adding Yunnan to his domain, he
conquered Annam and Burma and maintained his northern
frontier. Annam became a vassal state, its king soliciting
investiture from Peking (where the Mongol capital was
established) and sending periodic tribute until it became a
dependency of France—Cochin China in 1864, Tonkin in
1885. Burma became a tributary state and sent tribute
until the end of the nineteenth century. China was, how-
ever, but a part of the Mongol dominion; in its whole extent
it spread from the Black Sea on the west to the Yellow Sea
on the east, and from the northern border of Mongolia to the
southern limits of Annam.
The collection of tribute and its transmission to Peking
were among the most important functions of the Mongol
administration; and one of the first steps taken by Kublai
was the improvement of the communications between the
north and the south. As a preliminary measure a canal was
made from Kiaochow to the Gulf of Pechihli, cutting off the
Shantung peninsula and its stormy circumnavigation. Then
the Grand Canal was taken in hand. This magnificent


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
9
channel of commerce was begun as early as B.C. 489, and
then extended to the territory south of the Yangtze; under
the Southern Sung its southern part, from Hangchow to
Chinkiang, was much improved; and now, by Kublai, the
northern part was restored and its course extended on to
Tientsin, from which city the Peiho provides a good water
route to Peking.
During the reign of Kublai, in 1271, the Venetian traveller
Marco Polo first arrived in China, and on his return to Europe
gave to the world the first of the many accounts of the
wonders of that Empire. In many respects the civilisation
of China was then ahead of that of Europe, and his report
opened up a new realm of thought.
In conquering the country the Mongols had no thought
of modifying the civilisation of the Chinese, in all respects
far higher than their own; and they recognised that their
own talents lay solely in the direction of arms, and that they
could not supply the qualities demanded for a civil adminis-
tration. The actual administration, under the Mongols,
as later under the Manchus, was in the hands of Chinese,
habituated to the ways of government and finance; and the
nominal masters of the Empire, based on their northern home
and guarded by garrisons stationed at a few strategic
points, settled down to a life of luxury, supported by the
tribute which was levied on the conquered people. This
tribute was mainly in the produce of the country—silks for
currency, and rice and other grain for subsistence—the
contributions in circulating medium of exchange consisting
almost entirely of cowrie shells. Of silver and of copper
coins but little came into the treasury otherwise than by
plunder; and the needs of the Imperial Government, other
than those provided by the tribute in kind, were supplied
by issues of irredeemable paper money, of which during
most of the short hundred years of the Mongol dynastic rule
the annual emissions amounted to the enormous sum of
forty million taels.* The distress resulting from this
• Cf. Chap. V.


10 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
financial condition, combined with the iron rule of the bar-
barous conquerors, soon brought the dynasty to its fall;
and the rebellious Chinese found a leader of ability in Chu
Yuan-chang (born 1328), who had spent his early life in a
Buddhist monastery, and now, inspired by patriotism,
emerged from his retirement to fight the oppressors of his
country. Under his leadership the Mongols were driven
from the soil of China, and, in 1368, he declared himself
Emperor and established the Ming dynasty (1368-1644),
restoring Chinese rule over the Chinese people.
The first Ming Emperor assumed the title of Hungwu
and established his capital at Nanking; but, with the con-
tinued pressure of the Mongols and other Tartar tribes on
the northern frontier, it was transferred to Peking in 1421
by the third Emperor, Yunglo, by whom the famous porce-
lain pagoda was erected at Nanking as a solatium to its
people and a memorial to his father, whose tomb was there.
This pagoda was destroyed by the Taiping rebels in 1853
as being an instrument of idolatry. Notwithstanding the
constant conflicts on the northern frontier, internal order
was soon restored; and the earlier reigns of the dynasty
were marked by great prosperity and splendour. The
currency was restored, trade prospered, the arts flourished,
and scholarship was fostered; and at the same time the
power of the Empire was maintained over the vassal states
coterminous with China. It was demonstrated to the
people of China that Chinese could govern their country and
govern it well; and the Ming period, the period of the finest
Chinese porcelain, shares in the Chinese mind in the glory of
the Han and Tang periods of an earlier date.
It was during the Ming period that European traders
first entered into trade relations with the Chinese Empire *
—the Portuguese in 1516, the Spanish from the Philippines
in 1575, the Dutch in 1604, and the English in the dying
days of the dynasty in 1637; the Portuguese traded solely
at Canton, the Spanish permitted the Chinese to trade with
• Cf. Chap. IX.


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY II
them at Manila, and the Dutch and English traded at first
at Amoy and in Formosa.
The first Christian missionary, after the Nestorians, to
arrive in China was St. Francis Xavier, the first disciple of
Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Society. The
jealous regard of the Chinese for their own institutions denied
him access to the mainland; and, after a glorious crusade to
Japan, he died on the island of Shangchuen (now called St.
John's Island), south of Canton, in 1553, without having
set his foot on the mainland. He was followed by Michael
Roger and Matteo Ricci, who were more successful in
their attempts to settle and preach on the mainland, Father
Ricci even succeeding, in the closing years of the century,
in obtaining a lodgment in Nanking. During the last
reigns of the Ming dynasty the Jesuit missionaries obtained
a footing at the Imperial Court, and this was maintained
during the first two reigns of the Tsing dynasty; the
most prominent among them were Adam Schaal and
Verbeest, to whom was entrusted the care of compiling
the calendar. Of the beautiful bronze astronomical in-
struments which were removed from their home on the
walls of Peking, and carried to Europe in 1900, the older
pieces dated back to the Mongol period, but the greater
number, and of finer finish, were of the Ming period, one
having been sent as a present from Louis XIV of France
to the Ming Emperor.
The Ming dynasty finally fell, as the result of successful
rebellion by ambitious Chinese generals; but the profit
was reaped by the Manchus, a Tartar tribe occupying what
is now the province of Kirin. In 1618 the Ming Emperor,
Wanli, interfered in a faction fight among the Manchus,
espousing the cause of Nikan. The Manchu chief, Nurhachu,
having overcome his rival, at once invaded Chinese territory
and occupied the Liaotung peninsula. Defeating the Chinese
troops, he then took the city of Liaoyang, the inhabitants
of which were forced to shave the front part of their heads
and to plait their back hair into a queue after the Manchu


12 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
custom; and this rule was enforced whenever the Manchus
later gained possession of a Chinese city. Nurhachu then
advanced to force the passage of the Great Wall, where it
touches the sea at Shanhaikwan, but was unable to take the
city of Ningyuan, which barred his way and was well de-
fended by the Chinese troops, who were aided by cannon
supplied by the Portuguese in Macao. The greater part of
Manchuria was, however, brought into subjection by the
Manchus.
Meantime the country was rent by civil war, two
Chinese generals having in 1630 raised the standard of re-
bellion. Chang Hsien-chung, starting from Shensi, con-
quered the country to the west and south, and established
himself as sovereign in Szechwan, where for some years he
was left undisturbed. Li Tze-ching, starting from Shansi,
marched on Peking, defeating the Ming troops sent to bar
his way, and gained possession of the capital. He then
assumed the title and dignity of Emperor, whereupon the
last of the Ming emperors, Chwanglieh-ti, committed suicide
by hanging himself.
Under ordinary circumstances this would have left the
victorious general in possession of the throne and enabled
him to found a new dynasty. But a loyal general of the
Ming Emperor, Wu San-kwei, resolved to avenge the death
of the Emperor, and for that purpose called in the Manchus
to aid him in dispossessing the successful rebel; and the
allied forces of the Manchus and the Chinese army loyal to
the dynasty together gained a decisive victory. The fruits
of victory were reaped by the Manchus, whose chief, a minor
at the time, was placed on the throne, thereby establishing
the Tsing dynasty (1644-1912). After the subjugation of
the Empire was completed, Wu San-kwei was rewarded with
the satrapy of Yunnan and Kweichow, to be held in feudal
tenure; but, exciting the jealousy of Kanghi and fear lest
he should set up an independent kingdom, he was summoned
to Peking. He refused, declaring that he would come only
at the head of eighty thousand soldiers; this was treated


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
*3
as contumacy and rebellion, an expedition was sent to reduce
him to obedience, and he died in 1678.
The reign of the first Emperor, Shunchih (1644-1661)
was spent principally in conquering the provinces. This
task was still uncompleted at his death, many Ming princes
and partisans being still in arms in the south and west,
and the final conquest and pacification were completed by
his successor, the great Kanghi (1662-1723). The con-'
quest may be considered to have been accomplished in 1683,
in which year Formosa, then recently colonised by settlers
from southern Fukien, was first brought into subjection
to the Chinese throne. That island had first, within the
previous hundred years, been colonised from Amoy; it was
then taken and held from 1624 by the Dutch; they were
dispossessed in 1662 by Koxinga, of the name-clan of the
imperial family of the Ming, who made good his hold on
Amoy and Formosa; and he in turn by the Manchu forces,
under the Emperor's own leadership, in 1683.
The Manchus imitated the Mongols in leaving the civil
administration of the Empire to a great extent in the hands
of the Chinese.* They organised the whole of modern
Manchuria on the military basis, and converted Peking into
an armed camp, with the Emperor's tent in the middle, sur-
rounded by the troops of the Imperial clan, that in turn sur-
rounded by the main body of the Manchu army.f with the
Chinese inhabitants (the sutlers of the army) segregated in
a separate city, dominated by the walls of the Manchu city,
as shown in the diagram. (See next page.)
They further established military colonies in twenty-
five cities of Chihli, as an inner line of defence. and selected
a dozen important strategic points % in the other provinces
at which military colonies were settled to serve as outposts
in holding the Empire in subjection. Certain lucrative posts
were reserved for Manchus, and an indefinite number of posts
in the ordinary administration, latterly not exceeding a
fifth of the total, were held by Manchus; otherwise the civil
• Cf. Chap. IL t t Ibid.


14 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OP CHINA
administration was in the hands of the Chinese, the nomin-
ally subject race. The Court and the Manchu army (con-
sisting of all adult male Manchus) were maintained from the
grain tribute, the land tax, the salt gabelle, and a few minor
tributes, the grain tribute being sent in kind to Peking to be
issued as rations to the army. The taxation covered by
these heads was light, and the conquered race was not dis-
contented with its subjection, so long as the government
was strong, official corruption was kept in check, and justice
and protection secured to the subject.

Chinese City.
The reign of Kanghi was one of great splendour. The
arts flourished, and Kanghi porcelain was equal to that of
the best Ming period. Order was maintained, and through-
out the Empire the farmer and trader enjoyed full security
in their occupations. The vassal states recognised his over-
lordship without question. Scholarship was encouraged;
the Emperor himself was no mean scholar, and under his
patronage were published the great Kanghi dictionary, and
an encyclopedia of universal knowledge in 6,026 fascicules.
He himself composed the sixteen maxims, known as the


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
15
Sacred Edict, which, afterwards expanded and annotated
by his successor Yungcheng, have since that time been
expounded in the city temple of every city in the Empire.
He was succeeded by Yungcheng (1723-1735), whose reign
was also one of great prosperity and good administration.
The Roman Catholic missionaries, barely tolerated at
first by the Ming emperors, had later obtained a footing at
court. Shunchih, the first Manchu Emperor, was much
interested in their accounts of their religion and civilisation;
and under Kanghi they attained to positions of great im-
portance in the Imperial administration. Though jealous of
any attempt to introduce unaccustomed practices, he was
much inclined to lend a willing ear to what they had to say,
until he was suddenly aroused by a question of mere ter-
minology. The proper rendering into Chinese of the term
"God " formed a subject of dispute between the Jesuits and
the Dominicans; the Emperor interested himself in the
disputation, and gave his decision in favour of the interpre-
tation desired by the Jesuits. The Dominicans, however,
appealed to the Pope; and, as the Jesuits were then in
disfavour at the Papal court, the Emperor's judgment was
reversed. The Emperor was dissatisfied that his knowledge
of his own tongue should be questioned by a Western bar-
barian; and he and his Ministers were startled on discover-
ing that an appeal from his judgment on a question of
Chinese polity could be carried to the tribunal of an Italian
priest. He therefore withdrew the light of his countenance
from the missionaries, and an exceptionally favourable chance
of converting the Empire to Christianity was lost. His suc-
cessor Yungcheng went further and, in 1727, issued an edict
prohibiting the propagation of the Christian faith and con-
fiscating the property of the missions. This prohibition was
withdrawn in 1844.
Calvinist pastors entered Formosa in the train of the^
Dutch, and shared their fate in being driven out in 1662.
A number of them were then beheaded or crucified by the
officers of Koxinga. J


16 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Yungcheng was followed by Kienlung (1736-1796).
There were some internal disorders during his reign, but on
the whole the administration was effective, and the country
prospered. He conquered and annexed eastern Turkestan,
and reduced Burma, which had rejected his suzerainty, to
subjection. The Gurkhas having invaded Tibet, he dis-
patched an army into that country and drove them back
into Nipal, restoring Tibet to obedience to the Chinese rule.
During the reign of Kienlung the foreign trade of Canton
developed and assumed great proportions,* the nations of
the West sending their ships and traders to obtain the tea
and silk of the Celestial Empire. It was during this period,
in 1784, that the Americans entered the commercial field,
in which they were soon to occupy a place second only to
that of the English; and by the end of the reign all the
trading nations of the West were represented in the factories
at Canton.
Kienlung abdicated in 1796, after a reign of sixty years,
in order that he might not exceed the limits of the reign of
his grandfather, Kanghi. With the accession of Kiaking
set in the degeneration and degradation of the Empire. The
court became corrupt, the administration ceased to be
efficient, corruption among the mandarinate went un-
checked, justice and protection were no longer assured
to the people, the secret societies awoke from their dor-
mant state, and dissatisfaction manifested itself in many
parts of the empire. At Canton trade flourished and the
foreign merchants increased in numbers; but their trade,
grown to larger proportions, was brought under more com-
plete control, while their personal freedom was restricted
by many vexatious regulations, some petty and annoying, .
others making of the trade a close monopoly in the hands
of the officials at Canton.
In 1796 Imperial edicts strengthened the old prohibition
(originally proclaimed in 1729) against the smoking of
opium—up to the end of the eighteenth century smoked
• Cf. Chatx IX.


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY V}
entirely in conjunction with tobacco; and in 1800 an edict
was issued prohibiting the growing of the poppy in China,
and the importation of foreign opium. These restrictions
changed, in immaterial ways, the machinery of trade, but
they were not enforced, and they in no way diminished the
use of the drug.
Taokwang (1820-1850) attempted to check the corrup-
tion of the Court, and to amend the evils of the administra-
tion; but the task was impossible. He succeeded to a
rotten administration; the finances were disordered by a
succession of minor rebellions in one after another of the
provinces; he obtained but weak support for reform among
his officials, who were the most in need of being reformed;
his army had degenerated; and he was helpless in presence
of the Augean mass of corruption which it was his task to
sweep away.
The restrictions on the trade of Canton were made more
strict and the monopoly more close. The trade of the
nations of Europe was under the control each of an East
India Company of its own nation, and this system provided
some small degree of check on the working of the Chinese
monopoly. But, by the year 1830, fully nine-tenths of the
trade was in the hands of the English and Americans. Of
these, the English were compelled to trade through, or by the
licence of, their East India Company—they could trade with
India and other Asiatic countries under licence, but the
trade with their home country, including the entire trade in
the main staples of tea and silk, was absolutely prohibited
to them. The Americans, on the other hand, were free to
trade where they would; even the trade between China
and Europe, denied to the English, was open to them. An
agitation for freedom of trade started in England, and in
1833 the monopoly granted to the English East India. Com-
pany was abolished.
This brought China face to face with the English Govern-
ment, without the intermediary of an incorporated com-
pany; and in 1834 Lord Napier was sent to Canton to settle
2


l8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the many subjects of friction and dispute between the two
countries. He was not allowed to get so far as to open
negotiations; he was met at the outset by a refusal to treat
him as an envoy of a friendly Power, enjoying a position of
equality with China; he was refused an interview with the
Viceroy, who required him to formulate his demands through
the committee of Chinese merchants through whom the
trade monopoly was worked; his letters were not received,
and he was required to present his written communications
in the form of a humble petition; and coercion was ap-
plied to the English merchants and their trade to force him
to leave Canton. For public reasons he complied with this
last order, and returned to Macao, where he died, from fever
and vexation of spirit, just three months after his first
arrival in Chinese waters.
During this same year died Robert Morrison, who had
arrived in Canton in 1807, the first Protestant missionary to
be sent from England. He was not allowed to preach the
Gospel; but, under the protection of a nominal post under
the English East India Company, he studied the Chinese
language, and gave to the world a translation of the Bible
and a dictionary which has been the basis of most of the
lexicons compiled since by others. The next to follow him
was Elijah Colman Bridgeman, sent from America, arriving
in Canton in 1829. He founded the Chinese Repository, a
monthly magazine published at Canton from 1831 to 1851;
and originated in 1857 the Shanghai Asiatic Society, being
its first president. Other Protestant missionaries followed,
and in 1845 they numbered sixty, of whom (with one Ger-
man) two-thirds were American and one-third British. In
1907, the centennial anniversary of Robert Morrison's arrival,
the Protestant missionaries, including all independent
workers, men and women, but excluding wives and children,
exceeded four thousand in number, of whom about a half
were American, four-tenths British, and one-tenth of other
nationalities.
The Emperor Taokwang took the opium question much


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
19
to heart. The restriction on its import had in no way
diminished the quantity; the ships under all the foreign
flags (excepting only the ships of the English East India
Company) continued to bring it, but, instead of coming
into port, they remained outside port limits and delivered
it there to Chinese buyers; and the officials continued to
levy their tax on it, but it was for their own profit and not for
the public fisc. In 1836, in order to combat the evils of a
clandestine trade, the question was seriously debated at
Peking whether it was not better to legalise the trade, but
it was decided in the negative. In this decision the
Emperor had against him practically all the tax-collecting
mandarins, but in Lin Tse-sii he found a man after his own
heart, prepared to over-ride all obstacles and so extirpate the
curse. He was appointed High Commissioner for this pur-
pose in 1839; and, on his arrival at Canton, put an em-
bargo on the foreign trade, and placed the English Super-
intendent and the foreign merchants of all nationalities in
close confinement in their houses, deprived of food, fuel,
water, and servants, and demanded that the opium then in
the " outside waters " be brought in and surrendered to him.
With the foreign residents held as hostages for the execution
of this command, the English Superintendent, to secure their
release, ordered all opium then in Chinese waters to be sur-
rendered to him on behalf of the British Government, and
he in turn surrendered it, to the amount of 20,291 chests,
to the Chinese authorities, who destroyed it to the last ounce.
Commissioner Lin then demanded that each foreign resident
should sign a bond undertaking, for himself, his Government,
and all foreign merchants, that there should be no more
trade in opium. They were willing, in their state of duresst
to sign for themselves individually; and, when the High
Commissioner found he could obtain no more, he released the
imprisoned foreigners and allowed them to take refuge on
board their ships at Hongkong. In the war which followed
the Chinese were uniformly beaten ; Canton, Amoy, Ningpo,
Chapu, Shanghai, and Chinkian were taken by the British


20 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
plenipotentiary, Sir Henry Pottinger, with Admiral Sir
William Parker in command of the fleet; and on August 29th,
^842, was signed the treaty of Nanking, by which the Chinese
conceded all that was demanded.
To the Chinese opium appeared to have been the sole
cause of the war, and they honestly could not understand
that any other cause existed. To their expressed surprise *
the opium question was not included in the English demands
formulated at Nanking, and they were informed that they
could regulate the trade according to their own laws, on
condition that, in doing so, they did not injuriously affect
the persons or the other property of foreign merchants. The
treaty settled the equal status of nations, and guaranteed
security to the persons of their representatives and mer-
chants; abolished the monopoly of trade, and permitted
foreign representatives to communicate direct with the
Chinese officials; designated five ports (Canton, Amoy,
Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai) at which foreign merchants
might erect residences and warehouses and conduct their
trade; provided for a uniform and published tariff of cus-
toms duties, in lieu of the previous exactions, unknown in
amount and uncertain in their incidence; and exacted an
indemnity of twenty-one million dollars for the expenses of
the expedition and as compensation for the opium surren-
dered to obtain the release of the persons illegally detained.
The provisions of this treaty, imposed at the cannon's mouth,
indicate clearly enough what were the motives which led the
British Government to take up arms.
The concessions obtained under this treaty for the
British were expressly extended to all other nations. In
1844 the United States of America negotiated a similar
treaty, by which the principle of extraterritoriality f was
more clearly defined; and in the same year France also
made a similar treaty. Under the new treaties the foreign
* "Is this all?" as the principal Chinese negotiator, Kiying,
said to Sir H. Pottinger.
t Cf. Chap. VII.


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
21
trade developed; but their spirit was not fully accepted by
the Chinese and, in the succeeding years, there were much
hostility and friction. The Canton Viceroy, Yeh Ming-chin,
in particular showed himself hostile on all occasions, never
once consenting to grant an audience to the foreign Envoys,
British, American, or French, who requested one ; and finally
in 1856 he provided a fresh casus belli by illegally seizing
some reputed pirates on a ship, the lorcha Arrow, flying the.
British flag, for which he refused reparation, or even ex-
planation.
In the meantime Hienfeng (1851-1861) had come to
the throne, succeeding to an Empire rent by rebellion and
rotten with corruption. The greatest of the rebellions was
that of the Taiping. This originated in north-eastern
Kwangsi, and soon found a leader in HwigjSiujtsjieji^, He
had been instructed by an American Baptist missionary in
the tenets of the Christian faith; and, though his beliefs
were soon dominated by the practices of an Oriental despot,
at the outset he formed a band of devoted adherents, rigid
in their observances, unconquerable in battle, and com-
parable only to Cromwell's Ironsides. Breaking out from
Kwangsi in the spring of 1852, he advanced north through
Hunan, conquering as he went, but was unable to take
Changsha. Yochow and Hanyang fell to his troops in
December 1852, and Wuchang in January 1853. Thence
he pursued his conquering advance down the Yangtze,
gathering adherents as he went, and devastating and plunder-
ing the country; and, on March 19, captured Nanking,
which he made the capital of the new Taiping empire. For
the time his troops advanced no further to the east; but
an army was sent north to attack Peking. It defeated
every army sent to oppose it, and established a fortified
camp within twelve miles of Tientsin; but it was a spent
force, and in 1854 its remnants were driven back to the south.
Other associated risings were also successful, and in 1854
the Imperial Government was undisputed master of scarcely
a province in the Empire,


22 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
This was the time selected by the Canton Viceroy to
irritate the three Western Powers, who were then united in
making joint representations to the Chinese Government,
and in demanding a revision of the treaties and better pro-
tection to foreign lives and property. The American repre-
sentative could take no positive action, since his instructions
forbade him to proceed to the use of force, the declaration
of war lying with Congress and not with the President;
but France was provided with a casus belli by the murder of
the missionary Chapdelaine, the rightfulness of which was
upheld by Viceroy Yeh, who refused any reparation, and,
when it came to the clash of arms, France st00d by the side
\>i England. Canton was taken by the allies at the end of
1857, just twelve months after the Viceroy had burned the
foreign factories there. The forces then proceeded to the
Peiho, at the mouth of which st00d the Taku forts, which
were taken almost without a blow; and they advanced at
once on Tientsin, with the American and Russian Envoys
in close attendance. There was no long hesitation, and the
negotiations were not protracted. With the Empire torn
asunder by rebellion, the prestige of the Imperial Government
was shattered by the armed force of the English and French,
and the conditions imposed were accepted. In June 1858
the Treatiesof Tientsin were signed, the first by Hon. Wm. B.
Reed on behalf of the United States, the second by Count
Putiatin for Russia, then by the Earl of Elgin for England,
and the last by Baron Gros_for France.
One article of the British treaty provided for the con-
tinued residence of the British Envoy (and therefore of all
foreign Envoys) at Peking; but, on the earnest solicitation
of the Chinese negotiators, Lord Elgin consented to defer the
execution of this condition, substituting for it a stipulation
that the ratifications of the treaty should be exchanged at
Peking. When, in June 1859, the Envoys of the four Powers
came to exchange the ratifications, they were refused a
passage past the Taku forts. The French forces were
engaged in operations against Annam, and the only fleet


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
2.'i
present was the British. An attempt by these to force the
passage was repulsed with heavy loss. It was on this
occasion that the American Commodore Tatnall declared
that " blood is thicker than water," when he sent boats to
tow the wounded English marines out of the line of fire,
and went himself, amid the dropping shot, to inquire for the
welfare of the English admiral, who had been wounded.
The English and French proceeded to carry their under-
taking to its end, and sent a joint expedition, again with
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros as plenipotentiaries. The
allied force took the Taku forts, after some resistance, on
August 21st, 1860, occupied Tientsin, and took Peking. /
At Tungchow a party of English and French were captured
by the Chinese, while engaged in peace negotiations; some
were murdered and all were tortured, and as punishment
for the act of treachery, the Emperor's summer palace at
Yuenmingyuen was destroyed by fire. By the Convention
of Peking, which was then signed, the indemnities were
increased and it was provided that the foreign Envoys should
reside in Peking.
The treaties of 1858 and 1860 made a definite settlement
of the relations between China and Western nations; up to
1842 it was China which dictated absolutely the conditions
of trade, but since 1858 they have been dictated by the West.
The opium question was then settled by the legalisation of
the traffic. The smuggling had reached scandalous pro-
portions, demoralising the officials whose duty it was to
enforce the law and the merchants to whom it was a for-
bidden trade. The American Envoy was appalled by the
demoralisation, and suggested legalisation as the lesser of
two evils. Lord Elgin, who was in a position to dictate
terms, was reluctant to take the initiative; but the Chinese
negotiators were ready to relieve the financial difficulties
of the Empire by securing for the Treasury the revenue which
prohibition only diverted into private pockets; and the
trade was legalised by including opium in the tariff which
was appended to the treaty.


24 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Meantime the Taiping rebellion maintained its ground.
For some years the Heavenly King remained quiet, with his
capital, Nanking, as the eastern outpost of his Empire; but
the devastation and depopulation of the country dominated
by his anarchical rule drove him to seek new bases of supply,
and, in 1860, the Taiping forces broke into the rich and
hitherto undevastated country between Nanking and the
sea. They captured Soochow and Hangchow, and the in-
tervening country, but evacuated Hangchow, leaving the
corpses of 70,000 of its inhabitants massacred within its
walls. They then marched against Shanghai; but the
foreign Envoys had decided to protect, against Imperialists
and rebels alike, the neutrality of that centre of foreign
trade; and, on August 18th, while the allied troops were
advancing to take the Taku forts from the Imperial forces,
the allied troops were engaged in defending Shanghai from
the Taiping assault. Shanghai was, however, an oasis in a
desert of Taiping devastation, and the only successes ob-
tained against their armies were gained by a force organised
and led by the American, Frederick T. Ward. To this force
was given by Imperial decree the title of " The Ever-Vic-
torious Army." Ward was killed in action in 1862, and
after the American Burgevine and the English Holland had
tried to wield the baton of leadership, the British authorities
lent the services of Captain Charles G. Gordon—" Chinese
Gordon." He continued the ever-victorious career initiated
by Ward, and recaptured city after city, until finally Chang-
chow was retaken. Gordon then resigned his command,
refusing all reward, except the Imperial insignia of the
Yellow Jacket and military rank. The back of the re-
bellion was broken, and in the spring of 1864, after an
investment, not always very close, of eleven years, Nanking
was taken by the Imperial forces, the Heavenly King com-
mitting suicide.
Then followed twenty years of recovery, with no im-
portant events, but with a great development of trade. The
event most worthy of special note was the mission to foreign


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
25
Powers, at the head of which was Mr. Anson W. Burlingame,
with two Chinese associates. He had been Envoy of the
United States during the period of reconstruction, and on
his resignation in 1867 he undertook to establish the rela-
tions between China and the West on a new basis. China
was not yet, however, sufficiently advanced to enter on
equal terms into the comity of nations, and this was manifest
to the sober sense of the Western Governments.
In 1870 occurred the massacre of Tientsin. For some
time before anti-foreign and anti-Christian literature had
been freely circulated, and the feelings thereby excited were
stirred to frenzy by reports that the sisters of the (French)
Roman Catholic orphanage were in the habit of kidnapping
children, and using their hearts and eyes to compound the
marvellously effective Western medicines. A riot ensued in
which the orphanage and cathedral were burned and all of
French nationality who could be found were murdered with
horrible mutilations. France was then engaged in war with
Germany, and the settlement demanded gave reparation for
the murders, but not for the anti-national animus mani-
fested.
In 1873 the Emperor Tungchih (1863-1874) attained
his legal majority, and"orrJu«e 39th the first Imperial audi-
ence was granted to the foreign Envoys. This was a not-
able concession, but after all only a half-concession, as the
audience took place in the Pavilion of Purple Light, a hall
ordinarily used for receiving the Envoys of tributary nations.
In 1876 Mr. A. R. Margary, of the British consular ser-
vice, was murdered in Yunnan. By the Chefoo Agreement,
signed on September 13th, reparation for the murder was
given, a better method of regulating the opium traffic was
agreed to, and the jurisdiction in mixed cases was placed on
a better footing.
In 1883 France undertook the conquest of Tonkin, and
in so doing came into conflict with the suzerain Power. In
1884 the Chinese fleet in the port of Foochow was destroyed
by the French fleet, which had entered the anchorage before


26 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the outbreak of hostilities. Formosa was then attacked,
but was successfully defended by the Chinese. An incon-
clusive war was closed by a treaty, signed June 9th, 1885,
by which the French claim to Tonkin was recognised, while
France abandoned all other demands on China.
Korea had been a vassal state under the suzerainty of
the Chinese Emperor since the year 667; but the subjection
was little more than nominal, being made manifest chiefly
by the formal approval and investiture of each new Korean
King, and the annual sending of tribute. The suzerain
Power generally maintained the land frontier, but gave no
protection against the incursions of the Japanese, the
most notable of which was that under Hideyoshi in 1592;
and in that year a Japanese settlement was founded at
Fusan. In 1876 an unprovoked attack on Japanese gun-
boats led Japan to send an expedition against Korea, and as
a result three Korean ports were opened to Japanese trade
under conditions of extraterritoriality. As a measure of
protection against this, China required Korea to open these
ports on the same terms to the trade of all nations. Much
disorder followed, and on one occasion, in 1882, the Japanese
Legation was attacked and burned to the ground. Japan
sent troops to Chemulpo to demand reparation, whereupon
China despatched a force to Seoul to maintain order. A
clash seemed imminent, but the matter was settled by a
modus vivendi established by Li Hung-chang and Count Ito.
On the ground that disturbances existed along the frontier
of her Siberian possessions, Russia moved her troops in the
direction of Korea; as a counter-movement the British fleet
occupied Port Hamilton, an island south of the southern
point of Korea, but it was abandoned in 1887.
In 1894 China sent troops to Korea to suppress disorder
which had broken out, and Japan answered by sending a
force to maintain the independence of Korea. Both nations
were fully equipped; but Japan had fully imbibed the
spirit of Western military methods, while China had acquired
only the material. The Japanese forces on land were


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
27
uniformly victorious, and drove the Chinese out of Korea,
across the Yalu and through eastern Manchuria, with
scarcely a check. In the naval battle off the mouth of the
Yalu the Japanese gained a great victory, owing to the
inferior quality of the Chinese ammunition. The Japanese
forces then assaulted and captured the stronghold of Port
Arthur; and at Weihaiwei they captured the forts and many
of the ships remaining to China, after a gallant defence
by Admiral Ting Ju-chang. The war was closed by the
Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed April 17th, 1895, by which
it was recognised that Japan occupied a status on an equality
with any Western power; the independence of Korea was
admitted; the Liaotung peninsula, Formosa, and the
Pescadores were ceded; an indemnity of two hundred
million taels was exacted; and further Chinese ports, all
inland, were to be opened to foreign trade. Ultimately, on
the joint demand of Russia, France, and Germany, the
cession of the Liaotung peninsula was waived, in exchange
for an additional indemnity of thirty million taels.
China seemed to have reached her lowest depths, and
the European Powers began to provide against the im-
pending break-up of the Empire. In 1897, as compensa-
tion for the murder of two German missionaries in Shantung,
Germany demanded and obtained a "lease " of Kiaochow.
Then in 1898, in rapid succession, "in order to restore the
balance of power in the Ear East," Russia obtained a lease
of Port Arthur. England of Weihaiwei, and France of
Kwangchowwan. In 1899 Italy demanded the lease, on
the same footing, of Sanmen Bay in Chekiang. This was
too much: Italian interests in China were of the smallest,
and Italy had never displayed her strength in Chinese
waters; and China, weak and disorganised as she was,
peremptorily refused the demand. No evil consequences
followed on this refusal, and the patriotic party was much
elated.
China had slumbered for half a century, but the awaken-
ing seemed at last to have come. The Young China


28 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
party believed that only by radical reforms could the
Empire be saved; and one of the most ardent of their
number, Kang Yu-wei, gained the ear of the Emperor.
He was carried away, and issued edict after edict, intended
to transform in a few months the institutions based on
thousands of years of settled government, and to correct
the abuses engendered by a century of corrupt administra-
tion. The tried Ministers of State took alarm, the Empress
Dowager emerged from her retirement and soon restored
the Emperor to his natural obedience, and the wave of
impulsive reform was checked. But the feeling of dis-
content among the people was too strong to be suppressed,
and in 1900 it manifested itself in the vague and aimless
national and anti-foreign rising known as the Boxer *
Outbreak.
The Boxer movement came as a bolt from the blue,
with no warning, and soon the foreign communities at
Peking and Tientsin, including the foreign Envoys at
Peking, were beleaguered by many thousands of armed
fanatics, determined on their extermination and the up-
rooting of all foreign influence. The whole world stood
aghast. No such crime against the comity of nations had
been committed within historical times, and thousands
of troops were sent by the principal Western Powers to
the succour of their besieged countrymen and their im-
perilled Envoys. The defence of the beleaguered com-
munities was gallantly maintained, under conditions which
recall the siege of Lucknow in 1857; but they were in daily
peril for nearly three months. One attempt to relieve
them was made by an international contingent of 2,000
sailors of all nations under the British Admiral Seymour;
but, while they were on the march, the Taku forts were
attacked and taken on June 16th, by the foreign fleets,
* The movement was conducted by a secret society named the
"Yi-ho " society, which, by its sound, might be interpreted either
the " Society of Justice and Union " or the " Society for Pugilistic
Ex«rcises," Cf, German Turnverein of 1813,


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
and the relieving force then found itself confronted by the
Imperial troops, who had at once made common cause with
the raw Boxer levies, and it found its way back to Tientsin
in great peril and difficulty. Finally the troops of the
principal Powers—American, British, French, Japanese,
and Russian—gathered in their thousands, and after taking
the city of Tientsin and driving the Chinese from its de-
fences, they advanced on Peking, which they entered on
August 14th. The armed bands besieging the Legations
dispersed, and the Court and Government, guilty at least of
constructive complicity, fled, making their way to the old
historical capital of Sianfu. Peking was then most effect-
ively looted; and punitive expeditions in the vicinity soon
reduced the inhabitants to a condition of bewildered sub-
mission, all troops having safely escaped to a distance.
The punitive expeditions were renewed on the arrival of
Graf von Waldersee, who had been designated as senior
commander, but who arrived after the peasantry had been
cowed to submission.
While the Court and the Ministers at Peking had gener-
ally elected to ride on the wave of Boxer enthusiasm rather
than be submerged beneath it, the great Viceroys—Li
Hung-chang at Canton, Liu Kun-yi at Nanking, and Chang
Chih-tung at Wuchang—saw the criminal folly of the out-
break and did what they could to preserve the Empire from
its consequences. Two Chinese ministers went so far as to
modify telegraphic instructions sent in the Emperor's name
to "exterminate all foreigners," and to convert it into
"protect all foreigners " ; the two Yangtze Viceroys entered
into a modus vivendi by which foreigners were guaranteed
against disturbances in their jurisdiction, provided that
foreign operations were confined to the north; and the
aged Li Hung-chang, for thirty years the principal authority
in the administration of the Empire, hastened from Canton
to Peking to assume the role of negotiator in the final settle-
ment.
During the outbreak the lives of all foreigners in the


30 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
north were in imminent peril. Baron von Kettler, the
German Envoy, was murdered on June 20th, while on his
way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; many of the foreigners
at Peking and Tientsin were killed and wounded during the
sieges, and many more emerged with health shattered by
enteric and other consequences of privation and exposure.
Of the missionaries in Shansi, Shantung, and Chihli some
hundreds were killed with barbarous cruelty, the Governor
of Shansi, Yiisien, being present at some of the massacres;
and the "secondary devils," the Chinese converts, were a
special object of hostility.
The settlement provided for reparation for the murder
of the German Envoy; the execution of the principal
leaders and the officials actively responsible for the murder
of foreigners; the demolition of the Taku forts; the
establishment of permanent foreign garrisons in the
Legations and on the route from Peking to the sea; the
clearing of a Legation quarter in Peking; and an inter-
national indemnity of £67,500,000 (amounting with interest
to a total of £147,335,722) payable in thirty-nine years from
1902 to 1940.
The Boxer movement was crushed, but the nationalist
spirit which created it lived in the hearts of the people.
Even the Court was influenced by the force of a public
opinion which had not before existed in China, and with
no long delay took up some of the reforms which it had
resisted in 1898; the Conservative party, which had then
supported it in reaction, was now forced to give its support
to reform. In 1903 a Ministry of Education was created,
the examinations were remodelled, and primary education
throughout the Empire was placed on a new basis. Though
the principal initial result was the creation of many thou-
sands of schools without financial support, and the enrol-
ment of millions of pupils without qualified teachers, still
the reform was in the right direction and was of good
augury for future progress. Modern subjects were sub-
stituted for the Chinese classics which had been the sole


SKETCH OF CHINESE HISTORY
31
foundation of Chinese education. This dethronement of
the classics was met, as a protest against the exclusion of
China's old civilisation from the education of her youth,
by the canonisation of Confucius, as no longer a mere
teacher of ethical philosophy, but a saint. in heaven; but
even this could not sweep back the wave of progress.
In 1906 the ministries at Peking were reconstructed on
a modern basis; but there was no evidence of any reform
in the actual administration of the country, and, with
steadily increasing taxes, discontent grew and the nation
simmered with rebellion. The nationalist spirit, which in
1900 had as its motto "Safeguard the dynasty, extermin-
ate the foreigner," rapidly became anti-dynastic; but the
risings which occurred were soon suppressed by the forces
of the Government with modern weapons at their disposal.
The youthful Emperor Kwanghsti died in November 1908 in
his thirty-seventh year, and was followed the next day by
his adoptive grandmother the Empress Dowager Tsehi, who
had guided the ship of state through many storms during
forty-four years of a troublous period. On October 10th,
1911, occurred an anti-dynastic outbreak at Hankow, the
leaders in which soon gained possession of the tripartite
city Wuchang—-Hankow—Hanyang. The movement spread
rapidly, and independent risings, for the most part bloodless,
carried from the Imperial control all of China south of the
Yellow River. It was one vast general strike, and it
succeeded as strikes succeed in China; and after a vain
attempt by Yuan Shih-kai to preserve the dynasty as a
constitutional monarchy, the new Emperor, Hsuan-tung,
of the mature age of eight, abdicated the throne. The
Republic of China was then proclaimed, with Sun Yat-sen
(Cantonese for Sun Yi-sien) as provisional President.
With self-denying patriotism he soon resigned, and the
leading Chinese statesman of the day. Yuan Shih-kai, was
then elected provisional President of the Republic of China.


CHAPTER II
THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA •
The government of China is an autocratic rule superposed
on a democracy; but "the East is East and the West is
West," and, having applied Occidental terminology to an
Oriental system, it becomes necessary to define the terms.
When the Mongols under Kublai Khan in the thirteenth
century invaded and conquered the country, they became
the dominant power and de facto rulers of the Empire; but
the daily life of their subjects went on as before, they made
no change in domestic and local institutions, and their
refusal to be absorbed in the sturdy organisation of the
Chinese people, combined with the pressure of heavy tribute
and the evils of an irredeemable paper currency, led to their
expulsion within a century from the first accession of
Kublai to the throne. The native dynasty of the Ming,
which then succeeded in the fourteenth century, introduced
a better system of government, based on learning and states-
manship, but made no change in its external form; and the
relations between ruler and subject remained unaltered.
The Manchu dynasty of the Tsing, coming to power in the
seventeenth century, was based primarily on force of arms;
but even their conquests were effected by armies composed
as much of Chinese troops, stiffened by Manchu battalions
and led by Manchu officers, as of the all-conquering Manchu
bowmen. In their civil government the Tsing emperors
• This chapter is no longer entirely applicable to the present
(1920). It is, however, left unchanged in the present tense, though
it has now to be read mainly in the light of history.
3*


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 33
and their Manchu advisers had the wisdom to recognise
that their own people, unlettered and without the training
of generations in the science of governing, were unequal to
the task of providing an administration which could stand
by its own strength; and from the very beginning, before
the smoking ruins which marked their military progress
were cold, they not only continued the system and form3
of their predecessors, but associated with themselves,
in the administration, the literate class of their Chinese
subjects; and the mode of living and customs of the people
remained unchanged. Garrisons were established at certain
strategic points to maintain the conquest; certain posts in
the central government were reserved for Manchu nobles
and leaders ; certain "milking " posts were created to tap
the wealth of the provinces; and the Court, the Manchu
nobles, and the Manchu garrisons at Peking and elsewhere
were maintained by tribute drawn from the provinces.
Apart from this the government of the country has been
more in the hands of the Chinese than of their conquerors,
and the civil service has been a carriire ouverte aux talents.
Some allowance must be made for the predilection of the
ruling powers for men of their own race, and it is only
natural that, in the exercise of patronage, Manchus should
be somewhat preferred. This preference is now shown
less frequently than in the past, as the Manchus have become
more and more assimilated in thought and in training to
the Chinese, and of late years the proportion of Manchus
holding Imperial appointments in the provinces has not
exceeded one fifth, while the numerous and important
extra-official posts created by modern conditions are seldom
held by Manchus. To apply American terminology to
things Chinese, the Municipal and State (provincial) govern-
ment is almost entirely in the hands of the Chinese, while
the Federal (Imperial) administration is influenced and
controlled as much by Chinese as by Manchu minds, with
the further proviso that full weight is given in the Emperor's
Council Hall to the shrewd brains of his Chinese counsellors.
3


34 THE TJtADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
The American simile may be carried even further, but
the Western reader must be cautioned not to apply it ex-
cept as specifically indicated. American government stands
firm-based on the town meeting. This was generally true
in De Tocqueville's time (except for the county system
of the Southern States), was passably true at the time of
Bryce's inquiry, and is true to-day of the country village
communities. It is also true, mutatis mutandis, of village
communities in China to-day, following the precedent of
many centuries. The village elder, Tipao, is appointed
"with and by the advice and consent " of the villagers, and
represents them in all official and governmental matters,
being also the ordinary channel of communication of official
wishes or orders to his fellow villagers. The American
citizen has few direct dealings with any but his township
officials so long as he pays his taxes and is law-abiding, and,
officially, hardly knows of the existence of the Federal
Government, unless he has to deal with the Custom House,
or wishes to distil whisky or brew beer. This may be said
also of the Chinese villager, and, moreover, few civil suits
are brought before the official tribunals in China, while
the government exercises no control over distillation. The
American federal system finds its counterpart, too, in some
respects, in the semi-independence of the central and
provincial administrations; but the means of providing for
the maintenance of the Imperial Government resemble much
more closely the German system, based on a combination of
Imperial taxes and matriculations assessed on the federated
states.
The civil government of China may be considered under
four divisions:
(i) The Emperor and his Court, and the Manchu nobles.
(ii) The Central Metropolitan Government.
(iii) The Provincial Administration.
(iv) The Township and Village.
To explain clearly the system of Chinese administration,
it would be wise to begin with the foundation and trace it
f


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 35
up to the top; but in many ways it is more convenient to
trace the stream from its mouth through its many rami-
fications to its sources.
I. The Court
The Emperor rules by divine right. His is no empty
"Dei gratia," based on a parliamentary title, or an election
by a Diet or by allied kings and princes. He is himself the
Son of Heaven, and, when he dies, he " mounts the Dragon
chariot to be a guest on high." He is the Divus Augustus
of his Empire, reverenced, in letter and in spirit, by his
subjects. He worships only at the Altar of Heaven and the
Altar of Earth, apart from his reverential worship of the
shades of his ancestors; but he commands his Ministers to
propitiate the Guardian Dragon of the River in times of
flood, and the Spirits of the Air in times of drought, and
leaves to his subjects their worship of Buddhist deities and
their adhesion to Taoist tenets, or even to Christian and
Mussulman practices, so long as they remain a matter of
religion only. Apart from the result of military usurpation,
he is selected by his predecessor, or by the Imperial family
acting under such inspiration as moves a Papal Conclave.
He is usually a son of his predecessor, but is seldom the
eldest, the Asiatic practice of selecting the fittest among
certain qualified princes of the blood being followed. Not
one of the Emperors of the present dynasty (except Tung-
chih, an only son) was the eldest son of his predecessor:
Kanghi was the third son of Shunchih; Yungcheng (1723-
1735) was tne fourth son of Kanghi, and was driven to
imprison some of his brothers, and to banish others, because
they rebelled against him on his accession; Kienlung was
the fourth son of Yungcheng. Among the sons of the
Emperor, one of those by the Empress Consort might,
other things being equal, be preferred; next in order of
choice come the sons of the Secondary Consorts, and next
the sons of concubines; but the son of a concubine might
be preferred to others, and all are equally recognised as the


36 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
sons of their father. Failing a son, the choice would be
among the other princes of the Imperial family, but re-
stricted by the necessity, if possible, of going a generation
lower in order that the selected prince might be adopted as
the son of the decedent Emperor, and so be qualified to
perform the due ceremonies before the ancestral tablets.
This principle was violated on the death of Tungchih in
January 1875, his successor, Kwanghsii—adopted as his son
and successor—being natally his father's brother's son ; and
the coup d'itat manqui of January 1900 was based upon the
alleged necessity of providing an Emperor of the next genera-
tion below, to carry on fitly the ancestral worship, and so to
avert disaster from the Empire. Princes of the blood of
the same generation have their first personal name the same
(as Albert Edward, Albert Henry, Albert Charles); the
Emperor Tungchih was "christened" Tsai-shun, and his
successor, the Emperor Kwanghsii, Tsai-tien; in the next
generation we have the heir presumptive, selected in 1900,
Pu-chun, the prince who went to St. Louis in 1903, Pu-lun,
and the present Emperor, Pu-yi, whose reign title is Hsiian-
tung. To his people the sovereign is "The Emperor,"
"His Sacred Majesty," "Lord of a myriad years," "The
Son of Heaven"; his personal name is never mentioned
from the moment of his accession, and even its distinctive
initial word must be avoided for ever thereafter, a synonym
or a modified form being used: just as, for example, with
a King Harry, now or at some past time during the present
dynasty on the throne, it would not be permissible to
"harry" the enemy, but some synonym, if possible one
having a similar sound, would be used instead. Each
Emperor selects a "year indicator" or "reign title," by
which to indicate the years of his reign, 1906 being the
thirty-second year of the period Kwanghsii (Continuation
of Glory); and foreigners, from indolence, commonly use
this reign title as if it were the personal name of the sove-
reign, speaking ordinarily of His Majesty Kwanghsii. Under
previous dynasties the Emperors frequently changed their


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 37
reign title, but this has happened only once under Manchu
rule—in 1861, when the first reign title of the infant Em-
peror was changed, concurrently with a coup d'itat, from
Kisiang (Favouring Fortune), to Tungchih (Peace and
Order). On his death the Emperor is canonised, and re-
ceives a temple name, by which he is known in history; the
temple name of the Emperor we know as Tungchih is
Mu-tsung Yi Hwang-ti, "Our Reverent Ancestor the Bold
Emperor." The Emperor's writ runs throughout the ex-
tent of his dominions, and his edicts and rescripts are the
law of the Empire; this is true also of the writs and Orders
in Council of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and
the restrictions on the acts of the two sovereigns differ only
in degree and kind. The Emperor is bound, in the first
place, by the unwritten constitution of the Empire, the
customs which have come down from time immemorial,
through generations of both rulers and ruled, and further
by established precedent as denned in the edicts of his
predecessors, even those of previous dynasties. Then he
is bound by the opinions and decisions of his Ministers,
whose position and weight differ from those of Ministers
of constitutional monarchies only in the mode of their
selection and retention in office. Finally, shut up within
the walls of his palace, he is more sensible of the daily
pressure brought to bear upon him by his personal en-
tourage than his brother sovereigns in the West; but it must
be said of the Manchu rulers that eunuchs have had less
influence at Court than under previous dynasties. A strong
Emperor may assert his own will, and, given a suitable
opportunity and a justifying emergency, may override the
constitution as Abraham Lincoln did under similar circum-
stances; but when an ordinary ruler tries it, the result is
what happened in 1898, when the Emperor Kwanghsii under-
took to modify in a few months the development of many
centuries, and impetuously instituted reforms for which the
Empire was not then ready. The Emperor is also the source
of honours and of office; but this is no more literally true in


38 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
China than in any other country where patronage is exer-
cised from above.
The Empress Consort is chosen by the Emperor (with
perhaps some forcing of the cards) from a bevy of candi-
dates selected by his Ministers from the families of Manchu
nobles; and from the same selection, then or later, he
chooses Secondary Empresses, not commonly exceeding
four in number. The concubines are not limited in number
by any law or custom, and are selected from the daughters
of Manchu nobles and freemen. The Dragon is the armorial
emblem of the Emperor, and the Phoenix of the Empress
Consort, and her title of respect is " Mother of the State."
When the Emperor Hienfeng (properly Wentsung Hien
Hwangti) died in 1861, he left only one son, five years
old, to succeed him, born, not of the Empress Consort,
but of the Secondary Empress, the late Empress Dowager.
Motherhood is divine in China, and it was quite in accord-
ance with law and custom that the Regency over the infant
Emperor should be exercised jointly by the Dowager
Empress Consort (the "Eastern Palace," the east or left
being the side of honour), and the Empress Mother (the
"Western Palace"). Only one of the two, however, had
capacity for government, and the Semiramis of .the Far
East, the Empress Mother, exercised alone the real power,
even before the death in 1881 of her colleague in the regency,
supported then and after by the counsel of Prince Kung,
brother of Hienfeng. The regency was determined in 1873,
when the young Emperor, Tungchih, then seventeen years
old, was declared of age, and was again resumed in 1875
(January), on the death of Tungchih and the accession of the
infant Kwanghsii; it was again determined in 1889, and
again resumed in 1898; and the rule of this woman of
seventy-one * over the youth of thirty-five, her nephew-
adopted-grandson, was strengthened by the capacity of the
ruler, the necessity of the state, and the devoted reverence
due to parents and grandparents.
• In 1906.


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 39
The Imperial Clansmen are those who can trace their
descent back directly to the founder of the dynasty, Hien-
tsu, 1583-1615, and are distinguished by the privilege of
wearing a yellow girdle: collateral relatives of the Imperial
house are privileged to wear a red girdle. The titles of
nobility conferred on members of the Imperial house are
of twelve degrees. Sons of an Emperor are created Tsin-
wang or Kiin-wang, Prince of the first or second order;
their sons descend to Bei-leh, Prince of the third order; arid
their sons to Bei-tze, Prince of the fourth order (Prince
Pu-lun is of this rank); then come four grades of Duke
and four of Commanders, until, in the thirteenth generation,
the descendants of Emperors are merged in the ranks of
commoners distinguished only by their privilege of the
yellow girdle.
The Hereditary Nobility do not descend in rank with
each succeeding generation. Chief among them are the
eight " Iron-capped" (or helmeted) Princes. direct descend-
ants by rule of primogeniture of the eight princes who
co-operated in the Conquest of China; to them is added
the descendant of the thirteenth son of Kanghi. Certain
Chinese families also enjoy hereditary titles of nobility,
chief among them the Holy Duke of Yen (the descendant
of Kung Fu-tze or Confucius), Marquis Tseng (from Tseng
Kwo-fan), Marquis Li (from Li Hung-chang): none of these
titles carry with them any special privileges.
II. Metropolitan Administration
Of the central government of China, Mayers * says:
"The central government of China, so far as a system of
this nature is recognised in the existing institutions, is
arranged with the object rather of registering and checking
the action of the various provincial administrations, than
with that of assuming a direct initiative in the conduct of
affairs. . . . Regulations, indeed, of the most minute and
• "The Chinese Government," by W. F. Mayers, 1878


40 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
comprehensive character, are on record for the guidance
of every conceivable act of administration; and the princi-
pal function of the central government consists in watching
over the execution of this system of rules. The bestowal of
the higher appointments of the civil and military services,
and the distribution of the superior literary degrees as
rewards for proficiency in the studies upon which the entire
polity of the Empire is based, comprise the remainder of
the attributes reserved to the government established at
Peking. The central government may be said to criticise
rather than to control the action of the twenty-one pro-
vincial administrations, wielding, however, at all times the
power of immediate removal from his post of any official
whose conduct may be found irregular, or considered
dangerous to the stability of the State."
These words strike the keynote for the part played by
the Emperor's Ministers at the capital; but, written in
1877, they take too little account of the centralising policy
forced upon the government by the importance of its
foreign relations, and facilitated by the improvement in
the means of communication. In its pristine form the
government was, a generation only back, as Mayers describes
it. When Lord Napier first introduced the element of
national sovereignty into China's foreign relations, he found
no member of the central administration or Envoy of the
Emperor to deal with; he was not even allowed to come
in touch with the Viceroy or the Governor at Canton, but
was ordered to communicate through the authorities at
Canton, the Co-Hong and the Hoppo. The British treaty
of 1842 was signed by the Tartar General of Canton and the
Lieutenant-General of Chapu, who, being responsible for
resistance to aggression on the coasts of Kwangtung and
Chekiang, transferred their headquarters to Nanking to
settle matters with the aggressor; and to them was joined
in the signature, though not mentioned as plenipotentiary
in the preamble, the Viceroy at Nanking, within whose
jurisdiction the negotiations for peace were conducted; no


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 41
Envoy was sent direct from the central government. The
American treaty of 1844 was negotiated and signed by the
Viceroy at Canton (who alone was named in the preamble)
and the Tartar General; and the French treaty, later in the
same year, was signed by the Viceroy alone, the Manchu
Commandant having meantime died. Then ensued a
period of foreign iriction ending in the second war; and
the four treaties negotiated in 1858—the British, French,
American, and Russian—were signed by two members of the
central administration, both Presidents of Boards, and one
of them a Grand Secretary of State.
The hammering of twenty years had welded the Empire
together, and the Imperial Government was compelled, in
its foreign relations, to act as ruler and not as mere super-
visor, and to adopt a more centralised policy. This policy
was made the more necessary from the disorganisation
into which the provincial administration was thrown
by the Taiping rebellion; and the tendency was increased
by the practice of the foreign Envoys in demanding that
all important questions, in the settlement of which by the
Consuls and the local authorities any difficulty presented
itself, should be referred to the capital, and there settled
between themselves and the Imperial Ministers; and the
decisions based on such settlements went down to the
provinces as orders from Peking. By degrees, as the
result of this innovation, the Tsungii Yamen, which had
been organised in 1861 as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
tended more and more to become a body of Cabinet Ministers
and to displace the Grand Council. The first members, in
1861, were Prince Kung, uncle of the Emperor; Kwei
Liang, Grand Secretary, who had negotiated the treaties
of 1858; and Wen Siang, then Vice-President of the Board
of War. This number was increased, until, in 1876,
there were eleven members, including Prince Kung, as
President, including also all the members of the Grand
Council, and including none who were not of the Grand
Council or were ne t President or Vice-President of a Board.


42 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Thus was developed a Cabinet, in the sense common to
the British, American, and French systems; and the
compulsory substitution, in 1901, of a Board of Foreign
Affairs and abolition of the Tsungli Yamen, leaving the
government without a corporate head, caused the resumption
iby the Grand Council of its active functions as the deliberat-
I ing and deciding Cabinet of the Emperor, and the executive
'head of the government. The Grand Council, however,
j inherited the centralised power of the old Tsungli Yamen,
nd the orders emanating from Peking were more direct
than of old. In the old days, too, communication was slow,
and two or three months might elapse before the authorities
at Canton could receive a reply to their request for in-
structions, with the result that much must be left to the
man on the spot. The introduction of steamers brought
Canton, Nanking, and Hankow, the seats of the most im-
portant Viceroyalties, within a week of the capital; and
the extension of the telegraphs, which directly resulted from
the Russian difficulty of 1880, brought the most remote
of the high provincial authorities into immediate touch with
the central administration, and furthered the centralisation
which had already become established; and now the Empire
is ruled from Peking to an extent unknown while China
still played the hermit.
The powers of the central administration are distributed
among several Ministries and numerous minor departments;
but here, only those having a direct influence in shaping the
policy of the Empire will be described. Moreover, as this
book is a record of the past and present, and does not forecast
the future, it is right, in these days of rapid transformation
ot a hitherto immovable Empire, to state that this chapter
was written in October 1906. In the Imperial administra-
tion there are two superior Councils.
The Nui-Ko, Inner Cabinet, commonly called Grand
Secretariat, was the Supreme Council of the Empire under
the Ming Dynasty, but since the middle of the eighteenth
century has degenerated into a Court of Archives. Active


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 43
membership is limited to six, and confers the highest dis-
tinction attainable by Chinese officials. The Grand Secre-
taries have the title of Chung-tang, "Central Hall" (of
the Palace), the best known in recent years being Li Hung-
chang; under the Ming Dynasty they were designated
Ko-lao, "Elders of the Cabinet" (the Colao of the old
Jesuit narratives). Six honorary titles were once attached
to the Grand Secretariat—Grand and Junior Preceptor,
Tutor, and Guardian; but of these the last only is now
conferred as Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, and
that not limited to one incumbent or to Grand Secretaries.
One of the latest to receive the distinction is Sir Robert
Hart, who is thereby entitled to be addressed as Kung-pao,
"Guardian of the Palace."
The Kun-Ki-chu, "Committee of National Defence"
or "Board of Strategy," commonly called the Grand
Council, is the actual Privy Council of the sovereign, in
whose presence its members, not usually exceeding five in
number, daily discuss and decide questions of Imperial
policy. Its members usually hold other high offices, gener-
ally that of President of a Board.
The Tsungli Yamen, described before, was organised
in 1861 and abolished in 1901. The posts of Imperial
Superintendents of Trade for the Northern Seas (the Viceroy
at Tientsin), and for the Southern Seas (the Viceroy at
Nanking), created also in 1861, have continued to be held *
and their functions exercised by those officials.
The actual administration of Imperial affairs is in
the hands of the "Six Boards," later nine in number—
viz.:
1. Li Pu, Board oiXivil Office, the dispenser of
patronage, controlling appointments to all posts in
the regular hierarchy from District Magistrate (Hsien)
up.
2. Hu Pu, Board of Revenue, controls the receipt
• The Northern superintendency was attached to the Tientsin
Viceroyalty only in 1870.


44 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and expenditure of that portion of the revenue and
tribute which comes to Peking, or is under the control
of the central administration.
3. Lee Pu, Board of Ceremonies, an important
Ministry at an Asiatic Court.
4. Ping Pu, Board of War, controls the provincial
forces only. The Manchu military forces are con-
trolled by their own organisation attached to the
Palace. This Board also controls the courier service.
5. Hing Pu, Board of Punishments, a department
of Justice for the criminal law only, and dealing
especially with the punishment of officials guilty
of malpractices.
6. Kung Pu, Board of Works, controlling the
construction and repair of official residences through-
out the Empire, but having no concern with canals
or conservancy, roads or bridges.
The new Ministries additional to the old "Six Boards"
were the following:
7. Wai-wu Pu, Board of Foreign Affairs, instituted
in 1901 in succession to the Tsungli Yamen.
8. Shang Pu, Board of Commerce, instituted in
1903.
9. Hioh Pu, Board of Education, instituted in
1903.
These Boards are organised on the same plan. Each
has two Presidents—Shang-shu, addressed as Pu-tang, "Hall
of the Board "—of whom one is by law Manchu and one
Chinese. (An edict issued in 1906 directed that this limita-
tion should no longer be observed.) Viceroys have, ex
officio, the honorary title of President of a Board, usually
of the Board of War. Each Board has also four Vice-
Presidents—Shih-lang, addressed as Pu-yuan, " Court-yard
of the Board "—two being Manchu and two Chinese (subject
to the edict). Governors of provinces have, ex officio, the
honorary title of Vice-President of a Board, usually of the
Board of War. They all have an equipment of Secretaries,


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 45
Overseers, Assistants, etc., quant, suff., and are divided into
sub-departments according to their needs.
Other departments of the government exist at Peking,
with functions not limited to any one Board or one branch
of the affairs of State; but only the more important need
be mentioned.
Tu-cha Yuan, " Court of Investigation," common-
ly called the Court of Censors. Viceroys have the
honorary title of President, and Governors of Vice-
President, of the Censorate. The " Censors" remind
one somewhat of the Censors and somewhat of the
Tribunes of Ancient Rome; their duty is to criticise,
and this duty they exercise without fear, though not
always without favour.
Tung-cheng Sze, " Office of Transmission," deals
with memorials to the Throne.
Ta-li Sze, " Court of Revision," exercises a general
supervision over the administration of the criminal
law.
Han-lin Yuan, " College of Literature," exercised
control over the education of the Empire until super-
seded by the Board of Education, and continues to
exist as a memorial of a glorious past. It is also
charged with the custody and preparation of the
historical archives of the dynasty, but many of its
records were burnt in 1900.
III. The Provincial Administration
It has been explained that the provinces, in actual
practice in the past and in theory to-day, occupy a semi-
autonomous position vis-d-vis the Imperial Government;
in some aspects they may be said to be satrapies, in others
to resemble the constituent states of a federation. Either
comparison is too sweeping, however, without careful study
of the differences. The comparison with states would be
more exact if for "state" were substituted "territory,"


46 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
such as those of the American Union, which have their
executive and judicial officers appointed by the central power
and removable at its pleasure, but have local autonomy for
the levy of taxes and the administration of the law; but in
this comparison the difference must always be remembered
between the Occident, which insists on local self-govern-
ment, and the Orient, which is always governed by the
strong hand. The provinces are satrapies to the extent
that (speaking of the past), so long as the tribute and
matriculations are duly paid, and the general policy of the
central administration followed, they are free to administer
their own affairs in detail as may seem best to their own
provincial authorities. But no satrap has existed under
the present dynasty since its first half-century, when Wu
San-kwei was given the satrapy of Yunnan and Kweichow
as a reward for his services in the conquest, and in the end
had to be brought to subjection as a rebel against the
sovereign power. With much latitude in the exercise of
their power, many restrictions are imposed on the individual
officials.
, / All officials in the provinces, down to District Magistrate,
are appointed from Peking; for the lower posts the high
provincial authorities may, and do, recommend; but it is
Peking which appoints, and it is only the central govern-
ment which can promote, transfer, or cashier. This keeps
the provincial officials, from the highest to the lowest, in a
proper state of discipline. Appointment to one post is made
for a term of three years; for Viceroys and Governors this
limitation is often, even usually, disregarded, as when we
see Li Hung-chang holding the Viceroyalty at Tientsin for
nearly thirty years continuously; but this exception is
explained by the desire to utilise to the utmost the great
experience of these high officials, and by the strong party
backing which put them in their high positions, and which
is strengthened by the patronage which is then at their
disposal. For officials lower in rank the rule is almost
universally followed; they may be reappointed once, but


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 47
at the end of their second triennial term at latest they must
strike root afresh in new surroundings, and, incidentally,
must again contribute to the maintenance of their superiors,
as is explained in Chapter IV. To some especially lucrative
posts appointments are made for one year only.
Another restriction is peculiar to China, and is never
relaxed; no official is ever appointed to a post in the
province of his birth. The military are an exception, but
they exercise little influence, and Manchuria was up to 1907
governed by Manchus; otherwise the rule is invariable.
The Chinese never voluntarily abandon the homestead, or
surrender their interest in the ancestral shrine; and every
official is an alien to the people he rules, often unable to
understand the dialect they speak. He brings his family
connections with him as secretaries and purveyors, and,
if he is a Viceroy or Governor, he brings a bodyguard of
his co-provincials, loyal to his person; but otherwise he is
surrounded by aliens. No Hupeh man may hold an official
post in Hupeh, nor Kiangsu man in Kiangsu. When Li
Hung-chang left the Viceroyalty at Tientsin, the post to
which he would naturally have gone was the other great
Viceroyalty, that at Nanking; but his native province,
Anhwei, is in the Nanking Viceroyalty, and he went to
Canton instead. Tsen Chun-siian, a man of great force
of character, native of Kwangsi, made a name as provincial
Treasurer of Kwangtung, and was promoted to be acting
Viceroy of Szechwan; in 1903 he was the obviously indi-
cated man to restore order in the Canton Viceroyalty, and
was sent back there; but though, as a Kwangsi man, he
could rule at Canton as provincial Treasurer of Kwangtung,
he could not be substantive incumbent at Canton of the
Viceroyalty of which Kwangsi forms part, and went there-
fore as acting Viceroy; in 1906 he was appointed sub-
stantive Viceroy to Yunnan.
Another practice is a matter of policy rather than of
rule, and is only possible in a country where all appointments /
are made by a central authority. Parties exist in China


48 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
as in other countries, and as in other countries are as often
the following of a man as of a principle. In the exercise
of patronage at Peking the principle of divide et impera in
the provinces is followed in this as in other ways. The
principle is that which animated Washington in the selection
of his first cabinet, and may be understood if we suppose
that in the United States the federal government appointed
to any state a Republican as Governor, a Democrat as
Lieutenant-Governor, a Republican as State Secretary, a
Democrat as State Treasurer, and so on. For three decades
from 1860 there were two great parties in China, the Hunan
men and their adherents, following Tseng Kwo-fan, and
later Tso Tsung-tang, and the Anhwei men and their
adherents, following Li Hung-chang and Li Han-chang;
the former were generally conservative, and the latter
generally, but moderately, progressive, and the men of
other provinces, disregarding provincial lines, ranged
themselves with one or other of these parties. Latterly
the Canton party, ultra-progressive, after a check in 1898,
has again come to the front. In making provincial appoint-
ments care is always taken to balance these parties; and in
the general administration, exercising their functions at
the provincial capital, an official will seldom be of the same
party as his immediate superior or his immediate sub-
ordinate, while the appointments to prefectures and magis-
tracies will be fairly divided between the parties. This,
of course, implies that the Emperor is able to maintain the
same balance of influence in his Ministries, apart from the
equilibrium maintained between Manchu and Chinese. In
the provinces further equilibrium is maintained by the
occasional appointment of Manchus, who are above party,
and who number usually about a fifth of the official hierarchy.
With all these balances and checks much more may be
left to the local authority, and, so long as the province
furnishes its quota towards the maintenance of the Imperial
Government and preserves a semblance of order, or settles
its disturbances with the means at its disposal, it is left to


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 49
go its own way and to have a quasi-autonomy. But, while
these rights are granted and direct governance is reduced
to a minimum, there is also an absence of direct oversight
and of holding the provinces responsible for the due per-
formance of their duties. If a breach of the Yellow River
occurs in Honan, the Honan authorities must attend to it;
but it is no part of their duty to so direct the work of re-
storation that the adjoining province of Shantung shall not
suffer; that is the concern of the Shantung authorities.
If a rebellion in Kwangsi is held in check, and the rebels,
cornered, escape across the Hunan border, "e'en let him
go, and thank God you are rid of a knave "; they are then
the affair of the Hunan authorities. Salt-smugglers on the
border between Kiangsu and Chekiang have a merry time
dodging back and forth across the border, and are brought
to book only on the rare occasions when the two provinces
loyally join forces. This will be remedied with the further
centralisation of power; but we are dealing with China as
it has been and is.
The administrative organisation of each of the provinces
is much the same, and the duties of each of the officials will
now be described.
Tsung-tu, commonly called Chihtai, Governor-General,
ordinarily styled Viceroy, though there is nothing in the
office or its title of the viceregal idea. As ex officio Presi-
dent of a Board, he styles himself and is addressed as Pu-
tang. He is the highest in rank of the civilian officials of
the provincial administration, but in theory ranks after,
though he is not subordinated to, the Tartar General, when
one is stationed within his viceroyalty; and he has control
over the military forces, other than the Manchu garrison,
within his jurisdiction. In some cases he is actually Gover-
nor, though with the power and rank of Governor-General,
of one province only; in others he has jurisdiction over two
or three provinces, each of which has (by the old theory)
its own Governor; and still other provinces, each with its
Governor, are subordinated to no Governor-General. The
4


50 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
distribution is shown by the following table, in which " ex-
Governor " indicates that a Governor was installed up to
1905, in which year an Imperial edict abolished the Governor-
ship of those provinces in which a Viceroy had his seat.
Metropolitan Province :—
Chihli .. no Governor
Three adjoining Provinces:
Shantung .. Governor
Shansi .. Governor
Honan .. Governor
Chihli (Tientsin)
Viceroy.
under no Vice-
roy.
Outlying Provinces :—
Kiangsu
.. Governor*
Liang-Kiang
Anhwei
.. Governor
(Nanking)
Kiangsi
.. Governor
Viceroy.
Shensi
.. Governor
Shen-Kan
Vice-
Kansu
.. no Governor
roy.
Fukien
.. ex-Governor
Min-Che
Vice-
Chekiang
.. Governor
roy.
Hupeh
.. ex-Governor
Hu - Kwang
Hunan
.. Governor
Viceroy.
Szechwan
.. no Governor
Szechwan
Vice-
roy.
Kwangtung
.. ex-Governor
Liang - Kwang
Kwangsi
.. Governor
Viceroy.
Yunnan
.. ex-Governor
Yun-Kwei
Vice-
Kweichow
.. Governor
roy.
For the Eighteen Provinces there are thus eight Viceroys,
and originally fifteen Governors, now reduced to eleven.
The Viceroy, though of higher rank and looming larger in
the eyes of the world, is in the provincial administration
* Not abolished, because the provincial capital, seat of the
Governor, is Soochow, while the Viceregal residence is Nanking.


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 51
a superior colleague to the Governor, and in all matters,
orders to subordinates or memorials to the Throne, the two
act conjointly.
SOn-fu, commonly called Futai, the "Inspector" or
Governor; addressed as Pu-yuan by virtue of his Vice-
Presidency of the Board of War. He is the supreme head
of the province, except in so far as his action is restricted by
the presence of a Viceroy. The post has been abolished
(in 1905) in those provinces in which a Viceroy resides.
Pu-cheng Shih-sze, commonly called Fantai, Provincial
Treasurer, with some of the functions of a Lieutenant-Gover-
nor. He is the nominal head of the civil service in each
province, in whose name all patronage is dispensed, even
when directly bestowed by the Governor, and is treasurer of
the provincial exchequer, in this capacity providing the
Imperial Government with a check on his nominal superior,
the Governor.
An-cha Shih-sze, commonly called Niehtai, Provincial
Judge. He is charged with the supervision over the criminal
law, and acts as a final (provincial) court of appeal in
criminal cases, and has jurisdiction over offences by pro-
vincial officials. He also supervises in a general way the
Imperial courier service.
Yen-yOn Shih-sze, Salt Comptroller, in some province*,
and Yen-yiin Tao, Salt Intendant, in other provinces, con-
trol the manufacture, movement, and sale of salt under the
provincial gabelle, and the revenue derived from it.
Liang Tao, Grain Intendant, in twelve of the eighteen
provinces, controls the collection of the grain tribute, in
kind or commuted.
The last four officials, the Sze-Tao (or as many of them
as may be found in the province) next below the Governor,
constitute ex officio the Shan-how Kii, "Committee of Re-
organisation," a deliberating and executive Board of pro-
vincial government; and the six enumerated above form
the general provincial administration, residing at the
capital, except that the Chihli Viceroy now (since 1870)


52 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
resides at Tientsin, and the Liang-Kiang Viceroy has his
seat at Nanking.
Below the Fantai in rank and above the Niehtai is the
Ti-hioh Sze, Commissioner of Education, a new post
created on the institution of the Hioh Pu in 1903. This is
not an administrative post, and its incumbent is not a
member of the Shan-how Kii.
The unit for administrative purposes within the province
is the Hsien, or district, as will be explained below; two or
three or more (up to five or six) districts collectively form
a Fu or prefecture; and two or more prefectures are placed
under the jurisdiction of a Taotai. There are also two
other classes, the Chow and Ting, each of two kinds; the
Chow and Ting proper are a superior kind of Hsien, being
component parts of a Fu; the Chihli-chow and Chihli-ting
are an inferior kind of Fu, both having as direct a relation
to the provincial government as a Fu, but the latter dis-
tinguished from the Fu by having no Hsien subordinated
to it.
Fen-sGn Tao, the "Sub-Inspector," commonly trans-
lated Intendant of Circuit, and usually called Taotai; has
administrative control over a circuit comprising two or
three Fu, or sometimes one or two Fu and a Chihli-chow
or a Chihli-ting, and is in certain matters the intermediary
of communication between them and the provincial govern-
ment; but the circuit is not an official division of the
province, and is nowhere marked on any map. He is the
civil authority in control of the military forces within his
jurisdiction, and as such is distinguished from Salt and
Grain Taotais by the title Ping-pei Tao, "the Taotai (in
charge of) military preparation." He is usually the Super-
intendent (colleague of the Commissioner) of the Custom
House, if any, within his circuit, and is then styled Kwan
Tao, "Customs Taotai "; but this is not the case in the
Kwangtung ports, where formerly the Hoppo, and since
1904 the Viceroy, is Superintendent, nor in the Fukien
ports, of which the Tartar General holds the post. At


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 53
Tientsin there is a special Customs Taotai in addition to
the territorial Taotai.
Chih-Fu, the "Knower of a Prefecture," commonly
translated Prefect. He is supervising officer of the largest
political division within a province, the Fu, of which each
province has from seven to thirteen, with a total of 183 for
the Eighteen Provinces. He deals more with the external
relations of his Fu than with its internal administration,
and is more a channel of communication than an executive
officer, but acts as a court of appeal from the Hsien's
court. He has no separate Fu city, but the Hsien city
in which he resides is known generally by the Fu name,
though on Chinese maps both the Fu and Hsien names
are printed.
Tung-Chih, the " Joint Knower " or Deputy Prefect, is
either in charge of a Chow or Chihli-ting, or exercises the
delegated power of a Prefect in a branch of his functions,
such as maritime defence, water communications, control
of aboriginal tribes, etc.
Tung-pan, Assistant Deputy Prefect, holds office under
the Prefect, n charge of police matters, revenue, etc.
Chih-Chow, "Knower of a Chow," is either in charge
of a Chihli or independent Chow, with prefectural functions,
and subordinated to no Prefect but reporting direct to the
provincial government; or is, like a Tung-chih of the first
class, in charge of a subordinated Chow. Under this grade
are also Chow-tung and Chow-pan.
Chih-Hsien, "Knower of the Hsien," or District
Magistrate, whose functions will be described below. In
the Eighteen Provinces there are 1,443 Hsien and 27 in
Manchuria, making 1,470 in all. Below the Chih-hsien
are subordinate officials—Deputy Magistrate, Sub-Deputy
Magistrate, Superintendent of Police, Jail Warden, etc., etc.,
but they have no independent status.
The "Fu Chow Hsien" constitute the general ad-
ministrative body of the provincial civil service. They are
charged in varying degrees with the collection of revenue,


54 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the maintenance of order, and the dispensation of justice
as well as with the conduct of literary examinations and
of the government courier service, and in general with the
exercise of all the direct functions of public administration.
A specimen proclamation, given by Mr. Parker,* well
illustrates the gradations of rank of the provincial officials
from highest to lowest.
"The Magistrate has had the honour to receive
instructions from the Prefect, who cites the directions
of the Taotai, moved by the Treasurer and the Judge,
recipients of the commands of their Excellencies the
Viceroy and Governor, acting at the instance of the
Foreign Board, who have been honoured with His
Majesty's commands. . . . [commands end.] Respect
this. Duly communicated to the Yard, or Yards
[end of line], who command the sze [end of line], who
move the tao [end], who instructs the fu [end], who
sends down to The Hsien, etc. [Note how the Hsien,
as imperial agent, gives himself capital letters.] We
therefore enjoin and command all and several, etc."
The same gradation is also exemplified in the accom-
panying diagram, in which, however, the exigencies of space
require the apparent subordination of the Taotai to the
Sze, while he is actually "with but after " the Sze. His-
torically the Governor is an interloper, dating back only to
the Ming Dynasty, being originally a visiting inspector
delegated by the Imperial Government to supervise and
report on the working of the provincial administration, but
tending by degrees to become a fixture; in some important
functions of government the Pu-cheng Shih-sze, the original
Governor, the present Provincial Treasurer, still in theory
remains the chief. The Viceroy dates back only to the last
century of Ming rule. The Taotai is still more modern,
dating from the beginnings of the present dynasty. So is
the Fu, but historically he is the modern representative of
• "China, Her History, etc," by E. H. Parker, 1901.








THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 55
the thirty-six provincial rulers of the Tsin dynasty (b.c. 221)
and of the Han which followed it. The Chow is also a
modern revival, representing the rulers of provincial areas
(Chow) instituted B.C. 140. The Hsien is perhaps the
oldest.
A few words must be said on the functions of government
in the provinces which are not provided by the official
hierarchy. Every Chinese official is supposed to be qualified
to undertake every branch of human enterprise, from
railway engineering to street scavenging, from the inter-
pretation of the law to the execution of criminals, and to
accept full responsibility for the consequences of his acts
or the acts of his subordinates. In effect, however, this
Jack-of-all-trades attitude is offset by the natural wish for
expert aid, and by the equally natural tendency to create
a gainful office whenever possible. Extra-official functions
are delegated by the responsible officials, just as in Mas-
sachusetts the elected executive delegates certain of his
functions to police, railway, insurance and charity com-
missions nominated by himself—i.e. by the exercise of
patronage. In China this delegated employment is actually
so-called, Chai-shih; and the Director of an arsenal con-
trolling the expenditure of millions, the officials of the
likin collectorate, the Viceroy's adviser on international
or on railway matters, and a deputy who does little more
than carry messages, are alike in theory only the delegates
ad hoc of the appointing power. These unofficial officials
are selected from the official class, the class known as
"expectant" Hsien, Fu or Tao, men qualified to serve in
the posts for which they are expectant, inscribed on the
register of the Board of Civil Office, but not yet nominated
to a substantive post. Entry to this state of expectancy
is in theory the result of examination in literature; this
is a glorious tradition; a hundred years ago it was in
the main probably true, but to-day money and political
influence are the keys which open the gates of political
preferment.


56 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
IV. The Township and Village
The Hsien is the civic, political, judicial and fiscal unit
of Chinese life; it comprises one walled city,* or in the case
of many of the provincial capitals the half of a walled city
(in the case of Soochow the third of the city), with the
country immediately around it. In it every Chinese sub-
ject is inscribed, and this inscription he does not willingly
forfeit or abandon, no matter to what part of the Empire
or of the outer world his vocation may call him. Here is
his ancestral temple if he is of the gentry, his ancestral
home in any case; here will he return, if permitted, in the
evening of his life, and here will his bones be sent should he
die abroad. During the whole of his life he is identified
with his Hsien; it may be convenient, and may elucidate
his political policy, to speak of Li Hung-chang as an Anhwei
man, but to his fellow-countryman he is the Hofei(hsien)
man.
The official head of this district is the Chih-hsien, who
may be called Mayor, if it be understood that the municipal
limits extend until they meet the territory of the adjoining
municipalities. His official salary may be from Tls.1oo
to Tls.300 (£15 to £50) a year, with an allowance "for the
encouragement of integrity among officials" amounting
to three or four times his salary; the emoluments of his
office, however, may be from a hundred to a thousand times
his nominal salary, but from them he has to provide for
the maintenance of his subordinates and his superiors, as
is explained in Chapter IV. He is appointed to his post
generally from the list of expectants, either because he is
the son of his father, or because of a sufficient contribution
to what in Western countries would be the party campaign
fund, or because of good work done in a Chai-shih; occa-
sionally, even now, a high scholar is appointed because of
his scholarship, but it is seldom to a lucrative post. To
• The cases of cities without walls, in outlying corners of the
Empire, are so very few as not to affect the general statement.


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA
57
the different districts of the Empire are applied, according
to the facts of the case, none or one or two or three or
all of the four qualifying adjectives, "busy, troublesome,
wearisome, difficult." * The Hsien is duly equipped with
Treasurers, Collectors, Secretaries, Clerks, Jailers, Runners,
Constables, etc., many of whom hold their position by
hereditary right or custom; but an official in China, though
he may delegate his functions, can never delegate or absolve
himself from responsibility, and the Hsien is personally
responsible for every act of what we may call the municipal
government. He is everything in the municipality, and
some of the most important of his functions must be
described.
The judicial function is the most important. He is
Police Magistrate, and decides ordinary police cases. He is
Court of First Instance in all civil cases; the penalty for
taking a case first to a higher court is fifty blows with the
bamboo on the naked thigh; appeal from his court lies to
the Fu, and by that time the resources of the litigants are
usually exhausted. Civil cases are usually settled by the
gilds in towns, and by village elders or by arbitration of
friends in the country; but they may come before the
official tribunal, when the plaintiff wishes his pound of
flesh and the blood of his victim as well. The Hsien is also
Court of First Instance in criminal cases, though a first
hearing may for convenience be held by an Assistant Magis-
trate ; appeal lies to the Fu, and cases involving the death
penalty are reviewed by him; death warrants are signed
by the Niehtai, except in case of rebellion or of riot capable
of being stigmatised as such, when summary justice is
inflicted. Appeal from the death penalty may also, and
in the case of officials does, go to the Hing Pu at Peking.
The Hsien is also coroner, with all the duties of that office,
and hears suits for divorce and breach of promise; he is
also prosecuting attorney, while a defendant may employ
* "The Office of District Magistrate in China," by Byron Brenan.
Journal, North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898.


58 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
a lawyer only to draw up his plea, but not to conduct his
defence; he is also sheriff to execute all judgments of his
own or a superior court; and is jail warden, responsible for
the custody and maintenance of prisoners before and after
trial. If there is any part of the judicial function which
has been omitted, he is that too.
The fiscal function comes next in importance. As is
explained in the next chapter, the Hsien is the agent of the
provincial and of the Imperial administrations in collecting
the land tax and the grain tribute, but he has no concern
with the special tributes or with the salt gabelle or likin;
with them his sole connection is the duty of protecting the
collectors.
He is also Registrar of Land, and the system of verifica-
tion is so thorough that a deed of sale certified by his seal
may be accepted as a warranty of title.
He is Famine Commissioner for his district. It is his
duty to see that the public granaries are kept full, and to
distribute relief in time of distress. He is also Moth and
Locust Commissioner to combat those plagues, and, except
along the Yellow River, is solely responsible for the pre-
vention of floods and reparation of their damage.
He is the local representative of the Kung Pu and
the Provincial Treasurer in the custody of official buildings,
and sees to the maintenance in order of city walls,* prisons,
official temples, and all other public buildings; and must
maintain the efficiency and provide for the expenses of the
Government courier service from border to border of his
district. From his own funds he must execute such repairs
as are ever effected to bridges and the things called roads,
must see that schools are maintained, and must call upon
the wealthy to contribute for public and philanthropic pur-
poses. He maintains order, sees to the physical well-being
of his district, and is the guardian of the people's morals.
* In cities like Soochow, divided between two or three Hsien,
the maintenance of the walls is not also divided, but is entrusted to
the superior officer, the Fu.


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 59
These are the principal functions of the Mayor of the
Chinese municipium, and under the paternal government
of this " Father and Mother of the People " the ruled might
be expected to be a body of abject slaves. This is far from
being the case. In most countries the people may be
divided into the law-abiding and the lawless; in China a
third division must be noted—those who, though innocent
of offence, come within the meshes of the law through the
machinations of enemies. This, however, only serves to
redress the balance, since the Chinese are essentially a
law-abiding people, and, in the country at least, are guilty
of few crimes below their common recreations of rebellion
and brigandage. These they indulge in periodically when
the harvest is in, if for any reason, such as flood or drought,
the crops have been deficient; but, apart from this and
apart from the regular visits of the tax-collector, it is
doubtful if the actual existence of a government is brought
tangibly to the notice of a tenth, certainly not to a fifth,
of the population. The remaining eighty or more per cent.
live their daily life under their customs, the common law
of the land, interpreted and executed by themselves. Each
village is the unit for this common-law government, the
fathers of the village exercising the authority vested in
age, but acting under no official warrant, and interpreting
the customs of their fathers as they learned them in their
youth. The criminal law is national; but, with a more
or less general uniformity, each circumscription has its own
local customs in civil matters. Questions of land tenure,
of water rights, of corvées (when not Imperial), of temple
privileges, of prescriptive rights in crops, may, in details,
differ from district to district, will probably differ from
Fu to Fu, and will certainly differ from province to province.
Such differences are, however, immaterial; the man of
the country knows possibly only his own village and is not
concerned with any district other than his own. That
local custom in an adjoining district would alienate from
him the foreshore accretion to his own farm concerns hira


60 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
but little, if the custom of his own district grants it to
himself; while the resident in the former does not think
of claiming rights which were never claimed by his fathers.
In matters of taxation, too, custom is the guiding principle.
The government and the tax-collector are always trying
to get more; this is understood; but the people, strong-
based on custom, maintain an unending struggle to pay
this year no more than they paid last year, and increment
is wrung from them only after an annually renewed contest.
In case of a general and marked increase the struggle is
more pronounced, and may lead to riot and arson in the
case of villagers, and in the case of traders to the peculiarly
Chinese method of resistance, the "cessation of business,"
a combination of lock-out, strike, and boycott—a strong
weapon against the magistrate, whose one aim is to serve
his term without a disturbance sufficiently grave to come
to the notice of his superiors.
The official head of the village is the Tipao, "Land
Warden," nominated by the magistrate from the village
elders, but dependent upon the good will of his constituents.
Several small villages may be joined under one Tipao, and
a large village will be divided into two or three wards, each
with its Tipao; while a village which, as is often the case,
consists of the branches of one family holding its property
in undivided commonalty, will have naturally as its Tipao
the head of the family. The Tipao acts as constable, and
is responsible for the good conduct and moral behaviour
of every one of his constituents; he is also responsible for
the due payment of land tax and tribute. He is the official
land-surveyor of his village, and has the duty of verifying
titles and boundaries on every transfer of land; and the
fees and gratuities from this, and the power over his fellow-
villagers given by the other duties of the post, endow the
Tipao with so much local importance, that the old com-
munal theory is lost to a great extent, and the appointment
is often in practice a matter of purchase.
The town is considered a collection of villages, being


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 6l
divided into chia, "wards," each with its Tipao, whose
duties are the same as those of his country colleague. The
town has, however, its commercial questions, but these
are almost, if not quite, invariably settled by the Gild
concerned, in accordance with gild rules, and are seldom
brought to the cognisance of the officials.
Of the relations between town and country it may be
said that the interests of the countryman, peaceful and
law-abiding, are sacrificed to those of the town dwellers,
rowdy and competitive. The direct taxes, land tax and
tribute, are assessed on rental value for farming land, and
town property is subjected to no great increase from this
rating. The movement of food supplies, too, is prohibited
or sanctioned, not according to the interests of the producing
farmer, but to meet the needs of the consuming townsman.
The Army
The military organisation of the Chinese Empire is
divided into two branches, the Manchu and the Chinese.
MANCHU MILITARY ORGANISATION
Dating from the time of the Manchu conquest during
the first half of the seventeenth century, the Manchu
"nation in arms " has been divided into eight " Banners,"
three superior and five inferior. The three Superior Banners
are: (i) The Bordered Yellow (yellow being the colour of
the Imperial family); (ii) The Plain Yellow; and (iii) The
Plain White. The five Inferior Banners are: (iv) The
Bordered White; (v) The Plain Red; (vi) The Bordered
Red; (vii) The Plain Blue; and (viii) The Bordered Blue.
Each of the eight Banners is further divided into three
"nations "—viz., (a) Manchu, (b) Mongol, and (c) Chinese,
the last consisting of the descendants of the natives of
North China who joined the Manchu invaders during the
time of the conquest. Just as every Chinese is inscribed
in his native district, in which he is liable (in theory) to


02 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
tribute while living, and to which his bones are taken when
dead, so all living Manchus and -all descendants of the
Mongol and Chinese soldiery of the conquest are inscribed
in their proper Banners, under which they (are supposed to)
fight to maintain the conquest and receive their quota of
tribute and other (theoretic) benefits of the conquest.
/Each Banner (Ki) has for each of its nations (Kusai) a
Lieutenant-General (Tutung), a Deputy Lieutenant-General
(or Brigadier), and Adjutant-Generals, two each for the
Manchu and Chinese, and one for the Mongol nation of the
Banner. Each Banner is divided into regiments (chala),
five Manchu, five Chinese and two Mongol, each with its
Colonel (Tsanling), Lieutenant-Colonel, and Adjutant.
Under them are Captains (Tsoling), each charged with
command and supervision over 70 to 100 households of
the Banner, Lieutenants, and Corporals. The main force
of the eight Banners is "encamped " in Manchuria and in
and around Peking, and is provided in the capital with
rations drawn from the tribute rice, of which some two
million piculs (125,000 tons) are received annually. Outside
Peking is the "military cordon" of twenty-five cities of
Chihli, at which are settled military colonies drawn from
the eight Banners. Outside these, again, are the provincial
garrisons.
When the conquest was completed, the Manchus had
the good sense to associate the Chinese with themselves in
the government of the Empire and to hold the country by
garrisons stationed at a few strategic points; and, in the
original scheme, the garrisons in the provinces made a
total of half the garrison of the capital. Of the provincial
garrisons about half were in a northern belt, designed partly
as an outer defence to the capital, partly to look out on
Mongolia; these are the following places:
Shantung: Tsingchow and Tehchow.
Honan: Kaifeng.
Shansi: Kweihwa, Suiyuan, and Taiyuanfu.
Shensi: Sianfu.


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 63
Kansu: Ninghia, Liangchow, and Chwangliang.
The garrisons designed primarily to hold down the con-
quered Chinese were stationed at the following places:
Szechwan: Chengtu.
Hupeh: Kingchow (guarding the outlet of the Yangtze
Gorge).
Kiangsu: Nanking, with sub-garrison at Chinkiang.
Chekiang: Hangchow, with sub-garrison at Chapu, once
its seaport, now silted up.
Fukien: Foochow.
Kwangtung: Canton.
In six provinces there are no garrisons—five of them in
the air strategically, Kiangsi, Hunan, Kweichow, Yunnan,
and Kwangsi, and the sixth, Anhwei, being until Kanghi's
time administratively part of Kiangsu.
In each of the eleven provinces thus constituting the
Marches of the Manchu Empire is stationed a Warden of
the Marches, the Manchu Generalissimo or Field Marshal
(Tsiang Kiin), commonly called Tartar-General, ranking
with but before the Viceroy or Civil Governor-General, not
generally interfering with the civil government, but, though
now innocuous, originally able to impose his will upon his
civilian colleague. Notwithstanding his high rank, he has
now no more power or influence in the defence of the Empire
than the Warden of the Cinque Ports has in that of England.
CHINESE MILITARY ORGANISATION
Apart from the effete Manchu army, the military forces
of the Empire may be divided into two classes: (a) the
ineffective official army under military command; (b) the
effective unofficial army under civilian command. The
official army, constituting the provincial militia, is designated
the Army of the Green Standard, and in the coast and
riverine provinces is divided into land and water forces.
The greater part constitutes the Ti-piao or Commander-in-
Chief's force, being under his direct command; a small


64 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
body constitutes the Fu-piao, or Governor's command;
and, where there is a Governor-General, there is also a
Viceroy's command, Tu-piao. The army divisions are
territorial, the province being the highest unit. The
provincial Commander-in-Chief is the Titu, commonly
styled Titai and addressed as Kiinmen (" Gate to the
Camp"). The forces under his command are divided
into brigades, chen-piao, under the command of a Brigadier,
Tsungping, commonly styled Chentai. The brigades are
divided into territorial regiments, hieh, under a Colonel,
Futsiang, commonly styled Hiehtai; and these again into
battalions, ying (or "camps"). Under the Hiehtai are
Lieutenant-Colonel (Tsantsiang), Major (Yuki), Senior
Captain (Tusze), Junior Captain (Showpei), Lieutenant
(Tsientsung), Sergeant (Patsung). The official hierarchy
of this army exists solely for the purpose of personal profit
and self-maintenance, the last thing they desire being to
lead their brave followers into action, even against an
unarmed mob; while the rank and file exists mainly on
paper, but partly in the shape of gaudy uniforms to be
filled, for inspection purposes, by temporary recruits en-
listed for the day. Only at some places, such as the Kwangsi-
Tonkin frontier, the provincial Commander-in-Chief is
associated in the command of effective tr00ps, outside his
own official organisation, for the preservation of peace and
order and the protection of his district.
The effective army is entirely, except for the possible
intervention of the Titai alone, outside the official military
organisation of the Empire or of the province. In this t00
the unit is the province, and the effective armed forces of
the provinces are under the direct command of the civil
authority, the Viceroys and Governors, who themselves
lead them in chief for the suppression of serious rebellion.
This force dates from the Taiping rebellion (1850-1864), when
the official organisation was found ineffective and un-
warlike, and the provincial rulers, such as Tseng Kwo-fan
in the west and Li Hung-chang in the east, were driven


THE GOVERNMENT—IMPERIAL CHINA 65
to raise bodies of irregulars or volunteers, styled yung
(brave), after the fashion of the volunteers of the French
Revolution or of the year of Leipzig. In these the highest
unit of organisation was the battalion, ying (camp), nomin-
ally of five hundred men, commanded by a battalion-chief,
ying-kwan, divided into five companies, shao, commanded
by a Shao-kwan. For combined action any number of
battalions from two to ten or more formed a command,
with no distinctive name, under a Tung-ling. This con-
stituted the fighting army of China, such as it was, until,
forty years after its first formation, its best representative,
the " foreign drilled " army of the north, went down before
the Japanese in 1894; and on this foundation is erected the
"New Model" army now (1907) in process of organisation.
Note
The devolution of responsibility in the repression of
disorder is shown in the following item of news:
Peking, December 14/A, 1906.
On December 11th, the Grand Councillors personally received
an Imperial Decree to the effect that the rioters on the borders
of Kiangsi and Hunan are furiously raging i and that Tuanfang
(Viceroy at Nanking), Chang Chih-tung (Viceroy at Hankow),
and Tsen Chun-ming (Governor of Kiangsi) are ordered to
despatch troops to the scene of the troubles in order to suppress
the same and capture the culprits and at the same time to give
protection for the railway between Pingsiang and Liling as
well as the mines at Pingsiang and all the foreigners there. In
case of failure the said Viceroys and Governors will be held
responsible.
On December 12th the Provincial Judge of Kiangsi, Ching
Ping-chih, is ordered to take command of the armies from the
three provinces to settle the troubles in the districts affected
by rioters.
5


66 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Nanchang, December 14th.
Ching Ping-chih, Provincial Judge of Kiangsi, left Nanchang
on December 14th for Pingsiang at the order of the Peking Govern-
ment, and General Liu, who is the commander of the Nanchang
Brigade of the Standing Army, and Admiral Hung Wei-lin, with
their forces, followed the Provincial Judge.


CHAPTER 111
THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA
"These two problems, each forming the counterpart of the
other, necessarily arise in the history of every nation, and in every
age: the problem of order, or how to found a central government
strong enough to suppress anarchy; and the problem of freedom, or
how to set limits to an autocracy threatening to overshadow indi-
vidual liberty."—W. S. McKechnik, "Magna Carta."
These are the problems of the West. In the East, as
exemplified by China, there has been only one problem,
that of establishing order; and the problem of securing
individual liberty is one which has never seriously occupied
the attention of Chinese statesmen or thinkers. The
intellect of the nation has ever been drawn into the service
of the government—the agency for establishing order—
and that service has been the one channel for the accumula-
tion of wealth; while agitators and enthusiasts have been
driven into the ranks of the secret societies, finding all vested
interests arrayed against them.
Asiatic nations are normally satisfied with a government
which will give them order, provided that their traditional
customs are not interfered with; and each succeeding
Chinese dynasty has satisfied the aspirations of the Chinese
people so long as it gave a strong and orderly government,
and at the same time admitted the intelligence of China to
a share in the administration. This was the case during the
reign of the first four emperors of the Tsing dynasty of the
Manchus; but with the accession of Kiaking in 1796 corrup-
tion and weakness set in, and the discontent of the people
67


68 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
gave birth to many rebellions. These culminated in the
great Taiping rebellion, which, coming after the government
had been discredited by defeat in a foreign war, overspread
the country, until, in 1853, not one of the eighteen provinces
of China Proper was wholly under the dominance of the
Imperial authority. With this came defeat in another series
of conflicts with foreign Powers—England, France, and
Russia—and in 1860 the dynasty was utterly discredited,
and seemed tottering to its fall. But the Taiping dominion
was negative. Its chief characteristics were bloodshed and
devastation, and it attracted to its ranks none of the ad-
ministrators of the nation; and, in 1864, the Imperial
authority was re-established in all the provinces, with the
full sympathy of the Western Powers.
An opportunity was now given to China to recover and
to regenerate herself. She did neither, and for thirty years
she slumbered. Then came the rude awakening of the war
with Japan, 1894-1895, when she was beaten to her knees
by a Power which previously she had despised; and her
people began dimly to feel that the nation's equipment for
its task was antiquated and ineffective. In 1898 Kang
Yu-wei persuaded the Emperor to institute reforms, excellent
in themselves, but too radical for the rulers of the Empire;
and reform was yet again deferred. The Boxer outbreak
in 1900 was an expression of the feelings of an ignorant
populace, dimly conscious that things were wrong, but not
knowing how to put them right; it was a mad outburst,
and it properly failed, but it awoke the people to a sense of
nationality. Then the Russo-Japanese war, in 1903-1904,
fought on Chinese soil and resulting in the victory of the
Asiatic Power, began to show to the Chinese people great
possibilities in the future.
After 1900 education, on lines outside the limits of Con-
fucian philosophy, was seen to be the essential condition
of progress. In 1872-1875 selected students had been sent to
America, and had there acquitted themselves with credit
in the universities. In 1881 they were recalled, and were


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 69
declared by the hide-bound statesmen of the Empire to have
lost their touch with China and to be unfit for responsible
posts; they were then given employment as interpreters,
telegraph operators, etc., which duties were, it was declared,
all they were fitted for; but from their number China has in
recent years found some of her most capable administrators.
For some years the modern education of the Chinese youth
was left entirely to the American and English mission schools
established in China; but after 1900 even the rulers of the
Empire realised the necessity of reforming education, and
in 1903 the Ministry of Education was created. Schools
were established and colleges founded, and the practice of
sending selected students abroad was resumed. These
students were sent principally to America and to Japan—
some hundreds to the former and, owing to its proximity
and the relatively lower cost, many thousands to Japan;
and it was from the Empire and not from the Republic that
the students of China derived their revolutionary ideas.
From Tokio came the impulse to cast off entirely the ancient
civilisation of the Chinese people, and from the students
educated in Japan came the agitation which was the greatest
danger to a peaceful reform.
A few isolated risings against the government were easily
suppressed, and order was maintained, mainly by paper
reforms, during a few years; for the national demand for
reform was so pronounced that even the statesmen who had
resisted it in 1898, now felt that resistance was no longer
possible. Even the death of the old Empress Dowager, in
November 1908, momentous as it was, seemed to make
no change; and order was still maintained and re-organisa-
tion of the government continued.
In September 1906 an Imperial edict was issued, promis-
ing reform of the official system, the laws and the finances of
the Empire, and re-organisation of the army and navy, and
undertaking to introduce constitutional government within
a few years. On November 6th a further edict abolished
the old ministries, substituting for them thirteen ministries,


JO THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and creating a National Assembly of elected representatives.
In September 1907 an edict placed the National Assembly
on a working basis; and in October Provincial Assemblies
were created. An edict issued on December 25th, 1907,
held out a promise of a future Parliament; and on August
27th, 1908, a second edict laid down a programme for
nine years, at the expiration of which a Parliament was
to be summoned, and full constitutional government estab-
lished; the intervening time was, it was announced, required
for the training of legislators in their duties. At the same
time the draft of a proposed constitution was published, of
which the first article declared that " the Tatsing dynasty
shall rule over the Tatsing Empire for ever, and shall be
honoured through all ages." Other articles defined the
powers of the Emperor, the privileges and obligations of the
subject, the rights and procedure of the Parliament, and
the qualifications for the franchise.
The first Provincial Assemblies were held in October
1909. Their duties were consultative and critical, and not
legislative or executive. With this limit placed on their
power, they could be little more than debating societies;
and the principal result of their discussions was a collective
demand that the summoning of the first national Parliament
should take place within two years. This demand was
rejected in an edict of January 20th, 1910.
The first National Assembly was opened by the Prince
Regent at Peking on October 3rd, 1910, and its presidency
was assumed by Prince Pu-Lun. It at once pressed the
question of an earlier summoning of the first Parliament;
and, after some hesitation, an edict was issued fixing it for
the year 1913. This did not satisfy the Assembly, which
demanded that a Parliament be summoned without delay;
and it further insisted on the responsibility to it of the
members of the Grand Council. The government still
resisted the demand, but, after many agitated debates, the
matter was compromised by an edict of December 25th,
1910, directing that an inquiry and early report on the two


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA y1
questions be made. The Assembly was then prorogued on
January 11th.
Almost simultaneously with the second meeting of the
National Assembly in October 1911 occurred the revolu-
tionary rising at Wuchang, by which possession of that city,
with Hanyang and Hankow, was secured to the forces of
the party opposed to the Manchu dynasty. This rising was
premature, but the plans of the revolutionaries had been
well laid, and, as soon as success had crowned their efforts
at Wuchang, risings occurred throughout middle and
southern China, and in city after city the people renounced
their allegiance to the Empire. Yuan Shih-kai, who had
been driven from office three years before, was recalled to
the rescue of the Imperial Court and given full powers. He
was able to hold the north and even to recover Hanyang and
Hankow, the latter prosperous mart being almost entirely
destroyed by fire in the process; but the united and resolute
attitude of the Republicans in the centre and south, and the
irresoluteness and Bourbonism of the Manchu Court and
nobility combined to make impossible the task he had
undertaken of preserving the dynasty as head of a con-
stitutional monarchy. On February 12th, 1912, the Em-
peror abdicated and the Court withdrew to Jehol, which
had been its city of refuge when the English and French
occupied Peking in 1860. During the intervening fifty years
the Great Tsing dynasty had been kept in power by the
genius and ability of the Empress Tse-hi, the Manchus Prince
Kung and Grand Secretary Wen-siang, and the Chinese
Tseng Kwo-fan, Li Hung-chang and Chang Chih-tung; but
it had forgotten nothing and had learned nothing, and in
the end was a mere anachronism.
The Cantonese Sun Yat-sen had been in exile, with a
price on his head, since 1898, and during that time had been
the moving spirit in the movement for establishing the
Republic of China. On the evident success of the revolution
he returned to his native land, and was, by the Provisional
Assembly at Nanking, declared provisional President of the


72 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Republic. On the abdication of the Emperor he, with self-
denying patriotism, resigned, and Yuan Shih-kai was
designated as provisional President.
A National Council was also formed, and it summoned
a Parliament to meet in April 1913, consisting of a Senate
(Ts'an-yi Yuan) and a House of Representatives (Chung-yi
Yuan). This Parliament, sitting in joint session as a
National Assembly in October 1913, elected Yuan Shih-
kai as President, and Li Yuan-hung as Vice-President,
for the constitutional term of five years.
A month after his election the President ejected from
Parliament the members of the Kwomingtang, the party
opposed to him, thereby reducing Parliament to a number
below the constitutional quorum; and in January 1914
he dissolved this Rump Parliament. He also followed the
Cromwellian precedent by substituting for Parliament a
Council of State, the members of which were nominated
by himself; and, to the end of his life, he governed the
State by Presidential Mandates. He was confronted by
much opposition; but such as was personal and not sec-
tional he overrode ruthlessly, and his government gave
the country the strong administration which it needed.
One phase of opposition he was unable to deal with—that
created by the jealousy between the North and the South.
The North, with Yuan Shih-kai as its leader, would have
accepted a constitutional monarchy in 1911; while the
South, led by the Cantonese, declared for a republic from
the first outbreak of the Revolution; and the fissure be-
tween the two could not be bridged.
In the summer of 1915 an apparently spontaneous
movement was started to re-establish the Empire, with
Yuan Shih-kai as the founder of a new dynasty. His
rule was already as well established as that of Cromwell
had been; his power in the Chinese Republic had, to all
appearance, the same solidity as that of Augustus in the
Roman Republic; but, not content with the reality, he
grasped at the shadow, and announced that he would accept


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA
73
the throne when it should be offered to him. The time was
not propitious. There were already some armed rebellions
against the President's authority, and there were more
when it was officially announced that there was to be a
revival of the consolidated monarchy; the South pro-
nounced against the project, and some even of the Presi-
dent's consistent adherents were alienated; and, at the end
of February, he formally renounced his Imperial ambitions.
Within four months, on June 6th, 1916, he died.
Li Yuan-hung, the Vice-President, succeeded to the
Presidency. He reversed his predecessor's measures, but
was compelled by the force of circumstances to adopt his
methods. He summoned the Parliament which had been
dissolved by Yuan Shih-kai, but within a year, in June
1917, he again dissolved it, chiefly because in it the South
had more power than he was disposed to allow to it. Yuan
Shih-kai had maintained his prestige because he had con-
trolled the army; but the army controlled Li Yuan-hung,
and his power in the State soon vanished. He thereupon
resigned the Presidency.
The culminating event which brought him to this
decision was a renewed attempt to re-establish the Empire.
One military commander, Chang Hsiin, had maintained
himself in the south-western part of Shantung since the
establishment of the Republic, not molesting it, and not
molested by it. Under his leadership and with the support
of his troops the Manchus now made a bid for the throne,
and on July 1st, 1916, an Imperial edict was issued announ-
cing that the Emperor Hsiiantung had again mounted the
throne of his ancestors. On July 7th another edict an-
nounced his second abdication. The conflict had been
decided in Peking itself, and the defeated leader, Chang
Hsiin, had been forced to take refuge in the Netherlands
Legation.
During these three years—1916,1917 and 1918—there
was much disorder in the state of China; and a detailed
account, drawn from the Post-office reports, of the condition


74 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of each province, will show the difficulties created by natural
causes, by personal ambition, or by the predominating rivalry
between North and South—difficulties which constantly
impeded all efforts to establish a strong central adminis-
tration.
Chihli. 1916. The Peking-Chengtehfu mail time-table
was rearranged to permit the couriers to pass over certain
robber-infested sections during daylight.
1917. There were many impediments to postal progress
due to political upheaval, flood, and famine. . . . Owing
to shortage of rain the spring crops were a failure. . . . From
July to October the district suffered from floods, and at one
time as much as 15,000 square miles of territory were inun-
dated to a depth of from 2 to 10 feet.
1918. Highway robbers were active in the north and
south. Many villages in the south were pillaged by bandits
from Shantung, causing the inhabitants of the rural areas
to abandon their homes and crowd into the walled cities for
protection.
Shansi. 1916. Operations suffered much from the state
of unrest in parts of the province, while in the section Outside
the Wall business was more or less at a standstill all the year
on account of the activities of large bands of robbers. . . .
Several towns Outside the Wall were completely looted and
partly destroyed by fire.
1917. Revolting troops in Shansi proper, and roving
brigands in Outside the Wall, combined by their lawlessness
and depredations to hamper postal operations. Besides
pillaging and burning villages and hamlets, they twice looted
one city, captured a second, and besieged two others. Cour-
iers were attacked and mails lost. . . . Beginning from June
martial law was declared in the provincial capital. . . .
Towards the end of the year preventive measures had to be
enforced to meet the outbreak of pneumonic plague.
1918. The province was not much disturbed during the
year except by an epidemic of pneumonic plague.
Honan. 1916. While the past year was a disturbed
one in many parts of the country, Honan remained peaceful.
1917. In the spring and summer drought damaged the
crops; then followed abnormal rains and disastrous floods.
The struggles connected with the restoration of the monarchy


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA
and other political questions tended further to disturb the
tranquillity of the province. . . . Most of the native banks
stopped doing business.
1918. Last year's unfavourable conditions, due to the
political unrest, abnormal rains, the consequent disastrous
floods, and increase of lawlessness in the country, continued
during this year. Native banks closed more of their branches
in the interior.
Shensi. 1916. The northern districts of the province
suffered much from roving bandits. During the year no
fewer than twenty-two towns were pillaged, not to mention
villages and hamlets. Further, there was much severe
fighting, especially around Sianfu, consequent on the political
agitation. . . . Many robberies of mails occurred; seven
couriers were killed.
1917. Bands of mounted brigands roamed through the
province plundering and looting. Towards the end of the
year revolting troops added to the chaos by capturing a
convoy of 250 camels with guns and ammunition for Sze-
chwan, which they proceeded to use for an attack on Sianfu.
. . . After leaving Sianfu the rebels fled west, looting towns
and villages as they went. . . . Trade is in many parts non-
existent. . . . On almost any of the main roads can be
found the walls of what used to be thriving cities, but are now
merely walled enclosures of vacant ground.
1918. Continuous strife, with all its attendant miseries,
has made the year one of the worst in the history of the
province. Bandits have been especially active, their numbers
augmented by bands of disloyal soldiers attracted by the
prospect of wholesale looting. Throughout the province
the tale is one of spoliation, the methods of the robbers
being the same everywhere—intimidation, pillage, extortion,
and even excessive cruelty to those unfortunates who fell
into their clutches. ... In most of the large cities business
was entirely suspended . . . altogether 78 post offices were
looted. As the bandits' sphere of operations included the
whole of the province, nearly all the courier lines have been
interrupted. . . . Recently Mongolian robbers have joined
forces with the provincial bandits ... in addition the
country is overrun by soldiers from the neighbouring pro-
vinces. Devastation is apparent on all sides.
Kansu. 1916. The political troubles elsewhere had


THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
little effect beyond increasing the boldness of local bands of
robbers. . . . Direct postal communication was also in-
terrupted for some time owing to bandits.
1917. Disturbances occurred in March at Kaichow, the
town being looted by bandits, and in May at Kweitehting,
near the Tibetan border, where the brigands had to be sup-
pressed and the city recaptured by Mohammedan troops.
1918. The province was comparatively quiet.
Sinkiang. 1916. Peace was maintained during the
year.
1917. Peace was still maintained. The province is
flooded with a depreciated paper currency.
1918. The province was quiet.
Manchuria. 1916. Many courier lines traverse robber-
infested districts and the mails are frequently endangered,
but during the year only one postal courier met his death.
1917. Political changes, the Great War, the Russian
revolution, highway robberies, and the unprecedented
fluctuation of foreign moneys were the disquieting features
that retarded postal extension in this district. ... At
Kingsingchen Mongolian insurgents raided the town.
1918. The continued unrest in Russia and Siberia ren-
dered necessary a complete suspension of traffic for business
purposes on the Siberian, Amur, and Ussuri Railways ... all
regular steamship communication on the Sungari and Amur
Rivers was hampered. The usual robberies, floods, and snow-
storms were encountered, and the unlimited issue of paper
money did not facilitate postal work.
Shantung. 1916. The tranquillity of the province was
rudely broken by the political uprising, which rapidly assumed
alarming proportions. Place after place along and near the
Shantung Railway was attacked, seized, and looted, not
excepting the two most important commercial centres in
Shantung, Chowtsun and Weihsien, which became storm
centres of the conflict, and ultimately the headquarters of
the leaders of the uprising.
1917. The attempt to restore the monarchy in the
summer and the consequent withdrawal of troops from inland
places caused a recrudescence of highway robbery all over
the province. . . . Drought caused the failure of the wheat
crop; then followed the overflow of the Grand Canal, result-
ing in the worst floods Shantung has seen for many years.


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 77
1918. Robberies have been particularly rife in the
western part of the province. Five postmasters and couriers
kidnapped, two couriers killed; a large number of post offices
looted. The parcel traffic has especially suffered from the
unsafe condition of the roads.
Szechwan. 1916. Szechwan was just settling down to
something like normal conditions when it became one of the
centres of strife over the political changes. Then followed
the invasion of Szechwan by Yunnan and Kweichow troops,
severe fighting, and the restoration of the republican form of
government in March, the cessation of hostilities from April
to June, and, finally, the march of Northern troops on
Chengtu and their defeat by the Yunnan troops. Between
June and November four different provincial Governors held
office. Brigandage was rife, and currency difficulties became
accentuated, making business impossible. Frontier raids
continued unabated. . . . There were 100 cases of loss of
mails and 47 cases of loss of official funds, mainly due
to brigandage; 3 couriers were killed and some severely
wounded.
1917. The incessant bid for military supremacy in this
province developed during the year into the most serious
crisis the province has yet faced. The invasion of Szechwan
by Yunnan and Kweichow troops last year culminated in
April of this year in hostilities at Chengtu between the
invaders and the provincial troops, which resulted, after three
days' severe fighting, in the withdrawal of the Yunnanese.
Great loss of life and property occurred, and about 15,000
families were rendered homeless. . . . The environs of
Chengtu were still held by the Kweichow troops, and bri-
gandage was rife everywhere. At the beginning of July
the monarchy question supplied another casus belli, and the
twelve days' fighting which ensued between the Szechwan
and Kweichow troops resulted in the destruction of one-
eighth of Chengtu city and the loss of thousands of lives.
Northern troops sent into Szechwan to strengthen the
authority of the central government, and the revolt of certain
Szechwan divisions, resolved the struggle into one between
North and South. . . . The fact that the Post Office was
practically the only channel by which goods could go and
come with any chance of safe transport is accountable for the
increase of parcels handled.


THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
1918. The struggle in Szechwan, which had developed
into one between North and South at the end of 1917, con-
tinued with renewed vigour in the opening months of the
year. With their base at Chungking, the Southern troops
advanced by all the routes converging on Chengtu . . . this
campaign lasted for nearly two months. . . . The Tibetan
revolt, minor uprisings of tribes in the Lolos' country, and
brigandage throughout the province, are additional causes
which impeded postal progress.
Hupeh. 1916. Parcels posted and delivered fell off,
due to the disorganisation of business on account of the
political troubles. Two post offices were plundered by
brigands; one courier was killed.
1917. Towards the end of the year the presence of the
opposing Northern and Southern forces made itself felt,
and signs of a panic were not wanting.
1918. British steamers, having been repeatedly fired
upon by disaffected troops, stopped running between Hankow
and Ichang from February 15th to March 6th. . . . Very
few steam launches were plying between Hankow and
Changsha. . . . Railway communication with the north was
interrupted at various times during the summer. . . . Civil
war, activities of bandits, and an epidemic of influenza
interfered very considerably with postal work. Many post
offices were looted by soldiers or bandits.
Hunan. 1916. Civil war broke out at the beginning of
the year and lasted for four months. Martial law was
declared and censorship of mails established. Few couriers
were available, and their routes became unsafe. There were
numerous cases of highway robbery, and twelve cases of rob-
bery of mails. In March the city of Yungshunfu was sacked
by bandits ; a number of post offices were looted or destroyed
by fire. . .. The vast amount of distress and damage, as well as
the general stagnation of trade, caused by the civil war. . . .
1917. The whole province was in a state of unrest and
under martial law; this involved censorship of mails at all
offices. Towards the end of October brigandage became rife,
and in November lawlessness prevailed for more than a
week at Changsha. Some twenty post offices were looted
or destroyed, and in four cases couriers were waylaid and
robbed. The parcel-boat service was suspended on account
of the activities of robber bands. . . . Widespread floods


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA
in the summer ruined the rice crops, and the climax came in
the depreciation of the Hunan provincial government bank-
notes to one-third of their face value.
1918. The year opened with the whole province in a
state of unrest and under martial law, with fighting taking
place in four districts. On March 25th the straggling units
of a beaten army, with the local rascals joining in, began
looting in Changsha, continuing it through the night. At
Yochow steamers were fired on by the soldiers occupying
Linsiang and Loshan. The prolonged civil war and con-
tinued activity of brigands caused extensive devastation in
many parts of the province. In all 77 post offices were looted.
Those at Chuchow and Liling were looted and burned in the
looting and burning of the two cities.
Kiangsi. 1916. The province again suffered from
floods; currency difficulties were also felt. No disturbances
were reported.
1917. Political disturbances and invasion threatened the
province, but each crisis was successfully surmounted and
peace maintained. The paper currency held up. . . .
1918. No acts of brigandage were reported, and the
soldiers gave little trouble. . . . The paper currency was,
not further depreciated.
Anhwei. 1916. During the period of political unrest
censorship of mails was enforced. For a time the more
important cities were under martial law. . . . The worst
floods for many years . . . the number of robbers increased.
Two mails were lost by highway robbery.
1917. There were local disturbances having their origin
in the movements of troops in connection with the attempted
restoration of the monarchy in July. Some towns were
pillaged. The inhabitants of Luchowfu and Chuchow aban-
doned their homes in large numbers. From July to October,
when the provincial troops left for military operations in
Hunan, the province from Luchowfu northwards was in a
state of anarchy. Many brigands emerged and frequent
encounters took place with the troops. In September a
division of soldiers mutinied.
1918. Except for the usual numerous gangs of armed
bandits at large in the northern part of the province, com-
parative quiet prevailed. The majority of the Anhwei
troops were engaged in civil warfare in Hunan.


THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Kiangsu. 1916. Deep political unrest in the domestic
sphere and the far-extending influence of the European war
combined adversely to influence postal operations. . . . For
several months business between Shanghai and south and
south-west China was practically suspended.
1917. The depressing atmosphere created by disorder
within the nation and war without has checked postal
progress. Business was practically suspended between
Shanghai and all provinces to the south and west for months,
while revolt and independence were declared and warlike
operations were in progress. The internal disorder and unrest
in other directions also had their detrimental effect.
1918. The principal hindrance to regularity of the courier
service was brigandage, which was worse than ever before.
. . . Large towns had to keep the city gates closed; some
were looted and burned; kidnapping and murder were rife;
railway trains were held up by brigands, passengers being
carried off for ransom.
Chekiang. 1916. The disturbed condition of the pro-
vince during the first half-year, and in particular during
April when provincial independence was declared, adversely
affected postal work. . . . During the year three couriers
were killed by bandits.
1917. This province has to chronicle temporary declara-
tion of independence, local disturbances, and rebellion of
troops, with the usual looting which accompanies these
outbreaks. . . . Five cases of mail matter lost by highway
robbery occurred.
1918. The Tuchttn was determined to preserve peace
in the province, and cut short any attempt at an uprising.
In one attempted rising at Chilchowfu seven of the ringleaders
were executed.
Fukien. 1916. Some couriers molested by robbers.
1917. Highway robberies were frequent. Heavy floods
and typhoons caused occasional interruptions of mails.
1918. Every evil and calamity apparently concentrated
in this province to strike it at one and the same time. Civil
war, epidemics, floods, famine, lawlessness, and widespread
brigandage, all were experienced. Not a city, and hardly
a village, was spared these evils. The losses incurred as a
consequence by the people throughout the province must
have been as incalculable as their sufferings.


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 8l
Kwangtung. 1916. The conditions of dull trade and
general unrest which prevailed at the close of last year con-
tinued till March, when political disturbances broke out, and
the province suffered the horrors of civil war till September.
In June a Yunnan army, on its way to the North, turned
against Kwangtung and marched on Canton by the North
River. Then Kwangsi troops approached by the West River
and reached within a few miles of the city, which remained
in a state of siege from July 22nd till September nth, when
peace was arranged. In the meantime heavy fighting took
place at several points on the East River. For six months
the whole province was thus in a state of disorder. Robbers
and brigands made the most of the opportunity. Business
and communications almost came to a standstill. Inland
offices were pillaged and burned. Postal agents were cap-
tured and held for ransom. Steam traffic with inland places
was suspended, likewise the operating of many courier and
boat lines. Railway traffic, for the most part, was also
stopped. There were 165 cases of robbery and piracy of
mails; in other 42 cases couriers were held up and robbed
of their belongings by brigands. Three couriers were killed
and 4 seriously wounded.
1917. Until June the province had peace, but the events
since then are now a matter of history. The establishment
of the so-called Military Government; the opening of the
extraordinary parliament; the differences of opinion between
local officials and the Military Government; the revolt of
troops at Waichow, also affecting other places; the declara-
tion of independence against the Kwangtung Government by
Defence Commissioner Mo Ching-yil of Swatow, with conse-
quent fighting at . . . and a dozen other places; the assump-
tion by General Lung Chi-kwang of the Inspector-Generalship
of the Liang-kwang, with the operations, naval and military,
which that step entailed—all these have kept the province
in a state of ferment. Mail services were suspended, com-
merce was at a standstill, and the whole Swatow section
remained till the close of the year in a chaotic condition.
There were 65 cases of brigandage and piracy of mails, besides
20 cases in which couriers were robbed of their own belongings.
Thirty post offices were pillaged or burned.
1918. During the year this province suffered many
calamities; the general dissension in the . country, the
6


THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
brigandage and piracy throughout the province, devastating
floods, and a disastrous earthquake, all combined. The
whole south-western portion of the province, including the
Island of Hainan, suffered from the ravages of the army.
Luichow city was besieged for two months. Namyung city
was taken by storm, and thereafter was for nearly two months
accessible for mails only from Kiangsi. In the Swatow sec-
tion fighting broke out early in the year, and was at its height
from June to August, military operations being conducted
in four districts. Besides 107 courier robberies, there were
50 robberies at post offices, and 8 post offices were burned
after being plundered; 2 postal agents were killed and 2
were captured and held for ransom.
Kwangsi. 1916. In 1915 this province was the victim
of floods; during this year it has suffered from political dis-
turbance. The civil war, and the attack upon the neigh-
bouring province of Kwangtung, caused a great falling off in
the inter-provincial trade. . . . Forty couriers were held up
by bandits, and 18 were robbed of their mails; 1 courier
was murdered.
1917. As in Kwangtung, the opening of the year seemed
to promise peace and prosperity, but political unrest and
two floods falsified this expectation. Trade suffered, several
large business houses in Wuchow and Nanning became bank-
rupt. . . . Bandits held up 28 couriers, and robbed 17 of
their mails; 1 courier was murdered.
1918. The political upheaval, the activities of robber
bands, and the consequent dull trade, retarded postal develop-
ment. Brigandage was rife and robber bands very active.
. . . Couriers were frequently molested; 53 were held up by
highwaymen, resulting in the loss of 25 mails; 3 couriers
were killed and 4 wounded.
Yunnan. 1916. Early in the year Yunnan took the
lead in the agitation against the political changes, and ex-
peditionary forces were despatched against Szechwan and
Kwangtung. An uprising of the aborigines also led to severe
fighting in the south of the province. . . . The roads through-
out the province continued to be infested with bandits.
Thirty-five robberies occurred in which the mails were wholly
or partly robbed, and the personal losses of couriers were
most heavy. Five were killed and 7 wounded.
1917. The same lawless conditions as in 1916 prevailed


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 83
throughout this year also. Outlaws, who were mostly dis-
banded soldiers, made inland travel extremely unsafe. . . .
There were 56 highway robberies in which mails were lost;
3 couriers were killed and 15 wounded. Five towns were
thoroughly looted.
1918. During the year Yunnan continued to maintain its
independence of the central government, and Yunnan troops
stationed at strategical points in Szechwan and Kweichow
dominated the political situation in those provinces. . . ,
The postal authorities have received the most effective and
spontaneous support from the local authorities. The result
has been that, notwithstanding numerous difficulties due to
floods and the unsafe state of the roads owing to bandits
and the turbulent Lolo tribes, postal connections were main-
tained with regularity. . . . Political unrest is followed
everywhere in China by an aftermath of brigandage, and this
has been the case in Yunnan; 80 mails were lost by highway
robbery, 1 post office plundered, 3 couriers killed, and several
wounded.
Kweichow. 1916. On account of the transfer of all
available troops for active service, robberies were numerous.
There were 19 cases of mails lost by highway robbery.
1917. The year opened well, despite the activities of
robber bands. In the last three months, however, when the
confusion in Szechwan and Hunan was at its height, routes
leading to Yangtze provinces were blocked, and Kweichow
merchants practically ceased business. In 24 robberies, 13
mails were lost; 1 courier was killed and many injured.
1918. Since the opening of hostilities in Hunan and
Szechwan in 1917, the routes leading to the Yangtze provinces
cannot be said to have been really open to traffic. They
have been infested by robbers, hence the almost complete
stoppage of trade for the entire year 1918. The deadlock
in the fighting between the North and the South resulted
in a recrudescence of highway robbery all over the province.
Robberies of mails were frequent.
This is the record, province by province, of the state
of China during three years—1916, which saw the death of
Yuan Shih-kai and the short-lived attempt to restore the
Ta-tsing Empire; 1917 and 1918, in which the strife between


84 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
North and South came to the clash of arms and brought
civil war to the Republic. The civil war amounted to little
more than brigandage on a vast scale; since there were no
military commanders with the quality of leadership, and no
disciplined troops capable of winning a decision; but misery
was caused to the people, and difficulties were created for the
administration, both the central and that of the provinces.
Feng Kwo-chang had become acting President in July
1917, governing, as his predecessors had done, through a
nominated Council and by means of Presidential Mandates;
but ultimately, in August 1918, a new Parliament was
summoned, and on September 4th it elected Hsu Shih-
chang to be President, but could not agree on a Vice-
President. Meantime the fissure between the North and the
South had widened, and in the spring of 1918 a rival Parlia-
ment met at Canton. It elected no rival President, but set
up a government of seven "Administrative Directors,"
who issued a public announcement that five provinces
(Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Yunnan, Kweichow, and Szechwan)
had given their entire adhesion to them, and that their
forces were actively engaged in seven other provinces in
rescuing the administration from the control of military
oligarchs, and in "fighting to make China safe for de-
mocracy."
During eight years from the establishment of the Re-
public it had, in theory, been administered under the
Provisional Constitution drawn up in Nanking in 1911
and adopted in Peking in March 1912. The Parliament,
which had by two Presidents been twice dissolved, had
delegated to a convention, composed of the leaders of the
nation, the task of drawing up a new and permanent Consti-
tution. It seems hardly worth while to summarise the
existing Constitution, which is only provisional, and which
has not at any time been lived up to ; and below is given a
summary of the proposed Constitution, which, it is hoped,
may serve as the charter of a restored and regenerated
Republic.


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 85
The New Draft Constitution
"The sovereignty of the Republic of China is vested in
the entire body of the people." This declaration does not
exist in the constitutions of the United States of America
(which is a federation of sovereign States) or of France, but
it is found in those of Belgium, Chile, and the United States
of Mexico. It may, however, be stated that the relations
of the Chinese people to representative government are
more on the level of the citizens of the Mexican Republic
than of the American.
All citizens are declared equal before the law. No pro-
vision is more necessary for the Chinese nation than this, none
is more disregarded, and none will be more difficult of en-
forcement; but the exposition shows that the Swiss parallel
—" There are neither political dependents, nor privileges of
place, birth, person, or family "—served as model for China.
The citizens shall not be "arrested, imprisoned or
detained in confinement, tried or punished or fined, except
in accordance with the law," and, if detained, may apply
for a writ of habeas corpus. The onlooker rubs his eyes.
Can this be China? This is a startling innovation for China,
and, if it can be carried into effect, will constitute a revolu-
tion more far-reaching in its results than even the trans-
formation of the Empire into a republic.
The inviolability of residence and correspondence,
freedom of speech and writing, and the right of assembly
for a lawful purpose are provided for—quasi-natural rights
in a democratic country such as a republic must needs be;
but in China—when the governors are weak or are scared,
the governed will find these rights far from secure.
The qualifications for the franchise are: adult males;
payment of direct taxes of 2 dollars per annum; posses-
sion of immovable property of a value of 500 dollars; being
a graduate of an elementary or higher school. The alterna-
tive qualifications are sufficiently low, but even so, in a
country with such masses of poverty, many millions are


86 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
excluded; with a nation so utterly ignorant of the very
rudiments of representative government, it is perhaps well
that the franchise is thus restricted.
Powers of Parliament
Parliament has the following powers: to enact new laws
or revise old laws; to amend the constitution; to pass
resolutions having the force of law; to initiate law bills, but
not money bills; to interpellate the government and make
recommendations to it; to elect the President and the
Vice-President, and (the Legislature) to impeach and (the
Senate) to try these officers and Cabinet ministers; to
approve money bills for levying taxes and for expenditure,
and to supervise the expenditure; and to approve declara-
tions of war and treaties with foreign nations. In the per-
formance of their duties members of Parliament are entitled
to full freedom of speech in Parliament, and to exemption
from arrest unless arrested in the act of committing a
crime; in such a case the reason for the arrest must be
reported to the house of which he is a member.
Parliament is bicameral. The Senate consists of 274
senators; 10 elected by each of 22 provincial Assemblies,
54 elected by Electoral Colleges—27 by that of Mongolia,
10 by Tibet, 3 by Chinghai (Kokonor), 8 by the Central
Educational Society, 6 by Chinese resident abroad. Their
term is six years, one-third retiring every two years. In the
composition of the Senate the Constitution follows closely that
of the American Republic, in allotting an equal number to each
of the provinces, irrespective of size, population or wealth.
In one respect the Senate, in the powers it exercises,
departs from the American precedent. In regulating the
relations between one province and another, or between
the central government and the provinces, the decision lies
with the Senate, and not with the Supreme Court; more-
over, if the President's warning to a turbulent or recalcitrant
province is disregarded, he may, with the approval and con-


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 87
sent of the Senate, dismiss the Governor or dissolve the
provincial Assembly.
Money bills must first be presented by the government
to the Legislature (the House of Representatives). The
Senate may propose amendments, but, if these are not
accepted by the Legislature, they are rejected. The
Legislature also controls the Board of Audit. These pro-
visions are much closer to British practice than to
American.
The Legislature consists at present of 596 members, on
the basis of one member for every 800,000 of population;
but no province is to send less than ten members; and the
dependencies (Mongolia, Tibet and Chinghai) send the same
number as to the Senate. Their term is for three years.
In its control of money bills, the Legislature is under
certain restrictions; it may reduce the government pro-
posals, but cannot increase the proposed expenditure; in
this respect, again, China has followed British practice and
not American. But Parliament may not abolish or curtail
any of the following expenditures:
(a) Those belonging to the obligations of the government
in accordance with the law.
(b) Those which are necessary for the observance of
treaties.
(c) Those considered necessary in accordance with the
provisions of law.
(d) Continuous expenditure.
The clauses (a) and (c) would seem to remove from the
control of Parliament all payments under contracts and
for the salaries of officials and government employees.
The President
In the election of the President and Vice-President the
French practice is followed. The two houses of Parliament
unite in national Assembly; but, instead of election by an
absolute majority as in France, the Chinese rule requires


88 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
three-fourths of the number voting, with two-thirds neces-
sary for a quorum. Under normal conditions this might
easily lead to a dead-lock; but a further excellent rule
provides that if, on the second ballot, no candidate suc-
ceeds in obtaining the required three-fourths vote, the two
names highest on that ballot shall be submitted to the third
ballot, in which a bare majority shall elect. The term of
the President and Vice-President is for five years, and
either may be re-elected. If the President vacates his
post (on impeachment and conviction, or through death
or resignation) or if he is unable to execute his powers
(through illness or absence), the Vice-President will act as
President to the end of the term or of the inability, as the
case may be.
The | theory of the Constitution is that the President
is the Chief Executive of the Republic—this is the American
practice; but at the same time he " has no initiative and
simply concurs with what Parliament or the Cabinet, as
the case may be, sees fit to decide "—this is the ceremonial
President of France. Which form may emerge in China
at any given moment depends on the strength of the Pre-
sident—Yuan Shih-kai was the State; under his successors
the bureaucracy has ruled, an oligarchy at Peking, other
oligarchies in the several provinces.
The President may veto bills passed by Parliament, but
a vetoed bill becomes law if again passed by a bare majority.
He convokes and dissolves Parliament; and, with the con-
sent of the Senate, he may dissolve the House of Representa-
tives alone. He appoints or dismisses all civil and military
officers, but a few of the highest are subject to the approval
of Parliament.
Yuan Shih-kai governed by Presidential Mandates,
which he issued under his " emergency" powers. The Con-
stitution makers could not agree to continue these Crom-
wellian powers to succeeding Presidents, nor could they
agree to abolish them; but, in the disagreement, the powers
were dropped.


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 89
The Cabinet
The Cabinet, " being the actual executive [as in France
and the United Kingdom], its powers are naturally large,
although its acts, to be valid, must be endorsed by the
President, and the Mandates appertaining thereto must
needs be sealed and promulgated by him." The appoint-
ment of the Premier must be approved by the House of
Representatives, but not the other ministers. The ministers
of the Cabinet are not members of Parliament, but " the
ministers shall have entrance to both chambers, and shall
be heard when they request it," or they may send delegates
in their place. The Cabinet may propose law bills, and
it has the sole right to initiate money bills; and Pre-
sidential Mandates must be countersigned by a minister,
except one appointing or dismissing the Premier. So far
the Cabinet finds its prototype most nearly in the late
German Empire.
The Cabinet does not necessarily resign when Parliament
rejects or amends its measures; but if a vote of censure on
it is passed by the House of Representatives, it must resign,
unless the President, with the consent of the Senate, dissolves
that House. This falls far short of the responsibility to
Parliament in British and French practice, but it is a step
in advance of the American.
The national Judiciary is independent alike of the
legislative and of the executive branches of the government,
its judges retaining their office during good behaviour,
and their emoluments may not be decreased. Judges are
to be appointed by the President, but the appointment of
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (and of him alone)
is subject to the approval of the Senate.
Central Administration
The head of the State is the President. Under him is
the Vice-President, having no active duties to perform while
the President exercises his functions. Under them is the


90 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Premier, who is in theory the directing head of the adminis-
tration, in so far as he is allowed by the President to perform
the duties assigned to him by the Constitution. The
President's office is administered by a Chief of Staff, an
Assistant Chief, Heads of Departments, etc.
Ministries
The names of the Ministries have been changed within
a few years, and the former name is given in parenthesis
after the present name. Each Ministry has its Minister,
a Vice-Minister, and Councillors.
Wai-chiao Pu (Wai-wu Pu), Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nei-wu Pu (Min-cheng Pu), Ministry of the Interior.
Ts'ai-cheng Pu (Tu-chih Pu), Ministry of Finance.
Lu-chiin Pu, Ministry of War (the Army).
Hai-ehiin Pu, Ministry of the Navy.
Sze-fa Pu (Fa Pu), Ministry of Justice.
Chiao-yu Pu (Hioh Pu), Ministry of Education.
Nung-shang Pu, Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.
Chiao-t'ung Pu (Yu-chuan Pu), Ministry of Communica-
tions.
Departments
Department for Mongolia and Tibet.
Sun-chi Chu, Board of Audit.
Shui-wu Chu, Board of Revenue.
Department of Telegraphs.
Department of Railways.
Provincial Administration
The Provincial Assemblies, which had been active before
the Revolution, were suppressed by Yuan Shih-kai; but
on his death they again came into being and continued their
innocuous career. The administration of the provinces
remained in the hands of the bureaucracy, as under the
Empire. On the outbreak of the Revolution control of the
administration was assumed in each province by the military


THE GOVERNMENT—REPUBLICAN CHINA 91
commander, under the title of Tutu (the officer in supreme
command). When the Republic was established the pro-
vincial governments were recast in the following form:
Civil Governor (Hsiin-an-shih).
Military Governor (Tu-chun).
Administrative Departments:
General Affairs.
Interior.
Education.
Trade and Industry.
Taoyin—the old Taotai.
Hsien (Magistrate), as under the Empire.
This was the frame-work of a government which it was
hoped might be set up. Most of the officials were duly
appointed, but their functions have generally been exercised
under the supervision of the Military Governors, who have
remained in control in most of the provinces. In the latest
publication * it is shown that, of twenty-two provinces,
there are Military Governors alone in eight, Civil Governors
alone in five; in the remaining nine there are both Military
and Civil Governors; but it is notorious that the army
dominates in all.
• "The China Year Book, 1919."


CHAPTER IV
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
China is an Asiatic country. It seems absurd to re-state
this truism, but in nothing is the fact more clearly marked
than in its system of taxation and its methods of providing
for the expenses of administration. The Western mind is
accustomed to the system of the common purse for one
administrative area, into which all receipts are covered
without being ear-marked for a definite purpose, and from
which all payments are made irrespective of the source
from which the funds are derived; it is also accustomed
to a complete severance of the budgets of the different
administrative areas—national, state and municipal in
America, national and municipal in Great Britain, Imperial,
Royal, and municipal in Germany—with some exceptions,
such as educational expenditure in Great Britain, and
those due to more centralised forms of government, as in
France. This makes it difficult for the Occidental to
project his mind into the system which prevails in China,
and still more difficult for him to distinguish, in the mass
of what appears to him gross irregularity, what is due to
the system and what to administrative and financial cor-
ruption. The student of history will recall the admini-
strative system of Europe of, say, five centuries ago, and,
if he has any knowledge of China, will find many points of
resemblance in matters which we to-day have come to
reprobate; but any comparison is vitiated by the real
difference between the feudal organisation of Europe of
that time, and the consolidated government of China, with
92


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
93
the Son of Heaven at the top and the mass of the people
at the bottom, the Emperor's representatives, the officials
appointed by his centralised power, forming the link be-
tween the two. It is a matter of common knowledge that
the income of the Chinese official is not in any degree
measured by his official salary, that the annual profit of
his office may be Tls. 100,000, with an official salary not
exceeding Tls.1,000. This sounds terrible to us; and yet
we do not have to go very far back to find a condition
similar in kind, though perhaps not in degree, existing in
Western countries.
The Chinese official is nowadays less an administrator
than a tax-collector; but an infinitesimal portion of his
revenues is wasted on such heads of expenditure as police,
justice, roads, education, fire-prevention, sanitation, or
others of the numerous expenses falling on the official
purse in the West; so far as we, with our limited Occi-
dental mind, can see, he exists solely for his own main-
tenance and that of his fellow-officials, his superiors and
his subordinates. This principle he, with his superior
innate capacity, has developed further than was ever
done in the West; but the West can furnish, within com-
paratively modern times, some similitudes which will
enable present-day readers to understand more clearly the
system as it is to-day in China. The revenue returnable
from each administrative area in China, town, county, or
province, is assessed at a certain fixed sum, which, more
or less, is the minimum which must be accounted for, and in
practice this minimum constitutes the maximum sum
which is returned: what is this but the system which, in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, furnished the
bloated fortunes of the farmers-general of France? The
administration of justice in China creates no charge upon
the official revenues, but maintains itself from fees and
exactions: Judge Jeffreys is infamous in history, but he
furnished no exception to the practice of his day in swelling
the revenues of his king and his country from the fees


94 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and fines of his court, and in augmenting his official income
from the same source. 'Every Chinese official takes for
himself, without question, the interest on his official balances;
so did the English Paymasters of the Forces up to the time
of Pitt, and probably for many years after this time; cer-
tainly until after Fox was appointed to the post. Even
modern America, with the foundations of its government
freed from all feudal substructure, in some of its legitimate
and legalised practices furnishes a moderate example of
what in China is immoderate. Up to a very few years
ago, the office of the Sheriff of the County of New York
was maintained on principles inherited from the England
of the eighteenth century; he received a salary ($5,000)
and fees (averaging $60,000), and himself paid the salaries
of his deputies, and provided for the expenses of his office:
this is the Chinese system, except that, in China, the fees
are taken and the work not done. The American consular
system, up to the year of Grace 1906, furnished another
illustration: the income, perfectly legitimate and legal,
of the Consul to Mesopotamia, let us say, would consist
of his salary, $3,000, and fees ranging from $1,000 to
$10,000. These instances are adduced, not in any way
to belittle the (what we, with our twentieth-century views,
call) administrative corruption of the Chinese Empire,
but to bring home to the Western mind the underlying
principle upon which the Chinese system is based.
/ Another distinction between the fiscal systems of the
East and the West is in the " common purse." In England
all national official revenue is covered into the Exchequer,
in America into the Treasury. In China, theory and practice
are divergent; in theory, everything is subject to the
Sovereign, land, property, and revenue; in practice, the
revenue is assigned piecemeal from certain sources of collec-
tion to certain defined heads of Imperial expenditure, and
must be remitted independently for the purposes assigned.
One province, for example, may be assessed Tls.500,000
as the Likin collection for the year; instead of remitting


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
95
this to the Imperial Treasury, or holding it subject to the
order of the Treasury, Tls.100,000 will be remitted direct
to the Shanghai Taotai for the service of the foreign
debt, Tls.50,000 will be remitted to the same officer for
account of Legations abroad, Tls.200,000 will be sent to
Honan for Yellow River Flood Prevention account,
Tls.50,000 will be retained for renewal of the provincial
coast defences, Tls.50,000 will be sent to Peking for the
Imperial Household, and Tls.50,000 will be assigned for
the upkeep of the Imperial Mausolea. From some other
source of revenue grants may be made to supplement
the revenues of a poorer province; of the eighteen pro-
vinces, thirteen forward such grants-in-aid, and nine receive
them, five both granting and receiving. We may even
have province A remitting to B, B in turn to C, and C
remitting to A, but each one of the three will remit in full;
no attempt is ever made to strike a balance and receive
or remit the difference; to do this would deprive some
hard-working official of the fruits of his industry, in the
profit derivable from the mere act of remitting. To prepare
a national budget of revenue and expenditure would, in
Parker's phrase,* "puzzle the shrewdest firm of chartered
accountants."
Another element of perplexity, sufficient to prevent the
ordinary mind from penetrating the mysteries of taxation
in China, is found in the question of exchange. As will be
seen in a later chapter, China has no coinage except the
copper "cash," of which to-day it takes about 10,000 to
equal a pound sterling and 2,000 an American dollar. Her
silver currency has no one uniform standard, and the hun-
dreds of standards known in the Empire, or the dozen known
in one place, vary within a range of over 10 per cent. Even
the Imperial Treasury tael is an actuality only at the
Imperial Treasury itself, and elsewhere in China is only
a money of account. A typical case will be referred to
later, where, on the tax-note, Treasury taels were converted
• "China, Past and Present," by E. H. Parker, 1903.


96 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
into cash at 2,600 and converted back at 1,105, whereby
xa tax of Tls.w66 was converted into a payment of
Tls.166-20. ButMet us take an ordinary everyday incident
of revenue collected in Kiangsu and remitted as a grant-
in-aid to Kansu. The tax-note will be in Treasury taels;
it will be paid in local taels; the proceeds converted into
Tsaoping taels for remittance to Shanghai, where it is
converted into Shanghai taels; again converted into
Tsaoping taels for remittance to Hankow and thence to
Kansu (assuming that it is remitted by draft), where it
is received in local taels; these are converted into Treasury
taels for accounting with Kiangsu, and back again into
local taels for deposit in a bank, and again into Treasury
taels for accounting with the Imperial Treasury, and
again into local taels or into cash for disbursement. This
-^is^no burlesque, but an exact account of what happens,
ano*we have a series of ten exchange transactions, each of
which will yield a profit of at least a half of one per cent.
on the turn-over, apart from the rate of exchange on actual
transfer from place to place, and altogether outside any
question of "squeezing" the taxpayer. Moreover, as we
are dealing with the past more than with the future, it is
right to record that, regularly in tne past and frequently
in the present, the remittance is made by actually sending the
silver from Kiangsu to Kansu, not reducing the exchange
operations noted above by a single step, but adding enor-
mously to the cost by the expense of transport and escort
for a journey which must be counted by months and not
by days.
All these considerations must be borne in mind in any
study of figures * purporting to represent the revenue and
expenditure of the Chinese Empire. In Western budgets
the receipt side includes the entire sum taken from the
taxpayer for the maintenance of the fabric of government,
* The principal authorities for the taxation and expenditure of
China are E. H. Parker and George Jamieson, and any figures quoted
will generally be from their writings.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
97
and the payment side gives the entire amount expended
for administrative purposes. In China this is not so. A
few heads of revenue may be regarded as strictly Imperial,
such as the tribute and the receipts of that new and semi-
foreign institution, the Maritime Customs. Other receipts
of the Imperial Treasury consist rather of surpluses handed
over after providing for all costs of collection and all ex-
penses of local administration; they correspond somewhat
to the matriculations of the German Empire; they corre-
spond more closely, perhaps, to the surplus remitted from
Cyprus to Constantinople, after providing for the administra-
tive expenses of the island. There are no figures available
to show the enormous sums taken from the taxpayer and
devoted to the maintenance of the army of officials engaged
in collecting the revenue—sums the larger for being left,
in the collecting, to the unregulated and uncontrolled
discretion of the Collectors.
Revenue
The heads of revenue collection may be divided into
old and new. The old comprise: 1, Land Tax; 2, Tribute;
3, Customs; 4, Salt; and 5, Miscellaneous (taxes, fees,
tenures and licenses); the new are: 6, Foreign Customs;
and 7, Likin; with some new license fees which will fall
under 5.
1. Land Tax
The foundation of Asiatic government is conquest, not
the consent of the governed. When the various dynasties
who have ruled China came into possession of the throne,
they held the country in the hollow of their hand—Dieu
et mon droit their motto—and the land and the fruit thereof
became their property. Even an Asiatic government,
-—however, does not carry all its theories into full practice,
and the usufruct of the land of China is left to its occupiers,
with full rights of transfer of possession; but the rights of
7


98 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
overlordship are recognised by the payment of land tax
proportioned to the (original) rental value of the land.
This revenue was formerly the main dependence of the
government in providing for its own needs, the amount
remitted to Peking constituting, a hundred years ago,
probably two-thirds of the cash receipts of the Imperial
Treasury; but a hundred years ago China had no urgent
northern frontier question and no navy, and the remittances
to the capital were required only for the maintenance of
the Court and garrison and for the metropolitan administra-
tion/; Two hundred years ago/11^1713, the Emperor, quite
in keeping with the Manchu practice of considering and
conciliating their Chinese subjects in every way, decreed
that the land tax throughout the Empire, as shown by the
records of that year, was to be fixed and immutable for all
time, no increase being permitted under any circumstances.
This permanent settlement endures, in theory, to this day;
the tax-note for each lot of land to-day gives the rate of
assessment of 1713, and the returns of the total collection
are based upon the permanent settlement, subject to
authorised reductions for the effects of rebellion, drought,
and flood, and to re-augmentation on recovery when re-
ported by the provincial authorities.
/ The primary unit in China for fiscal, as for administrative
and judicial, matters is the Hsien or township, commonly
called district, constituting what in America would be
called an incorporated city with the surrounding country
and its villages. The Chih-hsien or Magistrate (often
called simply the Hsien), in addition to his other numerous
functions, is registrar of deeds and assessor and collector of
taxes. All ownership and all transfers of land are, in theory,
registered in his office, against a fee (see under 5, Miscella-
neous taxes), and validated by his seal affixed to the deeds;
the seal being impressed in vermilion; these regularised
deeds are called " red deeds." In practice this obligation is
often evaded, and the deeds, not being sealed, are then called
"white deeds." This evasion is so common that the Hsien


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
99
and his officers ordinarily disregard the register of titles and
go direct to the occupant; and so much is the payment of
land tax an incident of possession, especially in the case of
farm lands, that holding land-tax receipts for three successive
years is, in the absence of deeds, accepted as prima facie
proof of ownership. The tax-collector goes to the taxpayer
and delivers the tax-note itemised in accordance with law
(the permanent settlement) and precedent (the accretions
resulting from many a battle and sanctioned by the custom
of years). The amount shown as the total on the note is the
amount which must be turned into the Hsien's treasury,
and takes no account of the actual cost of collection, though
an amount is always included for it; for the Hsien, more
sinico, pays his subordinates little or nothing as salary, but
compels them to scratch around for their maintenance;
and even a tax-collector must live. The Hsien, however,
arms his collectors with power, and thus armed they are
enabled to extract their " costs of collection " from the tax-
payer. The amount to be exacted is indeterminate, and
forms the subject of a battle annually renewed between
payer and payee; but on an average it is quite safe to put
it, at the very lowest estimate, at ten per cent. on the sum
officially demanded. The official accretion is the accumu-
lated result of repeated battles. As Jamieson. puts it:
'' The fixing of these surcharges and the rates of commutation
appears to be left mainly with the district magistrates, with
the consent probably of the provincial treasurer. The
Imperial Government does not, so far as I know, attempt
to regulate such matters. The magistrates are mainly
bound by old custom ; what has been done before is tolerated,
but there is always a tendency to seize on every occasion to
try to obtain a little more. This, if too much, provokes a
riot, the magistrate gets into trouble with the people, and
a haggling ensues until either the extra impost is abandoned
or a modus vivendi is arrived at on some middle ground."
In one district, as shown in the cases given below, 44
per cent. is added for meltage fee, and 26 per cent. for an


IOO THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
illusory " cost of collection'.': in another the amount in taels
is converted into cash at 2,6oo to the tael, and converted
back into taels at 1,105, being an addition of 135 per cent.,
and then 50 per cent. is added for "cost of collection."
The latter method is the more usual, and cases are common
and well known where the conversion into cash was at the
rate of between 5,000 and 6,000, with the effect of increasing
the land tax to over five times the statutory amount.
For the province of Honan we have an illuminating
statement * by Mr. George Jamieson giving the amounts
levied on land acquired for the railway with which he was
officially connected. Land was bought in six different
hsiens through which the line ran, to the amount of 9,216
mows (the mow is roughly a sixth of an English acre).
Regular deeds of transfer were obtained, and in due course
tax-notes were presented, the correctness of the charges
being vouched for by the deputy of the Governor specially
appointed to manage, from the Chinese side, the affairs of
the railway. The tax-notes included land tax and com-
muted grain tax, and they are so informing that two of them
are given in full.
In Hsun Hsien the syndicate bought:
The taxes account presented by the magistrate of this
district translates as shown at top of next page.
The Kuping tael being a theoretical tael, the above was
paid by converting it into local currency at the rate of
10371 local taels to 100 Kuping, giving 15143 local taels
as the equivalent.
Here we have the land tax as settled, "fixed and im-
Land held on ordinary tenure (" min t'ien ")
„ „ „ military tenure (*' tun t'ien ")
1.493 753
91.870
Total
1,585623
• "Land Taxation in the Province of Honan,"
1905.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
101
Land tax proper on 1,585.623 mow at 0.0368355 tael
per mow
For inferior touch or meltage fee, 44 per cent. on the
above
Expenses of collection at the rate of 300 copper cash
on every tael of land lax. Cash, 17,520
Grain tax at the rate of 0.005468 " shih " per mow on
1,493.75 mow (no levy on military land), equal to
8.169 "shih " or piculs at 6,400 copper cash per
picul. Cash, 52,282
Total
mutable," in 1713, increased by accretions, as legal and
as regular as any tax in any country, from Tls.58..407 to
Tls.90/684, an addition of 71 per cent.; and the commuted
grain tribute, if we take the market price of grain at the
very high rate of 2,000 cash a picul, increased from Tls.14474
to Tls.46 316, an addition of 220 per cent.
In Hsin Hsiang the syndicate bought:
Mows.
Land on ordinary tenure
1,203512
105845
The taxes account was presented as follows:
1.309357
Amount.
Land tax proper on 1,203.512 mow of common land
Land tax proper on 105.845 mow of military land at
T«d».
659996
4.6574
70657


102 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Amount.
Kuping tacls.
166-20
3506
82 02
Payable at the rate of 2,600 copper cash per tael.
Cash, 183,710
Expenses of collection at the rate of 30 copper cash
per mow on common land and 25 cash on military
land. Total copper cash, 38,752, equal to
Grain tax at the rate of 0-01255 piculs on common
land (nothing on military land), total 15-1075
piculs, payable at the rate of 6,000 copper cash
per picul. Total cash, 90,645, equal to ..
Total j 283-28
Note.—Equivalent in local currency to Tls.293-82.
Here we have this fixed and immutable land tax in-
creased from Tls.70 657 to Tls.20126, an addition of 186
per cent., and the grain tribute increased from a legal maxi-
mum of Tls.27-34 to Tls.8202, an addition of 200 per cent.
The extreme accuracy of calculation also is to be noted
to seven places of decimals of a unit of currency with a
present value of three shillings. The two accounts give an
average addition to the land tax of 128 per cent., and to the
grain tribute of 210 per cent.
Mr. Jamieson goes on to show that these six districts
in which land was bought are fairly representative of the
soil of the whole of Honan; and after noting that the
average taxation (land tax and grain tribute together) was
Tls.01882 per mow, he proceeds to apply this average to
the province.
The area of Honan province is about 60,000 square miles.
Assuming that two-thirds of this is under cultivation, the
taxable area would be over 25,000,000 acres, or at 6 mow
to the acre, say 150,000,000 mow of ground. In the Hwei
Tien, the standard, though a somewhat antiquated statistical
record of the Empire, the area actually registered as culti-
vated is given as 63,986,185 mow. This was on the authority
of the returns of the 17th year of Kiaking (1812). The
amount is likely to have increased since, and may now be


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
103
approximately 150,000,000 mow. But take it on the
Kiaking returns, and supposing the taxation levied on the
lands held by the syndicate is general, the yield of the land
tax for the whole province should be Tls.12,042,200. Or
if we suppose, as seems more probable, that approximately
150,000,000 mow pay taxes, the sum levied from the people
would be well over Tls.28,000,000, a sum which is not very
far short of what is now returned for the whole Empire of
China.
Compared with the insignificant sum of less than
Tl3.3,000,000 now returned by the province of Honan,
these figures may well seem incredible, but I simply state
facts as I find them.
It will be well to proceed in another way in which we
shall be on safer ground. It must be assumed that the
railway corporation, a financially strong body, extraterri-
torialised, and officially supported by the government, pays
its taxes by cheques direct to the Hsien, and is not compelled
to submit to the mediation of the tax-collectors and pay them
their expenses. It may further be safely assumed that the
total collection reported for the province, even less in
amount now than half a century ago, represents the tax
of the permanent settlement. On these assumptions the
land and grain tax collected in Honan may be calculated
as follows:
Legal land tax, return of collection for year Taels.
1900 .. . . .. 2,380,000
Accretion at the rate of 128 per cent 3,046,400
Collectors' expenses at assumed rate of 10 per
cent 542,640
6,969,040
Grain tribute commuted, return of 1900 .. 480,000
Accretion at the rate of 210 per cent 1,008,000
Collectors' expenses at 10 per cent 148,800
1,636,800
Total land and grain taxes 8,605,840


104 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
against Mr. Jamieson's minimum estimate of Tls. 12,000,000,
and a possible collection of Tls.28,000,000. Every student
of things Chinese knows that Mr. Jamieson's minimum
estimate is well within the mark, and that, to get at the
amount paid by the taxpayer, the official return of the
amount collected must be at least quadrupled; what can
be said seriously is that it can be proved that the amount
is trebled.
In applying the Honan figures to the rest of the Empire
we are confronted by a difficulty. The permanent se^e-
.ment was decreed by the second Tsing Emperor, Kangh
ancfot is a matter of general knowledge that the earlier
Manchu Emperors governed China with a light hand, and
applied far less stringent rules to the remoter provinces
than to those within easy reach of the capital. Chihli, the
metropolitan province, has nearly half its area outside
the Wall, under the Mongolian system, and nearly half the
area within the Wall was granted in military tenure to
Manchu princes and nobles, exempt from land tax; and
yet this province is third in the amount of land tax re-
turned, collected from less than a third of its area. The
three provinces (Shansi, Shantung, and Honan) immediately
adjoining Chihli, and within the more direct reach of the
Peking garrison, are respectively first, second, and fourth
on the list; Shansi, rated above all other provinces, is poor
and exposed to climatic vicissitudes, but is attackable from
Peking and from Mongolia as well. Of the remoter pro-
vinces it is sufficient to mention Kwangtung, one of the
richest provinces of the Empire, rated tenth among the
eighteen provinces; and Hupeh, with great agricultural
wealth, rated thirteenth. It is not for a moment to be
supposed that the self-denying magnanimity of the Em-
peror, seated on his throne at Peking, is imitated by his
representatives to-day, far removed from the control of
their overlord. Of Szechwan, Mr. Parker says: "I spent
a year in that province, and found that customary ratings,
allowances, etc., practically made the land tax in some


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 105
districts ten times its nominal charge." In Kwangtung
^we have regularly applied to three districts in the vicinity
of Canton the phrase shui shui, tso shui, tsou shut, literally
"sleeping in-come, sitting in-come, walking in-come," which
may be thus explained: the incumbent of the first may go to
sleep, while his emoluments come rolling in; in the second)
he may sit still, and his emoluments come rolling in; in
the third he must trot around, but his emoluments come
rolling in. It is difficult to know just what allowance to
make for this diversity of treatment in applying the Honan
figures to the rest of the Empire, but we shall be well within
the mark if we take the reported return for the four nearer
provinces, and twice the reported return for the remoter
provinces, as the basis from which to calculate the amount
paid by the taxpayer; and for this purpose Mr. Parker's
figures * will be taken, except for Honan, where they are
increased by Tls.80,000.
Province.
Basic
Collection.
Accretion
128 per cent.
Collectors'
Expenses
jo per cent.
Total paid by
Taxpayers.
Tls.
Til.
Tls.
TU.
Chihli
2,600,000
3,328,00s
592,800
6,520,800
Shantung
2,800,000
3,584,000
638,400
7,022,400
Honan
2,380,000
3,046,400
542,640
5.969.040
Shansi
3,300,000
4,224,000
752,400
8,276,400
Shensi
3,300,000
4,224,000
752,400
8,276,400
Kansu
440,000
563.200
100,320
1,103,520
Szechwan
4,600,000
5,888,000
1,048,800
11,536,800
Kweichow
220,000
281,600
50,160
551.760
Hunan
2,400,000
3,072,000
547.200
6,019,200
Hupch
2,000,000
2,560,000
456,000
5.0I6.O00
Kiangsi
2,600,000
3,328,000
592,800
6,520,800
Anhwei
2,614,000
3.345.920
595.992
6.555.9"
Kiangsu
3,000,000
3,840,000
684,000
7,524,000
Chekiang
2,800,000
3,584,000
638,400
7,022,400
Fukien
2,000,000
2,560,000
456,000
5,016,000
Kwangtung ..
2,600,000
3,328,000
592,800
6,520,800
Kwangsi
700,000
896,000
159,600
l.755.600
Yunnan
500,000
640,000
114,000
1,254,000
Total
40,854,000!
52,293,120
9,314.7"
102,461,832
* " China . Past and Present." f Amount returned, Tls.25,887,000.


106 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Mr. Jamieson, applying the Honan average to the whole
of China, says:
"In my revenue and expenditure report of 1897, I
calculated there should be 650,000 square miles of culti-
vated land in China, equivalent to (in round numbers)
400,000,000 English acres or, at 6 mow per acre, 2,400,000,000
mow. If the average which I consider good for Honan
holds good generally for the Empire, the whole amount
levied from the people as land tax would amount to
Tls.451,000,000.* In the paper addressed by Sir Robert
Hart to the Chinese Government (printed in the North
China Herald of April 15, 1904), recommending certain
reforms in taxation, he calculated that the whole taxable
land in China might amount to 4,000,000,000 mow, which,
on the basis of 200 cash per mow, and taking a tael as equal
to 2,000 cash, should yield a revenue of Tls.400,000,000.
Sir Robert's estimate of the area under cultivation is greater
than mine, but on the other hand his proposed levy of 200
cash or 10 tael cents per mow is, I should consider, much
under the average actually levied. The experience of the
syndicate's railway in Honan shows an average of 01882
tael, or nearly double the sum at which Sir Robert Hart
puts it, so that if the present levy is only continued
there should be Tls.400,000,000 forthcoming for Imperial
purposes, and yet a very large sum left over for costs of
administration and other provincial purposes."
Many good authorities, other than these two, are in-
clined to consider their figures as quite possible; and a
good illustration of the obscurity which veils the finances
of China is furnished by the difference between the re-
ported collection, Tls.26,000,000, the almost provable
actual collection, Tls. 102,000,000, and the possible col-
lection estimated by high authorities at Tls.375,000,000 to
Tls.400,000,000.
* Mr. Jamieson's "average taxation" includes both land tax
and commuted grain tribute. His land tax alone for the Empire
would work out to Tls.375,000,000.


^ REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE IO7
The Republic has made no change in the method of
assessing and collecting the land tax. In 1916 the budget
showed a collection for this tax and grain tribute together,
amounting to 95,972,818 dollars, or about 63,000,000 taels,
nearly double the collection of the two taxes reported under
the Empire as being at the disposal of the Imperial Treasury.
2. Tribute
Tribute is another invariable incident of an Asiatic
form of government, and has formed a considerable part of
the revenues of the State under all the successive dynasties
^ which have ruled China. NIn the earlier dynasties the
taxation took mainly the form of tribute—i.e. payment in
kind, and generally of silk and grain, a roll of silk and a
picul of grain having approximately the same value. Under
^xhe Sung dynasty, in a.d. 1004, the tribute amounted to
49,169,900 pieces and piculs; in 1049 it was increased to
53,588,565, and in 1064 to 67,767,929 pieces and piculs.*
In 1148 the grain tribute from Chekiang, Kiangsu, and
Hukwang, was 2,395,000 piculs. In 1324, under the Mongol
dynasty, the grain tribute amounted to 12,114,708 piculs,
of which Chihli contributed 2,271,449; Honan 2,591,269;
Kiangsu and Chekiang, 4,494,783; and Kiangsi, 1,157,448
piculs; of this about 3,000,000 piculs were sent to Peking,
the rest being retained in the provinces for the maintenance
N\pf the government and the support of the Mongol garrisons.
The tribute in kind required by the ruling Manchu dynasty
takes many forms, including silks from Hangchow, Soochow,
and Nanking; porcelain from Kingtehchen, timber from
Kiangsu, fruits from the southern coast, wax from Szechwan,
etc. It also includes copper from Yunnan, the quantity
required annually for coinage, before the introduction
of. foreign supplies, being calculated to be 85,000 piculs,
>f a value, by the market rates of 1906, of Tls.2,500,000.
The principal tribute under the Tsing, however, as under
• "Banking and Prices in China," by J. Ed kins, 1903.
X?f


108 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
previous dynasties, is grain. Before the disorganisation
caused by foreign wars and rebellion, during the early
years of Taokwang (1821-1850), the stipulated quantity
required in an ordinary year to be sent to Peking was
2,930,000 piculs of rice and 300,000 piculs of millet. Since
the Taiping rebellion, of the eight provinces liable to grain
tribute, Honan, Kiangsi, Hupeh, and Hunan have
commuted it for an annual money payment, leaving Kiangsu,
Chekiang, Anhwei, and Shantung still to pay in kind. It
/is estimated that from these four provinces about 400,000
piculs continue to go by the Grand Canal, and the annual
average of shipments by sea for the years 1902-1905 was
1,626,000 piculs. Besides this is the amount retained for
the maintenance of the provincial forces. An illustration
of the conservatism which rules Chinese finances is afforded
by the continued payment by the commuting provinces
to Chihli for cargo boats to convey from Tientsin to Peking
the grain which they do not send: "A year or two ago
(1895) ninety-seven cargo-boats were destroyed by a tidal
wave, and Chihli has just reconstructed them at a cost of
Tls.39,800; Hunan, Hupeh, and Kiangsi have to repay
this sum between them." * There are, besides, recurring
payments for " repairs " to imaginary cargo-boats.
To get at the sum received by the government from
	ribute is not easy, and it is still more difficult to conjecture
the amounts paid by the taxpayer>vOne thing seems
certain, that the "accretions" to the tribute payable in
kind must approximate closely to those on the tribute
commuted; otherwise, with the weakness of the central
government fifty years ago, it would have been to the
advantage of the officials, metropolitan and provincial
alike, to commute in all the provinces. We may, therefore,
take Mr. Parker's figures f for the revenue from tribute
and apply to them the same principle of accretion as for
* "The Chinese Revenue," by E. H. Parker. Journal, North
China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1895-96,
f "China; Past and Present."


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
log
the land tax, but with no allowance for remoteness from
the capital.
In the following table, for the province of Kiangsu, the
basis collection of Tls.2,500,000 is increased to Tls.8,525,000,
nearly three-and-a-half times as much.
I have been able to obtain the tax-notes for two
small adjoining lots of land in the Fawangdu district
near Shanghai, outside the foreign municipal juris-
Province.
Basic
Collection.
Accretion
2x0 per cent.
Collection
Expenses
10 per cent.
Total paid by
Taxpayers.
Xfci.
TlJ.
Tit.
TU.
Shantung
Honan * ..
500,000
1,050,000
155,000
1,705,000
300,000
630,000
93,000
1,023,000
Hunan * ..
175,000
367,500
54.25°
596,750
Hupeh * ..
420,000
882,000
130,200
1,432,200
Kiangsi * ..
800,000
1,680,000
248,000
2,728,000
Anhwei
900,000
I,8oo,000
279,000
3,069,000
Kiangsu
2,500,000
5,250,000
775.000
8,525,000
Chekiang
1,100,000
2,310,000
342,000
3.752.0O0
Kansu t • •
275,000
577.500
85.250
937.75°
Kwangsi f ..
150,000
315,000
46,500
511,500
Szechwan f
50,000
105,000
I5.500
170,500
Yunnan f • •
250,000
525,000
77.500
852,500
Total
7,420,000
15,582,000
2,300,200
25,302,200
diction, and have given them some careful study. The
amounts and data filled in are written in a sprawling, run-
ning hand, difficult for a scholar, and almost illegible for a
half-educated farmer; but from them I have made out the
following particulars:
First lot, area about 10 mow:
Grain tribute, 6 sheng 9 ho, taken as 7 sheng
(0 070 shih = 8b catties = 11j lb.), con-
verted at 6,000 cash .. .. .. 420
Springofficialaccretion,Tl.o.095 at 2,500 cash 237
Autumn official accretion, Tl.0 095 at 2,800
cash .. .. .. .. .. .. 266
Cash .. 923
• Commuted. f Always kept for local administration.


110 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Second lot, area about 25 mow:
Grain tribute, 1 tow 4 sheng 9 ho (0149
shih = 171% catties = 233% lb.), con-
verted at 7,000 cash .. .. .. 1,043
Spring official accretion, Tl.0 087 at 2,500 cash 229
Autumn official accretion, TL0 087 at 2,800
cash .. .. .. .. .. .. 247
Cash .. 1,519
If fluctuations and the present inflated price of grain be
disregarded, and the usually accepted rate of 2,000 cash per
shih for grain tribute be taken as a standard, we have in
this case a legal tax of 440 cash increased to an actual
payment of 2,442 cash, five-and-a-half times as much; and
if the land had remained in Chinese ownership, we must
assume that the increase would have been to six times.
Even with the carefully digested figures given above, there
I are some elements of that variability which is so constant
a factor in Chinese taxation. The two lots are adjoining,
and apparently of the same class of land. One is assessed
at the rate of 0 0069 shih of grain per mow, converted at
6,000 cash, and the other is assessed at 0 00596 shih per
mow, converted at 7,000 cash. The official accretions are
assessed in silver and collected in copper, but the spring
accretion is converted at 2,500 cash and the autumn ac-
cretion at 2,800 cash, the actual market-rate being now
about 1,100 cash; the accretion for the smaller lot is larger
in amount than that for the larger lot.
The copper from Yunnan is sent now in much reduced
quantity, probably from 5,000 to 10,000 piculs a year; and
with so much of guesswork in the calculation, nothing need
be added for the silks, porcelain, and other articles of tribute,
though collecting and forwarding them provides honourable,
but not honorary employment for many deserving officials.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE III
3. Customs fjvL bwUr<\ jt#<n Ay":/.
The same veil of mystery which hangs over other Cx" j:n';'-
branches of the revenue service covers the Customs, called (jttK.'flr..
the " Regular" or native Customs, to distinguish it from
\(he newly established "Maritime" or foreign Customs.
The offices of this establishment may be divided into two
classes, those controlling shipping and those at land stations.
The " Regular" Customs offices within fifteen miles of a
treaty port have, since November 1901, been placed under
the control of the " Maritime" Customs, with the result
that most of them are so far regulated that irregular exac-
tions are suppressed and the full collection reported. The
^collection of the Native Customs under the Commissioners
of Customs, increased from Tls.2,206,469 in 1902 to
Tls.3,699,024 in 1906. Even before 1901 the income of
the offices had suffered from the inevitable transfer of traffic
from the junk to the safer, insurable, and speedier steamer.
What can be said of them relates, therefore, more to the
\past than to the present.
The typical Customs post, and the fattest, was that of
the "Hoppo" of Canton, abolished in 1904 as being no
,, ^(, longer profitable. Created as soon as the Manchu supremacy
'had been established over Kwangtung, in order to "milk"
"the trade of the wealthiest trading mart in the Empire, the
fJ *'' j incumbent of the post luxuriated in an abundant supply of
the richest cream during the time that Canton enjoyed its
statutory and actual monopoly of foreign trade; and even
when the foreign trade had to be shared with many other
ports, the local traffic of the province itself sufficed to make
if a lucrative post. If Mr. Parker * is right, the amount
officially reported within thirty years past cannot have ex-
ceeded 15 per cent. of the sum turned into the Hoppo's trea-
sury, to which must be added the expense of maintaining
an army of collectors, supervisors, and accountants. He
• "The Financial Capacity of China." Journal, North China
Branch of the Royal Asialio Society, 1895-96.


112 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
says: "Chief among them is the' Hoppo ' of Canton, who is
always a Manchu of the said' bondsman ' class. The ' regu-
lation sum,' which this official is bound to collect from the
native Custom Houses at Canton, Swatow, Hoihow, and
Pakhoi is about lis. 157,000, and every year he goes through
the farce of claiming credit for having' by unusual zeal and
industry' collected as much as Tls.200,000, or thereabouts.
But it is well known that he pays at least that sum for his
appointment, and that his only chance of keeping the post
for three years—the time usually granted for making his
'pile'—is to vigorously ply the palace with presents. . . .
From what I could gather from members of the Viceroy's
staff, at least Tls.1,000,000 a year, in fans, silks, pearls,
and other presents, had to be sent to Peking at intervals
(according to the nature of the present) of a fortnight, a
quarter, a half-year, and a year/'NJn 1843, with a collection
exceeding ten million taels in amount, the official return
was less than one million.
Of the land stations but little is known. One such post
is that of the "Peking Gate," of which the regulation
assessment is Tls. 120,000; apart from the taxation of
goods entering Peking, its chief function is to levy a tax
on every official visiting Peking on affairs of State; and as
"-"'every high official is ordered up for Audience on appoint-
ment, or on transfer, or retirement, and as the Wardens of
the Gates of Peking hold the keys, the tax is usually paid
without much hesitation, amounting sometimes to Tls.50,000
and on occasion, for the incumbent of an especially lucrative
post, to as much as Tls.100,000. Having secured entrance
to the city, the official will then have to open his way,
through quite another set of guardians, to the Palace; and
then, through the Chamberlains, to the Audience Hall.
The form to be taken in expressing practical thanks to his
Sovereign for the honour of an Audience and for his appoint-
ment, is a matter of conjecture. The total collection,
so far as reported, for the frontier and all other inland
stations, amounts to Tls.460,000. In 1903 the Russian


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
"3
statistics showed an export to China exceeding the Chinese
Customs import by over Tls. 15,000,000, and an import
from China exceeding the Chinese Customs export by over
Tls.30,000,000; it is unlikely that this trade passed entirely
untaxed, both on the inward and the outward traffic, and, at
5 per cent., the duty collected on this trade alone must
amount to Tls.2,250,000.
The Republic included in the budget for the year 1916
the sum of 71,310,970 dollars from "Customs revenue."
In that year the collection of the Maritime Customs, includ-
ing non-Customs duties, such as Transit dues, Tonnage dues,
and Opium likin, amounted to 57,700,000 dollars, leaving
13,600,000 dollars as the reported collection from other
Customs offices—about 9,000,000 taels.
^ 4. Salt
If the collection of the land tax is veiled by obscurity,
of the grain tribute by equal obscurity, and of the " Regular''
Customs by greater obscurity, the greatest obscurity covers
the revenue from the salt gabelle, owing to the mixture of
the official and the mercantile element in its collection. Salt
is everywhere under the strictest government control, and
is taxed at every stage—in its manufacture, purchase at the
vats, transport, sale at the depot, and sale to the people.
For productive, administrative and descriptive purposes
the Empire is divided into eleven Salt areas:
1. Shengking: sea salt, supplying Manchuria.
2. Chang-lu (Long Reed): sea salt, supplying
Chihli and the northern part of Honan.
3. Ho-tung (" East of the Yellow River**): lake
salt, supplying Shansi, the western part of Honan, and
the south-eastern part of Shensi.
4. Hwa-ma-chih (" Piebald Horse Pool "): lake
salt, supplying Mongolia, Kansu, and the greater part
of Shensi.
5. Shantung: sea salt, supplying Shantung and
corners of Honan, Anhwei, and Kiangsu.


114 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
6. Hwai: sea salt; for administrative and dis-
tributive purposes divided into:
6a. Northern Hwai, supplying the northern part
of Kiangsu north of the Yangtze, the northern part
of Anhwei, and the southern part of Honan.
66. Southern Hwai, supplying the southern part
of Kiangsu north of the Yangtze, and Nanking
south of the Yangtze, the southern part of Anhwei,
the northern part of Kiangsi, the eastern part of
Hupeh, and the greater part of Hunan.
7. Szechwan: well salt, supplying Szechwan, the
north-east corner of Yunnan, nearly all of Kweichow,
a corner of Hunan, and the western part of Hupeh.
8. Yunnan: well salt, supplying all Yunnan ex-
cept the north-east and south-east corners.
9. Chekiang: sea salt, supplying Chekiang, Kiangsu
south of the Yangtze (except Nanking), and corners
of Anhwei and Kiangsi.
10. Fukien: sea salt, supplying Fukien except the
south-west corner.
11. Kwangtung: sea salt, supplying Kwangtung,
Kwangsi, the southern part of Kiangsi, and small
corners of Fukien, Hunan, Kweichow, and Yunnan.
A twelfth, self-supplying and consuming, area of small
dimensions in central Hupeh need not be considered.
The Hwai Administration, supplying about 100,000,000
of the population, is the most important, and a description
of its methods will suffice for all. The Viceroy at Nanking
is the direct head, and under him is an army of controllers,
agents, guards, etc., echelonned along and on both sides of
the Yangtze, charged with control of the traffic, prevention
of smuggling, and levy of taxes. Production, transport,
and sale are in private hands, under licenses issued by
the Administration. From the vats to the depots (the
principal one being above and opposite to Chinkiang)
the salt is practically in bond. At the depot the salt
is bought, at a price fixed by the Administration, by the


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
"5
holders of licenses; of these a fixed number, usually
300 to 400 to each province, have been issued against a
capital payment which, if there were a demand for further
issue now, would be Tls. 10,000 to Tls. 12,000 each. The
licensees take their turn, which may be once in two years or
twice in three years according to circumstances, and in his
turn each is permitted to buy 3,750 piculs of salt. In order
to evade the difficulties caused by different regulations and
customs on every route, different weights at short distances,
and different taxes in different provinces, it is necessary to
select for consideration some one province, and Hupeh will
be assumed to be the destination. The cost of production is
Tls. 1,130 for this quantity, in which is included the vat
license fee and transport to the depot; and the price paid
at the depot is Tls.3,725, giving Tls.2,595 for government
charges for storage and taxation to this point. The trans-
port to Hupeh is controlled from point to point, and on
arrival the salt is stored in one of the provincial depots,
paying storage, and awaiting its turn to be sold to the licensed
shops, conveyance to which is also controlled. There are
numerous changes of scale, changes in the method of account-
ing, delays to be avoided, and difficulties to be smoothed
away, which add to the cost of the salt and to the emoluments
of the administration agents, and contribute nothing to the
revenue, but which must all be paid for by the consumers;
and merely to enumerate the different items of taxation,
and adequately describe the application of an exceedingly
complicated system, would require a chapter to itself. It
is sufficient to say that the regular officially recognised
taxation from the depot near Chinkiang to issue from the
provincial depot at Hankow is put by good authority at
Tls.160, and a little more per picul. To get at what
the people pay we need only take the retail price, which
is fixed by the Salt Administration. In Hupeh, ten years
ago, the average retail price so fixed was 50 cash a catty *;
* A well-informed writer in the .China Mail, Hongkong, 1885,
gives the retail price of salt at Hankow as 64 cash a catty.


Il6 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
as the corresponding price in Hunan was 56 cash, and as
those were the prices before the increase in taxation to meet
the Boxer indemnities, this price of 50 cash may be accepted
as a fair average. Converting at the same rates, the pro-
ducer's cost of Tls. 1,130 for the quantity, 3,750 piculs,
under one license, is increased to Tls. 12,545 as the price to
the consumer, the difference being Tls.11,415; if Tls.1,415
be allowed for cost of transport and legitimate profit, the
remaining Tls. 10,000 (Tls. 2 67 a picul) is paid by the people
as tax, regular or irregular, open or covert.
The consumption of salt in the Empire can only be
guessed. A hundred years ago the official " blue-b00ks " of
China put it at 20,000,000 piculs, and this was stated to
be less than the amount fifty years previously; twenty
years ago a Vice-President of the Board of Revenue put
it at 28,000,000 piculs. The 300,000,000 of the people
of India consumed 24,300,000 piculs of salt in 1904, and
it would seem a fair assumption to put the consumption
of the 400,000,000 of the people of China at the same
figure. On this basis, and calculating at the rates for
eastern Hupeh, the people of China pay Tls.81,000,000
for their salt, of which sum Tls.64,000,000 and more is
taxation in one form or another, and Tls.39,000,000 is
taxation according to regularly published tariffs of charges;
the collection reported to the Imperial Government is
Tls.13,050,000.* In India, in 1904, the people paid 88,000,000
rupees, of which 76,000,000 rupees was taxation actually
credited to the government.
The above was written with reference to the Salt Adminis-
tration under the Empire. The revenue had been more and
more fully pledged for the service of foreign loans, and it
was seen that a reorganisation of the supply and distribution
was necessary if any surplus was to be available for the
Treasury. At the end of 1913 this reorganisation was taken
in hand under Chang Chun, Vice-Minister of Finance, as
Chief Inspector, and Sir Richard M. Dane as Associate
* "China: Past and Present."


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
117
Chief Inspector. In the first year of working, 1914, the net
revenue, after deducting the cost of production and adminis-
tration, amounted to 60,409,676 dollars; from this fund the
sum of 21,106,573 dollars was paid out for the service of
loans and indemnities secured on the Salt revenue, and
31,304,818 dollars were paid over to the Ministry of Finance.
In 1917 the net revenue from the Salt Administration
amounted to 70,627,250 dollars, and 8,858,982 dollars were
received from the Maritime Customs, refunded for service
of the debt; 11,897,876 dollars were paid out for the service
of loans and indemnities, and 68,613,370 dollars were paid
to the Ministry of Finance. This last sum, equivalent to
45,000,000 taels, may be compared with the estimates of
39,000,000 and 64,000,000 taels given in the preceding
paragraph.
\ 5. Miscellaneous
Some new taxes are included under this heading, but the
greater part are old ; whether new or old, they are covered
'by much obscurity. ^Many of them are of local incidence,
and accordingly their collection and report depend upon the
industry, the integrity, and the whim of the local officials;
others are general, but such that there is no check upon the
collection such as is afforded by transit from one district to
another. The principal among them are the following:
1. The reed tax, a charge upon the marshes along
the Yangtze and elsewhere, producing reeds for thatch-
ing and for fuel.
2. The tea license, now probably incorporated in
the likin on transit.
3. Mining royalties, insignificant in the past.
4. Fees on sales of land and houses.
5. Pawnbrokers' and other mercantile licenses,
probably producing the greater part of the reported
collection.
6. Lo-ti-shui, consumption and production tax, now
insignificant, but capable of development on the
abolition of likin.


1l8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
The total proceeds of miscellaneous taxes * reported
to the Imperial Government, including cash receipts from
special tenures, corvees, and purveyances, is Tls.3,856,000.t
This includes Tls.55,000 from Honan, for which Mr. Jamie-
son reports Tls.200,000 collected in 1900, and makes the
following remark:
"By law there is payable on affixing the official
seal to a sale or mortgage of land a fee nominally of
3 per cent. but actually of about 8 per cent. ad
valorem. The fees which the syndicate were asked
to pay came to over 10 per cent. Assuming there
are 150,000,000 mow of land in Honan of an average
value of Tls. 10 per mow, which is well below the mark,
and supposing that land on an average changes hands
once in 60 years or two generations, one-sixtieth each
year gives a value transferred of Tls.25,000,000;
8 per cent. on that should bring in an annual yield
of Tls.2,000,000. And yet the returns, as given in the
above balance sheet, of miscellaneous taxes from all
sources (of which land transfer fees must be one) are
put down as only yielding Tls.200,000 altogether."
There is, in fact, the same, or even greater, degree of
accretion as in the case of the land tax and the grain tribute,
and, taking the rates of increase accepted for the latter, we
have the following figures:
Tls. Tls.
Weising Lottery .. .. 1,000,000
Other miscellaneous taxes .. 2,856,000
3,856,000
Accretion, 210 per cent. on latter .. .. 5,997,600
Collectors' expenses, 10 per cent. on whole 985,360
Total amount paid by taxpayers .. Tls.10,838,960
Included in this are the proceeds of sale of honours and titles,
the amount of which cannot be exactly estimated.
* "China: Past and Present."
s*" f Includes Tls, 1,000,000 collected in Kwangtung from the
Weising Lottery.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE HQ
\
The Republic has imposed some direct taxes which were
impossible to the lax administration of the Empire. Their
nature and the revenue from them in the year July 1916
to June rg17 are as under:
Dollars.
5,864,400
2,012,852
14.350.456
12,134,986
2,221,617
Stamp Duty
Tobacco and Wine License Duty
„ Tax ..
,, Income from sales
Mining Duty
Total ..
36,584,311
6. Foreign Customs
We come now to the one branch of the revenue collection
of China in which the receipt and the report are in accord.
Jn 1865 the collection was Tls.8,296,275, and in 1905
Tls.35,111,004, made up as follows:
Tls.
Customs duty proper, Import and Export 27,817,190
Tonnage dues on shipping .. .. .. 1,105,350
- Transit dues in commutation of provincial
levy of likin .. .. 2,034,407
Convention likin on opium, properly assign-
able to the provinces 4.154.°57
Tls. 3 5,111,004
The sums properly chargeable against this collection
were as follows:
Tls
Fixed allowance to cover cost of collection
and preventive service, but including con-
siderable expenditure for Post Office (up
to 1911), Marine Department, Education,
and other minor services .. .. .. 3,168,000
Seven-tenths of tonnage dues assigned to
Marine Department (Lights, Harbours, etc.) 773,745
Tls.3,941,745


120 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
To this must be added small extras which, elsewhere than
in China, would go to the national exchequer, but which in
China help to maintain the purely Chinese side of the ad-
ministration. There is the difference between receiving and
paying rates in force at the Customs banks as at all other
banks in China, which may be put at 0.5 per cent., or about
Tls. 180,000; and there is the interest on balances in hand,
which, on a very safe estimate, may be put at 3 per cent. of
the total, or Tls.1,050,000.
7. Likin
Up to quite recent times China, like most countries, was
content to tax the movement of merchandise at the estab-
lished Custom Houses only, i.e. practically at the seaports
only, though the taxation was imposed on all movement
past those fixed points, and not on the foreign trade alone.
The only other tax which can be connected with the move-
ment of goods was the Lo-ti-shui (vide supra).^The exigencies
of the government during the Taiping rebellion,'however,
drove the authorities to devise new forms of taxation, and
likin (" contribution of a thousandth ") was instituted. It
was first heard of in 1853; and about 1861, when the active
suppression of the rebellion called for largely increased ex-
penditure, it was applied generally to all the provinces then
under the control of the Imperial authorities. The original
theory of the levy, one-tenth of one per cent. on the value,
imposed no great burden on trade, a tax of the same amount
levied as wharfage dues for the maintenance of the foreign
municipalities at Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow, and else-
where, being scarcely felt; but practice soon parted com-
pany with theory, and the official rates were much increased.
Nor is the tax uniform in its incidence in all provinces.
Hunan is proud of its independence and freedom from non-
customary exactions, and in this province the payment once
of the full tariff rate of likin exempts goods from further
payment within the provincial limits, while the accretions
and irregular exactions are less than elsewhere in China;


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
121
Hunan is, however, exceptional. Kwangtung is more
. nearly typical of the Empire; here between Canton and
Wuchow, a distance of about two hundred miles on the West
River, there are sixMikin "barriers," each constituting a
barrier to the free movement of traffic, and each involving
delay, vexation, and payment. Al«ng the Grand Canal
between Hangchow and Chinkiang, likin stations, alter-
nately collecting and preventive, are established at dis-
tances averaging ten miles one from the other; and in that
part of Kiangsu lying south of the Yangtze there are over
250 stations, collecting or preventive. The route from
Shanghai to Soochow presents a curious condition: the
opening of Soochow as a treaty port enables foreign imports
to be carried there from Shanghai without further payment
of any sort, but in 1904, excluding coal and kerosene oil, the
foreign products declared at the Custom House amounted
only to Tls.310,000; for the rest of the large traffic between
the two places the Chinese traders prefer to pay a compo-
sition in lieu of likin. To get their goods beyond Soochow
into the " interior," they would still have to come under
the cognisance of the likin authorities, and by recognising
that control from Shanghai instead of Soochow, they are
enabled to commute on the basis of estimated quantities,
which may be made the subject of manipulation and
negotiation, and not on the basis of actual quantities reported
to and published by the Customs.
To get at the amount paid by the people is more difficult
in the case of likin than of other taxes.^-The land tax and
the grain tribute are assessed according to registers very
strictly kept, and both are under the control of the Hsien,
the "Father and Mother of the People "; and yet, as we
have seen, the regular legal accretion is, at the very lowest
estimate, from 100 per cent. up to almost anything in reason.
The Salt Administration is an old-established organisation;
and yet the actual receipts are threefold the reported col-
lection, while the people pay fivefold that amount. Likin
is a new levy, with its own administration independent of


122 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
all other taxing agencies, and the collection is much more in
the hands of the officer in charge of each barrier and his sub-
ordinates than is possible with other taxes. For the regular
"accretion," a calculation may perhaps be based on the
following note:
"To begin with, these are the official figures
used in rendering accounts to the Superior Boards
in Peking. When these same figures come to be
translated to the rustic, they bear a very different
meaning. A special case, for the facts of which we
vouch, will perhaps best illustrate our meaning. The
fees which a certain junk, chartered by a foreigner,
was called upon to pay in passing a barrier, amounted
to 12,000 cash. The charterer was not interested in
disputing the amount, but he wished to have a receipt
as a voucher for the disbursement, and for that
purpose he applied to the native office, where he
was tendered a receipt for Tls.4. Failing to con-
vince the officials there that Tls.4 could not by
any possibility be regarded as the equivalent of
12,000 cash when the market value of the tael was
about 1,600 cash, he applied to his Consul, claiming
either a refund or a receipt for what he had actually
paid. In the correspondence that ensued the chief
Chinese authority explicitly declared that though
Tls.4 was the proper charge (which, indeed, was
easily ascertainable from the tariff), yet a tael was
not a tael in the ordinary sense of the word, but
was such a sum as would enable the local authorities
to lay down a tael of the standard weight and purity
in Peking, and consequently included a meltage fee,
loss on melting, freight, and costs of transmission,
and general office expenses, and that all that turned
into cash meant, according to old-established custom,
12,000 cash for Tls.4. Consequently a receipt for
Tls.4, the legal sum, was the only receipt they could


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
123
give. In other words, the procedure simply amounted
to this: that the costs of collection, as far as this
particular collectorate was concerned, came to nearly
100 per cent.—that is to say, they practically
collected Tls.7'50, of which Tls.3"5o were the costs
of collecting Tls.4." *
On this it may be remarked that, if 12,000 cash were
collected in 1885, it is absolutely certain that, on general
principles, 12,000 cash are collected to-day; and further,
that the likin levy has been substantially increased since
1895, and again since 1900. But, while this number of cash
in 1885 was equivalent to Tls.7 50, at to-day's exchange the
equivalence is Tls.1050; and to the legal levy of Tls.4
.^^^here is added Tls.6 50, an "accretion " of 162 per cent.
i*-' v\. The collectors of this tax have much more opportunity to
annoy traders than is possible with other taxes; the tax is
not paid at the head office either of the Likin Administration
or of the traders; the latter are anxious to get their goods
to market, and will willingly pay for expedition; and the
opportunity of the collectors recurs at each barrier to be
passed. Moreover, barriers on one route compete with
those on another, and composition and under-declaration
are recognised incidents of trade; but, while reducing the
amount collected and reported, it is not for a moment to be
supposed that the collectors will permit their individual
emoluments to be affected unless in a sense favourable to
themselves. Students of things Chinese would promptly
/-^reject the suggestion that the addition for "collectors'
expenses," the personal emoluments of the active agents,
can be as low as 10 per cent. of the amount collected; but
as this rate has been taken for land tax and other levies,
it will be taken for this head of revenue as well. Taking
Mr. Parker's figures t for the reported collection we have,
then, the following statement:
• China Mail. Hongkong, 1885.
t "China: Past and Present."


124 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Tls.
Reported likin on general merchandise .. 11,930,000
Accretion at 162 per cent 19,326,600
Collectors' charges at 10 per cent. .. 3,125,660
Total sum paid by taxpayers .. Tls.34,382,26o
In this is not included the collection on native opium.
This product is bashful and retiring, and prefers the bye-
ways to the highways, and it is absolutely certain that the
difference between the sums paid and the amount reported
is much greater than in the case of general merchandise;
calculating it, however, on the same basis we have:
Tls.
Reported collection from native opium * .. 2,830,000
Accretion at 162 per cent. .. .. .. 4,584,600
Collectors' charges at 10 per cent. .. 741,460
Total sum paid by taxpayers .. Tls.8,155,060
The consumption of native opium in China is certainly f
well over 300,000 piculs, and the total revenue reported as
collected from it (taking the year 1904) is the above sum of
Tls.2,830,000 and a sum of Tls.920,598 collected on move-
ment by steamer through the Foreign Customs, making a
total of Tls.3,750,598; in the same year there was collected
by the Foreign Customs from 54,752 piculs of foreign opium
the sum of Tls. 6,025,121.
The Republic included in its budget for the year 1917
the sum of 42,719,194 dollars (28,000,000 taels) from likin,
two-and-a-third times the amount reported under the
Empire.
• Including Tls.870,000 from opium in Manchuria, which has a
separate budget.
t Written in 1906.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
125
Expenditure
When we come to consider the expenditure of the Empire
we find ourselves in a labyrinth, and the difficulty is well
illustrated by Mr. Parker * in the following words:
"To ascertain what is at the present day the
expenditure upon each head is no easy matter, for
all accounts in China. seem to be so arranged as
to present as many anfractuosities, callosities, and
complications as possible, in clearing which obstruc-
tions the silver has, of course, all the more chance
of halting piecemeal on the way to its nominal
destination. Thus there are allowances on the scale
for the melting-pot, for sweating, for wear and tear,
for freight, for escort, for the 'rice' of the Board
officials who receive it, for local weights, stationery,
cartage, haulage, porterage, etc., etc. Wherever
any question comes in of turning copper cash into
silver, or taels into dollars, or vice versa, of course
there is a 'squeeze.' Then there are arrears to be
dunned for, advances to be made, loans to other
provinces, divertings to meet sudden or unforeseen
demands, such as famines, wars, foreign loans.
Imperial marriages, birthdays, funerals, etc., etc.
Remissions of taxation are very troublesome, for
those who have already paid their money never get
it back, whilst those who receive payment have an
opportunity of juggling with the date of remission,
both when it begins and when it ends."
Nor is this all. As we have seen, especially in the case
of the land tax, the cost of government is provided for in
such a way that the greater part of the charge does not, and
cannot, appear in any official account of expenditure. The
basic charge on revenue account is increased by legalised
and regular accretion, and this again by indeterminate
charges which the collectors collect for themselves, and to a
• "The Financial Capacity of China."


126 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
great extent at their own sweet will. Both accretion and
collectors' charges are stigmatised by critics of the Chinese
government as " squeeze," or extortion; but, while the
method of collection opens the door to personal corruption,
still this is the Chinese system/^-In the West, the collector
is paid a fixed salary, with possibly a commission on his
takings, but issued from the Treasury; and the magistrate,
the official with a fixed office, is paid by a sufficient and
all-inclusive salary. This is not so in China, where both
collector and magistrate must fend for themselves. The
collector takes his charges, but it is a mistake to suppose
that his takings are all pure profit: to maintain his position
he must satisfy all in direct authority over him, thereby
securing to his superiors what is considered the just Chinese
equivalent of " salary." The Hsien will have received the
/Basic tax plus accretion plus what may come to him as his
share in collectors' charges, and from this must provide for
the maintenance of all his subordinates, less the proportion
which they themselves may have received as their share
out of the collectors' charges; and he must then provide
for the maintenance (what we would term salary) of all in
direct control over him or able to influence his appointment
or his actions. On his first appointment, and annually or
at more frequent periods during his tenure of office, he must
give gratifications, depending in amount upon the more
or less lucrative character of his post, to his immediate
superiors, the Fu or Prefect, and the Taotai; and he is
the more bound to satisfy the provincial magnates, Judge,
Treasurer, Governor, and Viceroy, in whose patronage lie
his appointment, retention in office, and promotion; and he
must not neglect these great men's secretaries and account-
ants, who are in a position to slip a good or evil word into
their masters' ears. So with the Fu and the Taotai. The
high provincial authorities, too, must fortify their position
at the capital; and a portion of their emoluments, received
from their subordinates, must be passed on, regularly and


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
127
almost as assessment, to the higher metropolitan officials
and Ministers of State, and to the officials of the Palace, any
one of whom, if neglected, might have influence to reduce
the perquisites of a self-seeking official or delay his pro-
motion, and to put a spoke in the wheel of one who proposed
measures to benefit his province. This is the Chinese
"system, and while a change may be brought about by the
spirit of reform which is in the air, this book deals with
the past alone; but, taken as it is, the system obviously
prevents any, even approximate, statement of the cost of
government in China.
Even when we come to what may be called the official
budget—the account of collection officially reported and
transferred to the control of the Imperial Treasury—we are
bewildered by the confusion resulting from the absence of
the common purse. This is illustrated by a small item of
expenditure, one of Tls.600,000 for the Imperial House-
hold, which is shown in the following note by Mr. Parker *
to be drawn from eight different sources:
"Let us now descend from generalities to a few
specific facts. Let us begin with. the expenditure
of the Emperor himself. Beginning with the year
1866, the annual sum to be sent by the various
provincial Customs Stations to the Imperial House-
hold Office was fixed at Tls.300,000 (then about
£100,000, but now only equal to half that amount in
gold). Two years later it was found that this
amount was insufficient, and it was raised to
Tls.600,000. This sum is annually 'appropriated'
by the Board of Revenue before the beginning of
the year in which it is due. Half has to reach
Peking before the middle of July, and the balance
a month before the end of the Chinese year, or,
say, December. The appropriations ordered by the
Board for the year 1896 are as follows:
• "The Financial Capacity of China."


128 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Chekiang province, Salt dues fund
Kwangtung „
Fukien „ Tea „
Foochow native customs receipts
Foochow foreign „ „
Shanghai „ „
North Kwangtung native customs
Kiukiang native customs
Tls.
50,000
50,000
50,000
100,000
50,000
50,000
100,000
150,000
Most of these appropriations are constant year by
year, but, to take the year 1887 as an instance of\
change, in that year the Hupeh salt likin took the
place of the Shanghai foreign customs; and the
Kiangsu salt-gabelle (Tls. 120,000) and native customs
at Hwaian (Tls.30,000) took that of the two Foochow
customs combined. It must also be explained that
in 1893 the Board of Finance advanced Tls.212,390
to the Buttery Office of the Household, which sum
has to be deducted and repaid in 1896."
The sum, Tls.7,000,000, allocated to the maintenance of
the Manchu Bannermen at Peking, is shown to be drawn
from fifty-two different sources^ in sums ranging from
Tls.24,000 to Tls.450,000.
Subject to full consideration of all these omissions and
of all the obscurity hanging over Chinese accounts, on pages
134 and 135 is given the official budget of the province of
Honan for 1900, as given by Mr. Jamieson.*
A province with a population of 21,000,000 contri-
butes Tls.1,895,000 (£285,000) for Imperial purposes, and
maintains its own provincial administration, including the
expensive and burdensome Yellow River Conservancy, on
an expenditure of Tls.1,678,000 (£250,000)!
Let us now abstract from Mr. Parker's figures,f the
result of long and careful inquiry by a most competent
inquirer, the Imperial "open" budget for the eighteen
* "Land Taxation in the Province of Honan."
f "China: Past and Present."


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 129
provinces constituting China Proper, with certain cor-
rections to bring the actual figures up to date.
Revenue ^
i. Land tax reported paid in money .. 25,887,000
ii. Tribute, whether commuted or not .. 7,420,000
iii. Native customs .. .. .. 4,160,000
iv. Salt Gabelle 12,600,000
v. Miscellaneous taxes, old and new .. 3,856,000
vi. Foreign customs, collection 1905 .. 35,111,000
vii. Likin on general merchandise and
native opium .. .. .. 13,890,000
Total .. Tls. 102,924,000
Expenditure
Tls.
i. Cash remitted to Peking .. 9,131,000
ii. Grain or its commutation sent to
Peking and cost of transport .. 5,780,000
iii. Frontier Defence .. .. .. 5,415,000
iv. Admiralty general fund .. .. 1,450,000
v. Army, Navy, and Fortifications .. 25,200,000
vi. Arsenals .. .. .. .. 3,385,000
vii. Yellow River and other Conservancies 1,389,000
viii. Foreign Customs allowance and main-
tenance of Lights .. .. .. 3,942,000
ix. Native Customs, allowance to In-
spectorate .. .. .. .. 370,000
x. Sundry Peking funds .. .. .. 3,842,000
xi. Railway development fund .. .. 550,000
xii. Imperial grants for provincial ad-
ministration .. .. .. 34,042,000
xiii. * Foreign loans and indemnities taken
at exchange of 3s. to the tael .. 42,000,000
Total .. Tls. 136,496,000
* See Appendix A.


130 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
The Imperial expenditure, so far as is known or reported,
exceeds the Imperial revenue, as reported, by Tls.33,572,000,
indicating, as the Government is far from being bankrupt,
a considerable degree of elasticity in the revenue.
The next step will be to draw up an imaginary state-
ment of revenue according to the amounts presumed to
be paid by the taxpayer; and if, in preparing this, we
accept the sums recorded above for "accretion" as
representing the general expenses of provincial administra-
tion, and those for " collectors' charges" as representing
the local or municipal administration, the resultant figures
will be readily accepted by all competent investigators as
being in all cases well under the fact.
Imperial
Administration.
Provincial
Administration.
Administration.
TU.
Tls.
Tls.
i.
Land Tax
25,887,000
67,060,000
9,315,000
ii.
Tribute
7,420,000
15,582,000
2; 300,000
iii.
Native Customs
3,790,000
1,200,000
249,000
iv.
Salt Gabelle
13,050,000
26,000,000
25,000,000
v.
Miscellaneous
3,856,000
5,998,000
985,000
vi.
Foreign Customs ..
31,169,000
3,942,000
1,230,000
vii.
Likin
13,890,000
22,502,000
3,639,000
Total
99,062,000
142,374,000
42,718,000
The grand total here shown, Tls.284,154,000, is an
obviously insufficient sum on which to maintain the fabric
of government of an Empire like China, but it has been
reached by calculations based on a few known facts, and
does not include any of those delightful exchange operations
which alleviate the burden of officials charged with receiving
and disbursing official funds. Such as it is, the statement
is offered as throwing some light on a subject veiled in
obscurity, and it may be compared with the budget for 1911
presented to the Throne—and published by authority, as
given on opposite page. It may also be compared with
the budget of the Republic of China for the calendar year
1916 on pages 132-133.


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 1911
Income Tls.
Land tax and grain tribute .. .. 49,669,858
Salt and tea tax 47,621,920
Customs revenue .. .. .. .. 42,139,288
Miscellaneous taxes .. .. .. .. 26,163,842
Likin 44,176,542
Rents from government property .. .. 47,228,037
Sale of official rank and titles .. .. 5,652,333
Miscellaneous ".. 35,698,477
Sale of government bonds 3,560,000
Total .. Tls.301,910,297
Expenditure
Tls.
Budget of Ministry of Foreign Affairs .. 2,782,288
Legations and consulates .. .. .. 343,727
Constabulary .. .. .. .. 4,352,040
Budget of Ministry of Finance .. .. 111,249,315
Education 2,747,477
Army 77,915,890
Navy 9.997,947
Justice 6,643,829
Communications .. .. .. .. 37,569,097
Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce .. 5,453,833
Dependencies 1,688,560
Grants-in-aid to provinces 37.703,362
Total .. .. 298,448,365
Surplus Tls.3,461,932


132 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 1916
Revenue
Ordinary:
Dollars. Dollars.
Land tax in money and grain 95,972,818
Customs revenue .. .. 71,310,970
Salt Gabelle .. .. .. 84,771,365
Likin 40,271,368
Miscellaneous taxes .. .. 32,341,704
Miscellaneous duties .. .. 14,067,574
Interest from government in-
vestments .. .. .. 2,621,261
Miscellaneous receipts by pro-
vinces .. .. .. 6,927,694
Receipts by central adminis-
tration 77,942,391
426,237,145
Extraordinary:
Loans .. .. .. .. 20,000,000
Receipts by central adminis-
tration 17,051,808
Receipts under other heads as
above 8,657,757
45709.565
Total receipts .. 471,946,710


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
133
Expenditure
Ordinary:
Dollars.
Foreign Affairs
3,276,677
Interior
49,653,982
Finance
53.531.625
War
135,813,986
Marine
17,101,779
Justice
7.665.772
Education
12,611,583
Agriculture and Commerce ..
3762.244
Communications *
1,577,408
Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs
947.230
Dollars.
-285,942,280
Extraordinary:
Finance 175,302,789
War
Expenditure under other heads
as above
Total expenditure ..
6,438,727
3.835.634
-185.577.150
471,519,436
• Not including Government Railways, or the Postal and Tele-
graph services, which are under the Ministry of Communications.


134 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Table showing Revenue and Expenditure of the
Province of Honan, 26th Year Kwanghsu, 1900
Revenue
1tem.
10
It
Description.
Land tax
,, „ (supplementary)
,, grain tax commuted
Miscellaneous (7 categories of taxes, details not
stated)
Economies on courier service
„ „ fixed allowance for Yellow River
repairs
Deduction of 6 per cent, on all payments (ordinary
service)
Likin ..
[Note.—The likin revenue is said to amount to
Tls.100,000, but as Tls.80,000 are remitted
direct by the Likin Administration for the
service of foreign loans, the balance only is
entered as provincial revenue.]
Deductions from the salaries (Yanglicn) of the
several civil and military officials, 10 to 30
per cent.
Rent of public lands and various other items ..
Payments by the various district magistrates in
respect to surplus in the collection of land tax
arising from difference of scale ..
Total
[Note.—Apparently there is a deficit in the
Provincial Budget of Tls.38,000 even allow-
ing for items 13 and 14 of expenditure,
which are tersely marked "not paid, no
funds." Moreover, items 5, 6, 7 and 9 on
the revenue side are not revenue at all, but
are counted as such, probably on the Skim-
pole principle that money not spent is money
earned.]
Amount.
Kuping Tls.
2,o6o,000
320,000
480,000
200,000
90,000
34,000
6o,000
20,000
21,000
50,000
100,000
3,435,000


REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 135
Expenditure
Item.
— » ■ ■
Amount.
i^cscnpuon.
Kuping Tls.
I
Imperial or extra-provincial expenditure—
200,000
2
Kansu province, subsidy to
610,000
3
Service of foreign loans
I 70,000
[Note.—The fixed charge for this item is
Tls.390 000, of which, however, the
Changlu Salt Department remits 60,000,
the Grain Tax Department 80,000, and the
Likin 80,000, leaving, as above, 170,000
as the charge on the general revenues of the
province.]
4
Subsidy to the I-chun army corps
173,000
5
Remittance to Board of Revenue from grain
tax commutation
210,000
6
Subsidy to Sung-wu army corps in Shungtung
230,000
7
Remittance in aid of the Sungkiang-Shanghai
20,000
8
Yunnan Copper Supply Administration
20,000
9
Remittances to Imperial Household
20,000
10
,, for upkeep of Yuen-ming-yuen Palace
2,000
11
Purchase of silks, damask, etc., for Court
90,000
13
Contribution to Northern Railway construction
50,000
13
Subsidy for pay of troops in three Manchurian
provinces (not paid, no funds available)
40,000
14
Peking supplementary subsidy, termed Ku-pen
(not paid, no funds available)
6o,00O
Provincial expenditure—
15
Yellow River repairs, fixed allowance
600,000
16
Pay of provincial troops: "Banner," " Green,"
330,000
*7
290,000
18
River embankments in the two hsien "Ho"
and " Wu"
24,000
19
Salaries (Yanglien) to civil and military officials
of the province
303,000
20
Pensions, officials of hereditary rank on provin-
cial list
20,000
21
II.OOO
22
River gunboats, dockyard expenses
50,000
23
Workshops, etc., under the " Shan-hou " office
50,000
Total
3.573.0OO
Total, Imperial and extra provincial ..
I.895.000
„ provincial
1,678,000
Total .. .. ..
3,573,000


CHAPTER V
the currency
Preliminary
Of the prehistoric systems of currency in China, the inscribed
skins, the tortoiseshell and cowries, the axes and spades,
the armlets and rings, it is not my purpose to treat, but
only of those systems which lead directly to the modern
currency practice of the Empire. Nearly every possible
material is recorded as having served this purpose at one
time or another; but, outside the metals and paper money,
we hear in historic times only of silk rolls and cowries.
Silk rolls, though received for tribute at a fixed rate of con-
version as late as the thirteenth century, might perhaps be
considered as much a tribute in kind as currency, though it is
recorded, ad a.d. 1206, that silver or silk could be used in pay-
ment of the salt tax. Cowries were received for taxes as late
as the fourteenth century; the records show that 1,133,119
strings of cowries were received by the Treasury in a.d. 1329.
Of metals, gold seems to have been considered as currency
only from the eleventh to the third century B.C., the law pro-
viding that the unit of gold in commercial transactions should
be a cube of one tsun weighing one kin. In modern times gold
has been a commodity pure and simple, and in the shape
of jewelry or ingots or gold-leaf has been used chiefly for
hoarding—for the Asiatic family reserve against times of
want or of oppression. Iron has been used for coinage
during the Han dynasty (b.c. 206) and by various kingdoms
in West China, and in the tenth century iron coins werp
136


THE CURRENCY
137
the ordinary currency in what is now Szechwan. In modern
times iron was used to further depreciate the coinage of
Hienfeng (a.d. 1851-1861), pieces of iron having then been
issued during the time when the mints were cut off from
their supplies of copper from Yunnan. These, however,
are all intermittent and eccentric currencies which have
not endured; and for present-day discussion we need only
consider three kinds—copper, paper, and silver.
COPPER CURRENCY
Early Coins
It is only in copper (or bronze) that currency and coinage
are synonymous terms in China. Disregarding the archaic
uninscribed tokens of rulers before the true historic period,
we find the earliest recorded legislation on coinage about a
century after the beginning of the Chow dynasty (circa
B.C. 1122), the sovereign having established in B.C. 1032
certain rules for currency, and enacted that metallic pieces
should henceforth be exchangeable according to their weight.
Inscribed coins then came in, but for over three centuries
the inscriptions contained no reference to weight or value.
Then, in the first half of the seventh century B.C., the enact-
ment of certain rules led gradually to the habit (coinage not
being yet, not until B.C. 135, a government prerogative) of
casting coins of regular shapes and sizes and of constant
weights; but even then the earliest known specimen in-
scribed with weight or value is assigned doubtfully to circa
B C. 375. The coins circulating from this time were of the
shapes called knife and spade or fiu, both being tokens
representing for purposes of barter the implements which
constituted the wealth of the people. Of these the knife
coins represent a more highly developed civilisation, in that
the inscriptions are more precise in giving the place of issue
and in indicating that they are token currency; the issues
of the latest type, ascribed to the beginning of the first
century of our era, are highly conventionalised, the blade


138 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
being shortened and the ring having become a thickened
copy of the round coin with a square hole which had by that
time become the common coinage.
Inscribed Round Coins
Inscribed round coins came in about the seventh century
B.C., the earliest known specimens being inscribed as weigh-
ing 1 liang 14 chu or 1\ tael, having a present-day weight
of 171 grains; while others are inscribed with other weights,
such as liang, or with the place of issue and the number
of kin or hoes they stood token for. The earlier round
hole in the middle (probably a reminiscence of the armlets
and rings) soon gave place to the square hole which we
know to-day, and from the end of the Chow dynasty (circa
B.C. 255) the coins are inscribed " Half a tael." The follow-
ing are the approximate dates for each of the regular
shapes of coins:
Knife money .. B.C. 670-221
„ ,, thick and short .. .. a.d. 7-10
Spade money (consisting of little
hoes with hollow handles) .. .. B.C. 600-350
Pu money (variant of Spade) .. B.C. 475-221
small and thick .. .. a.d. 10-14
Round coins, with round holes .. B.C. 660-336
„ „ „ square holes from B.C. 221
China has had a copper coinage for twenty-five centuries,
and a coinage of the shape we know to-day uninterruptedly
for twenty-one centuries.
The issues of half-tael coins must have been very large,
since they are in our time by no means uncommon in the
trays of the petty hucksters who are found on every street
of every city of the Empire. In course of time they degene-
rated in size and weight, and (b.c. 118) were replaced by the
coins inscribed in seal character " Five chu " (.^j tael), which
remained in circulation side by side with all other issues,


L
ft


A
Specimen of Pu cash.

Half-tael cash.

5-chu cash.





THE CURRENCY
139
for upwards of 700 years. This coin, also easily obtainable
to-day, is beautifully cast, 0 95 inch * in diameter, weighing
to-day from 46 to 51 grains. Coins with other inscriptions,
all in seal character and none of them dynastic, were issued
from time to time, until we come to the Golden Age of
China—the Tang dynasty, a.d. 618. Then began the issue
of the coins inscribed in square modern character Kai-yuan.
Coins with this inscription are recorded as having been
issued by the first Tang Emperor (a.d. 618-627), by the
Emperor who took those characters (Kai-yuan) for his reign
title (a.d. 713-742), by the Emperor Teh Tsung (a.d. 780-
785), and by the Emperor Wu Tsung (a.d. 841-847), a total
of fifty-three years. The first coins to be inscribed with the
title of the reigning Emperor, thus giving an exact date,
were issued in the reign of Kienfeng (a.d. 666-668). This
new currency, introduced by a strong and wise government
in sufficient quantities for the needs of the people, supplied
a type which has endured to this day. With a diameter
of o"95 inch, they were of the same approximate dimensions
and weight as the coins which, until the great melting down
of the past twenty years, constituted the chih-tsien or standard
coinage of the Empire; and thirty years ago, searching
critically through hundreds of strings of cash in everyday
circulation, I found among them not a few of these coins
which had formed part of the ordinary currency of the people
for eleven to thirteen centuries, minted before the time of
Alfred of England, before Charlemagne was crowned at Rome,
and long before a King of France reigned in Paris. The
type persisted through the Sung dynasty (a.d. 960-1126),
varied by occasional issues of coins of larger size, but gene-
rally the coinage was of standard size. These issues also
were made in sufficient quantities for the needs of the people,
and these, too, I have found among coins in present circula-
tion. Speaking of thirty years ago, in every thousand coins
there would be two or three of the Tang and ten or twelve of
the Sung mintage. The Golden dynasty of Niichen Tartars
* Here and later the English inch.


I40 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
(a.d. 1115-1234) and their contemporaries the Southern
Sung (a.d. 1127-1280) issued few coins; and the Mongols,
the Yuan dynasty (a.d. 1260-1368), ruling the China that
Marco Polo knew, issued still smaller quantities, subsisting
as it did mainly on fiduciary issues of paper money. The
Ming dynasty then came in (a.d. 1368-1642), and found itself
confronted by this financial difficulty. The early rulers
were compelled for a time to continue the paper issues of
their predecessors, and in addition there was during the first
reign, that of Hungwu (a.d. 1368-1399), some issue of copper
token coinage; but by the time of Yunglo (a.d. 1403-1425),
the reign during which the capital was moved to Peking, the
finances had been restored from the condition to which they
had been reduced by the unlettered and warlike Mongols,
and the currency established on a sound basis. For two
and a half centuries the Ming government kept the people
fully supplied with circulating medium of standard size and
weight, the general average of the diameter of the coins
ranging from 0-90 to ro5 inch, and the standard weight
from 46 to 57 grains; making ample allowance for the
longer time that the surviving specimens of Tang and Sung
coinage have been in circulation, the Ming coins must be
adjudged to be superior to them, and fully equal in appear-
ance to the coinage of the first century of the present Tsing
dynasty, though less in weight. When the Manchus came
to the throne, they continued the civil government of their
predecessors, merely superadding the military control
represented by the now innocuous Tsiang-kiin (Tartar
Generals) stationed at certain strategic points throughout
the Empire, and creating a few milking posts, such as the
Hoppo at Canton, a post abolished only in 1904; their
rule has been in the main a government of the Chinese, by
the Chinese, for the Chinese, and in nothing has this been
shown more than in the continuance for nearly two cen-
turies of the financial and monetary systems of the Mings.
The earliest issues of coinage by the first Emperor to establish
himself at Peking, Shunchih (a.d. 1644-1661), bore inscrip-


III.

Tang, a.d. 618-906.
Sung, a.d. 960-1126.

Ming, a.d. 1368-1643. Sun-chih, a.d. i 644-1661.

Kang-hi, a.d. 1662-1722. Yung-cheng, a.d. 1723-1735.


Tao-kwang, a.d. 1821-1850. Tung-chih, a.d. 1862-1874.





THE CURRENCY
141
tions only in Chinese, the first issues having on the reverse
only the mint name, the second having in addition the value,
one-thousandth of a tael (of silver); then, toward the end
of his reign, the coins bore the mint name in Chinese and
Manchu. His successor, Kanghi (a.d. 1662-1722), continued
the bilingual inscriptions through the whole of his reign,
but toward the end of the reign the two mints at Peking,
those of the Board of Revenue (Hu-pu) and the Board of
Works (Kung-pu), issued coins bearing on the reverse the
mint name, and the word "currency" in Manchu only.
The coins of Yungcheng (a.d. 1723-1735) are inscribed on
the obverse in Chinese and on the reverse in Manchu only,
and this practice has continued to this day, It is in this
reign that the coinage of China may be considered to have
reached its highest point, in size and weight, in quality of
metal, and in elegance of inscription; previous dynasties
and previous reigns had equalled it in some one or more
of these qualities, but not in the combination of all. The
Shunchih coins were generally 0 95 to 105 inch and those
of Kanghi roo to no inch in diameter, and both were made
of a bright yellow brass; the Yungcheng coins were gene-
rally roo to no inch in diameter, made of a rich light-
brown bronze. It was from this time that the degeneration
of the coinage began, and it will be well here to interpolate a
note on the standard of weight and value.
Standard of Weight and Value
Leaving to one side the Half-tael and Five-chu (.^j tael)
coins, the standard introduced by the Tang dynasty and
continuing in theory until to-day was a part of a bimetallic
system, or even (although gold formed no part of the cur-
rency) of a trimetallic system, by which, in value, 1 gold =
10 silver = 1,000 copper, these being the metallic exchange
equivalents in China thirteen centuries ago. The copper
coin of this system was made to weigh one-tenth of a tael,
making it in value one-thousandth of a tael of silver. This


142 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
theory has continued to the present time, and was definitely
asserted by the inscription, ten centuries later, on the coins
of the first Manchu Emperor. The copper coinage being a
government concern, while silver was left to the tender
mercies of the bankers, the fixed exchange equivalence, or
value, of the coins was treated with relative disregard, while
the weight was more or less adhered to. We get into quite
another question when we go into the weight of the tael;
the Five-chu coins may be assumed to have weighed 5 chu
or -fa tael when first introduced * (though this may be an
erroneous assumption), and, as far as numismatics can tell
us, they continued to be of the same weight down to the
time when they were displaced by the Tang coins, of about
the same size, and of a statutory weight of .j^ tael. Dis-
regarding any difference of tael, this continued to be the
desideratum of the mints, the actual weight of the issues
varying, however, according to the laws of supply and
demand, to the varying ratio between silver and copper,
and to the ostensible necessity of maintaining a bimetallic
proportion in the currency, but seldom falling below 0 08
* Under the Chow dynasty, on the evidence of the coins, the
Hang of 24 chu was probably 97.5 grains, giving 4.06 grains as the
weight of the chu. The " First Emperor," Shih Hwangti, in the
twenty-sixth year of his reign as Prince and the first year of his
assumption of the Imperial dignity (b.c. 221), issued an edict in-
creasing the weight and fixing the standard. On the authority of
Mr. F. H. Chalfant (Journal N.C.B.R.A.S. 1903-4) the standard
was as follows:
1 chu.. .. .. ., o.68 gramme = 10.5 grains
24 chu = 1 hang .. .. 16.35 grammes = 252.5 grains
This standard was probably continued into the Han dynasty, which
soon (b.c. 206) followed the Tsin; and the first ruler of the Northern
Tsi (a.d. 550) enacted that a hundred 5-chu coins should actually
weigh 500 chu, "otherwise 1 kin 4 liang 20 chu." The actual
weight (46 to 51 grains) of surviving specimens of 5-chu coins corre-
sponds closely with the theoretic weight (52.5 grains) of this standard.
When the standard was again raised is not on record; but the first
Tang coins issued seventy years later (a.d. 618) were presumably
one-tenth of the modern hang of 570 to 580 grains.


THE CURRENCY
143
tael. During the first reign of the Tsing dynasty the
weight was 0' 1 tael, afterwards raised to o-125 tael, and under
Kanghi, a.d. 1684, the weight was again reduced to o'1 tael,
to be again raised, a.d. 1702, to o-14 tael, and again reduced
to o-12 tael. This continued to be the statutory weight
through the reign of Yungcheng and into the beginning of
that of Kienlung (a.d. 1736), when it was again made 01 tael.
During this long reign of sixty years degeneration made
progress, in appearance and in quality, and in the size and
weight of the coins; the government was still vigorous, with
no sign of dry rot, and we may assume that the struggle
between the mints and the illegal melter-down of t00-full-
weight coins had begun, and that, to keep the currency
from the melting crucible, the mints were driven to reduce
the intrinsic value more and more. Whatever the cause, the
coinage became by degrees smaller and lighter, issues at the
beginning of the reign having a diameter of no inch and
weighing o-12 tael, while at the end of the eighteenth century
official issues (no account being taken of illicit coinage, so
common in China) were so small as 0-85 or even o'8o inch,
and weighed no more than 0-075 tael. A memorialist just
a century ago reported to the Throne that, of the coins in
common circulation, from 1 to 2 per cent. weighed 0-12 tael
and over, while 30 to 40 per cent. weighed the full legal o-1
tael. The coins of the period Kiaking (a.d. 1796-1820) were
of light weight, but ordinarily were still well minted; it is in
the following reign, Taokwang (a.d. 1821-1850), that the
rough crude issues of the mints, which we see to-day, made
their first appearance; and the present tendency we see in a
memorial from the Governor-General of Shengking, dated
November 1899, in which he reports to the Throne that
coins weighing 0 08 tael, such as were issued in other pro-
vinces, involve a loss, and that he is therefore minting them
at 0 05 tael weight. It is safe to say that there will be no
profit from melting down such coins, and that the illicit issues
of counterfeiters will not be much less attractive in appear-
ance or appreciably less in value.


144 the trade and administration of china
Token Coinage
In the reign of Hienfeng (a.d. 1851-1861) the govern-
ment fell on troubled times, with revenues reduced by
wide-spread rebellion; and, partly from this cause, partly
because it was unable to get supplies of copper, recourse
was had to issues of token coins. This depreciated money
was issued in two forms—iron coins having the same
dimensions and face value as the ordinary copper currency,
and copper token coins in multiples of the ordinary cash.
The iron coins had a temporary success, but within four
years, in February 1857, there was a popular rising against
them, and in a day they lost their currency.
The first tokens issued (in 1853) were 10-cash pieces
with a diameter of 150 inch, but these were soon reduced
to a maximum diameter of r20 inch and a minimum
for official issues during the reign of Kwanghsu which
may be put at roo inch. The provinces soon followed
suit and 10-cash pieces were issued by all the provincial
mints except those of Hunan and Kwangtung. Other
values also followed, including coins of a face value of 5,
8, 10, 20, 30, 50,100, 200, 500, and 1,000 cash. The issues
of the Fukien mint (bearing in mind that they were cast,
and not rolled or stamped) are beautiful specimens of
numismatology, and heavier than the contemporary coins
of other mints; and I give here the particulars of a series
which lies before me.
Value. Diameter. ThickneM. Weight.
10-cash 145 inch o 1l inch 321 grains*
20-cash 180 „ 012 „ 591
50-cash 222 „ 020 „ 1,410 „
100-cash 263 „ 025 „ 2,200 „
These token coins took no hold in the provinces and may
be said not to have entered into the currency system of
the Empire, except that, curiously enough, in Peking itself,
• Weight inscribed on rim 0*50 tael.



io cash, a.d. 1905.





THE CURRENCY
145
though not in the province of Chihli, immediately around
it, the patriotism, or the self-interest, or the timidity of the
people led to their immediate adoption, and the 10-cash
pieces (but none of the others) have continuously for fifty
years past constituted the sole circulating medium of the
capital. It must not be supposed however that, even at
Peking, the 10-cash piece is considered to be worth, or is
accepted for, ten cash.* The Chinese never have treated
their coinage as coins, passing on their face value irre-
spective of their intrinsic worth, but have always looked
beneath Cesar's superscription; and the token currency
of the capital is rated closely to the value of the metal
contained in it. An estimate of the true intrinsic value of
a copper coinage in China must depend upon the gold ex-
change with silver, the gold price of copper and spelter,
and the exchange between silver and the copper coinage,
and the resultant of this triangular calculation will never
be the same from day to day; but taking all the conditions
as they were at a certain time in 1905, I found that for one
Mexican dollar I received at Shanghai 880 ordinary cash
in common circulation, containing an ordinary proportion
of illicit coins, of an intrinsic value of 26 4 pence; and
that for one Mexican dollar at Peking I received actually
405, being nominally f 413 pieces of 10-cash, with an actual
face value of 4,130 and a nominal J face value of 8,260
cash, having an intrinsic value of 29 45 pence. The actual
value in each case is somewhat, but proportionately, smaller,
since I took as the basis of the fourth element in the
estimate—the alloy of metal in the coins—the standard
proportion of 60 parts of copper to 40 of spelter, while
the proportion of copper is sometimes as low as 55.
We come now to the latest issue of token coinage, the
cent. This was issued to supply a real deficiency in the
circulating medium, due to extensive melting down of
* Cash, from the Sanskrit Kaxsha, Karshapana, the translation
in English of the Chinese " Copper coin."
t v. infra, page 128. \ v. infra, page 131.
10


146 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the regular coinage and the impossibility of the government
supplying the wastage, both occasioned by the increasing
intrinsic value of the copper contents. This coin was a
close imitation of the Hongkong cent (j^q of a silver dollar)
and the issues from the Kwangtung mint are inscribed
"100 to a dollar," but those from all other mints are in-
scribed "represents 10 cash." While their workmanship
differs, their intrinsic value is fairly uniform; with a
diameter of 110 inch, some are of pure copper and weigh
112 grains, other contain 95 per cent. of copper and weigh
115 grains, having an intrinsic value (on the date in 1905
referred to above) of 12 pence for 100 coins or 10 5 pence
for the then exchange equivalent of one dollar. There
were also some limited issues of brass " cents" containing
80 per cent. of copper and 20 per cent. of spelter. At first the
cents passed for their full face value of 10 cash or 88 to the
silver dollar; by July 1906 they had depreciated to a value
of 7 cash, or 112 to the dollar, recovering at the end of 1906
to 107 to the dollar, but in 1908 relapsing to 125 to the dollar.
Mint Statistics
The people of China are voracious in their consumption
of cash, but it is not easy to get statistics, the only fact
I can note of earlier periods being that at the beginning of
the ninth century a.d. the quantity issued annually was
135,000,000. From Edkins * I give figures of the quantities
of copper coins issued by the mints for certain years of the
first century of the present dynasty. (See next page.)
A close correspondence in the issues of certain mints
in the three columns of the second table will suggest the
danger which always confronts the investigator in China,
from the common habit of reporting that which should be
as being that which is. Of the "cents" it is estimated
that 12,500,000,000 were issued up to the end of 1906, and
it appears probable that over a third of these came from the
Hupeh mint.
* "Chinese Currency," by J. Edkins, Shanghai, 1901.


THE CURRENCY
147
Shunchih 1
A.D.1644
71,663,900
Kanghi
20
A.D.l68l
231,398,600
1i
2
.. «645
443.75«.7°°
11
*S
.. 1686
289,936,700
11
3
.. 1646
624,823,960
11
y>
.. I69I
289,925,40a
11
4
.. I647
1.333.384.194
.1
35
,, 1696
237.063,050
11
5
„ 1648
1,449,494,200
..
40
.. 170I
238,065,800
11
7
,, I65O
1,682,424,510
,•
45
,, I706
238,075,800
ii
9
,, 1652
2,097,632,850
..
JO
.. 17"
374.933.400
11
10
.. 1653
2,521,663,740
,,
56
.. 1717
399.167,300
11
.. I654
2,488,544,460
,,
60
.. 1721
437.325.8oo
„
13
.. 1655
2,413,878,080
Yungcheng 1
.. '723
499.200
*i
17
„ I660
280,394,280
11
4
.. 1726
675,160
tt
18
,. I66l
291,584,600
..
5
.. '727
723,528,000
Kanghi
5
.. 1666
295,879,800
,,
6
., 1728
746,304,000
11
10
„ I67I
290,475,830
..
S
.. 1730
757.865,000
11
»5
.. 1676
231.36S.360
..
9
.. '73i
1.048,759,660
At three periods of the nineteenth century we have
figures giving the issues of each mint:
1*00-1830
i«jt.
1865.
fined quoU.
Peking
899,856,000
*
1,349,784,000
Chihli
60,666,000
60,666,000
60,756,840
Shansi
17,472,000
17,472,000
17,472,000
Shensi
87,360,000
94,584,000
94,589,040
Szechwan
194,127,000
194,127,000
157.733.333
Hunan
47,880,000
47,880,000
48,054,000
Hupeh
84,000,000
84,000,000
84,420,000
Kiangsi
41,928,000
41,928,000
42.037.993
Kiangsu
111,804,000
111,804,000
111,992,052
Chekiang
129,600,000
129,600,000
129,600,000
Fukien
43,200,000
43,200,000
43,200,000
Kwangtung
34,560,000
34,560,000
34,560,000
Kwangsi
24,000,000
24,000,000
24,000,000
Yunnan
179,784,000
5,760,000
170,569,080
Kweichow
94,860,000
4,464,000
89,773,200
Ili
1,122,000
1,122,000
1,122,000
Variability of Tiao
Cash are strung on strings, in rolls of 100, of which
10 go to the string or tiao, or ch'uan, formerly called kuan.
Nothing is ever done in China for nothing, and no oppor-
• Probably the same as in the period 1800-1830.


148 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
tunity is ever lost of making a little extra profit or lag-
niappe; and the money-changers have always charged
for their trouble in stringing, and for the cost of the string.
This charge is made by deducting one, or two, or three, or
four cash from each hundred; the deduction is more or
less (as everything in China is " more or less ") recognised
and fixed for each place, with the result that the tiao of
1,000 cash contains in one place 970 and in another place
980 actual coins, the full tiao passing however for 1,000
cash. The local quota is fixed, and the peasant who should
receive 980 but actually gets only 975, will feel that he
is not receiving his due and will enter at once upon that
war of wits which delights the heart of every Chinaman.
The following newspaper cutting * will give a clearer
picture of the situation than anything I can write, what
is said of the cent being true also of the cash.
"Wusueh, Hupeh, May 1, 1906.
"This particular part of the Hupeh province has
long been distinguished for its variety of rates of
exchange. A nominal 100 cash has for a long time
been worth 97 in actual cash at Wusueh, 98 at Lung-
ping ten miles away, 97 or 98 in different classes of
transactions at Hsingkuo ninety miles away, and
99 at Chichou, the same distance away in another
direction. To complicate matters, the only cash
bills which are popular are issued by a Wusueh bank
and are current in all these towns, but not at face
value. At Wusueh a bill equals 1,000 cash, at Lung-
ping one has to give ten cash and a bill for a thousand,
at Chichou one must add twenty cash to the bill.
When the copper 10-cash pieces became current (and
the only currency, for cash is not now to be had at
the banks) the banks had to settle all these monetary
problems afresh. At the mint the copper pieces are
* North-China Daily News, May nth, 1906.


THE CURRENCY
149
sold at 98, i.e. 100 copper pieces equal 1,000 cash,
reckoned at 98 to the hundred, so that when paying
100 cash one pays ten pieces, but when paying 99
or 98 cash one also pays ten pieces. At Chichou the
banks decided to issue 100 copper pieces for a cash bill,
thus saving money on the transaction, as they bought
the pieces at Wuchang at 98 and paid them out
instead of 1,000 copper cash at 99. At Lungping
they had to be content without gains. At Wusueh
the banks pondered, for if they- bought the copper
pieces at 98 and then gave 100 for a bill in a place where
the rate was 97 they would lose ten cash on each hun-
dred. They therefore decided to take one coin out of
each packet they got from the mint. Had they stopped
here all would have gone sm00thly, for the shop-
keepers would have deducted one cash from each ten
copper pieces which they paid out, and no one would
have lost anything. But old-time custom has al-
lowed the banks to charge two cash for the piece of
string on which the cash were threaded, and the
banks did not like to yield this squeeze, so they
proceeded to take a second copper piece out of each
packet from the mint and put eight cash back, thus
getting the two cash for the string which they no
longer provided. Of course the shopkeepers objected,
for they could not divide up two cash among a hun-
dred coins. If they allowed this deduction, the loss
of the two cash must inevitably fall on the man who
broke the parcel of copper pieces. The result was
that the matter was referred to the officials, and after
plea and counter-plea, the shopkeepers have won,
and by proclamation the rate in Wusueh from to-
morrow will be 98 to the 100, so that the banks will
hand over unbroken packets of copper coins. Does not
the commercial strength of the Chinese lie just in this
pertinacious struggling against the smallest losses?"


150 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Double Value of Cash in North China
In the north (Chihli, Shantung) one cash counts for
two. The price of an article being there quoted at 100
cash, you hand over 50 coins, at 2 tiao you give what in the
south constitutes 1 tiao. The same rule of deduction holds
here too, and the tiao, nominally of 1,000 and nominally-
actually of 980 cash, contains actually 490 coins. At
Peking, too, the rule holds good, and the tiao, nominally
of 1,000 cash, i.e. nominally of 100 and nominally-actually
of 98 pieces of 10-cash, actually contains 49 pieces of 10-cash
=> 20-cash. In Manchuria the tiao consists of 160 ordinary
(small) cash.
I make no excuse for devoting so much of my space to
this part of my subject. The copper coinage is the currency
of the people, in which the daily transactions of four hundred
millions are carried on. The importer and the exporter
have an exchange question ever present; the wholesale
dealer buys and sells with taels of silver bullion; but the
shopkeeper sells his commodities, and the artisan and the
farmer sell the produce of their labour, for copper coins,
and with these copper coins buy what will suffice for their
daily needs. The basis of the currency system of the
Empire is the copper cash which was originally yooo °f
a tael of silver, worth only a generation ago the third of a
pound sterling; and of this copper cash, at the exchange
ruling a couple of years ago, it took approximately 10,000
to equal a pound sterling, 2,000 an American dollar, 500
a mark, and 400 a franc.
PAPER MONEY
Paper money comes to be considered next, since, speaking
generally and exceptis excipiendis, it is in China based on
copper and not on silver. There is no record to show
when bank issues first began, and to-day the notes of


THE CURRENCY
151
money-changers circulate readily within a radius limited
only by the credit and reputation of the issuing firm. It is
not my purpose, however, to consider private issues, but
only the fiduciary issues of fiat money made by-the govern-
ment.
Tang and Sung Notes
The first government notes of which the issue is re-
corded were of the Tang dynasty. The Emperor Hien-
tsung (a.d. 806-821) on account of the scarcity of cash,
issued an edict prohibiting the manufacture of copper
utensils, such as basins and kettles; and, to provide for
the monetary stringency, opened offices at the capital
at which merchants could deposit their coin, receiving in
exchange government notes, called "bonds" or "flying
money"; the offices represented the different provinces,
and the notes were redeemable at the proper provincial
capital. Translated into modern terms, this means that
the government began to issue paper money. These issues
continued to the end of the Tang period. The first Emperor
of the Sung period (a.d. 960) followed the custom of the
Tang dynasty and issued government notes at large com-
mercial centres, redeemable at other large centres. As
described, these notes served rather the purpose of bills of
exchange, but it is hard to believe that the government did
not avail itself of the opportunity to get something for
nothing, and to pay some portion of its obligations in this
form. In A.d. 997 the amount of these notes outstanding
was 1,700,000 strings (tia0) of cash, and in a.d. 1017 was
2,930,000 strings.
It was in the state of Shuh, the present province of
Szechwan, that the true paper money was first introduced;
these were notes issued without being guaranteed by some
hypothecated value. A certain Chang Yung introduced
them to take the place of the iron money, which was in-
conveniently heavy and troublesome. These bills were
called chih-tsi or evidences. During the reign of Chengtsung


152 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of the Sung dynasty (a.d. 997-1022), this practice was
followed, and the notes were called kiao-tze or changelings.
They were made payable every three years; thus in sixty-
five years they were redeemable twenty-two times; each
note was worth a thousand cash, or a tael of pure silver.
Fifteen of the richest houses managed this financial opera-
tion; but in course of time they were unable to fulfil their en-
gagements, and all became bankrupt, which gave rise to many
lawsuits. The Emperor annulled the notes of this company,
and deprived his subjects of the power to issue bank-bills,
reserving it to himself to establish a bank of issue at Yihchao.
By the year 1032 there were more than 1,256,340 taels'
worth of " changelings " in circulation in China. In 1068,
having ascertained that counterfeits were issued, the
government made a law that persons making false bills
should be punished the same as those who falsified govern-
ment orders. Later than this, and at different applications,
banks for the issue of the kiao-tze were established in many
provinces, and the notes of one province were not circulated
in another. Their terms of payment and modes of cir-
culation, t00, varied at different times.*
Southern Sung Notes
For the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth
centuries the country was divided between the Southern
Sung and the Golden dynasty of Niichen Tartars, and both
ran a mad race in the issue of assignats. Of the latter
government we have few records, but of the doings of the
southern kingdom Klaproth gives us the following note:
"Under the Emperor Kiotsung, in A.d. 1131, it
was attempted to make a military establishment at
Wuchow, but as the requisite funds did not come in
without great difficulty, the officers charged with
the matter proposed to the Board of Revenue to
issue Kwan-tze or due bills, with which they could
* Klaproth, " M6moires relatifs a l'Asie."


THE CURRENCY 153
pay the sutlers of the troops; and which should
be redeemable at a special office. Abuses soon
crept into the details of this plan, and the people
began to murmur. Later, and under the same reign,
similar due bills to these were put into circulation
in other provinces. During the reign of this same
monarch, the Board of Revenue issued a new sort
of paper money called hwei-tze or exchanges; these
were, at first, payable only in the province of
Chekiang and thereabouts, but they soon extended
to all parts of the Empire. The paper of which
they were made was originally fabricated only in
the cities of Hweichow and Kichow in Kiangnan;
subsequently, it was also manufactured in Chengtu-
fu in Szechwan, and Linan-fu in Chekiang. The
hwei-tze first issued were worth a string of a thou-
sand cash, but under the reign of Hiao-tsung, in
1163, they were issued of the value of 500, 300, and
200 cash each. In five years, i.e. up to the seventh
month of the year 1166, there had already been
sent out more than 28,000,000 taels' worth of
these notes; and by the eleventh month of this
year, this sum had been increased 15,600,000 taels.
During the further sway of the Sung dynasty, the
number of the hwei-tze was constantly on the increase;
and besides this description of note, there were
some of the Kiao-tze still extant, and notes of
private individuals current in the provinces; so
that the country was inundated with paper notes,
which were daily depreciated in value in spite of all the
modifications and changes the government adopted
to augment their circulation.
"At last, under the reign of Li-tsung of the
same dynasty, in 1264, the minister Kia Sze-tau,
seeing their value so small, endeavoured to substitute
for a part of hwei-tze some new assignats which he
called yin-kwan or silver obligations. Those hwei-tze


154 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
which were technically named 'seventeen terms,'
were withdrawn entirely; and three of those called
'eighteen terms ' were exchanged for one note of the
new currency which bore the character kia. But al-
though even those bills which were torn were received
in pay for taxes, the minister was not able to get the
Treasury paper into circulation, nor to lessen the
price of commodities."
Mongol Notes
The Mongols then came in (a.d. 1260) and founded the
Yuan dynasty. An unlettered race of warriors, they could
devise no better means of providing for the needs of their
government than to continue the practice which they found
in vogue and issue paper money. Copper cash and silver
had been driven from their dominions; and with the chief
sources of supply of both metals in the southern provinces,
it would require a longer period of peace and a higher
development of commerce than was possible under Mongol
rule, for the ways to be opened to allow the deficiency to be
made good. From Marco Polo we hear much of the great
wealth and the high development of commerce in the Mongol
realm, but we must recall what was the state of the Europe
of that day with which alone he could make comparison;
apart from the record of history, the coinage alone would
tell us that China from the seventh to the eleventh century
was far more prosperous and more highly developed than
in the thirteenth century. To show the available resources
of the Treasury at a time a little later but during the same
(Mongol) dynasty, the following note, showing the tribute
actually received by the Imperial Treasury, in a year of
great prosperity, is illuminating:
a.d. 1329. 989 ting ( = 49,450 taels) of silver and notes;
1,133,119 strings of cowrie shells; 1,098,843 catties
of raw silk; 350,530 rolls oi woven silk; 72,915
catties of cotton; 211,223 pieces of woven cloth;
3,255,220 piculs of rice.


THE CURRENCY
155
The first issue of Mongol government notes was made in the
first year (a.d. 1260) of Kublai Khan, the title of whose
reign was Chung-tung, and the successive issues in this and
the following reigns must be briefly summarised.
A.D. 1260. Kiao-chao, representing silk, a continuation
of the issues then in vogue; fifty taels of silver would
buy 1,000 taels of silk, represented by notes of the
face value of 1,000 taels. (So stated by Edkins.)
a.d. 1260. November. Issue of notes Chung-tung-chao
of 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 cash.
A note for 1,000 cash was worth a tael in Kiao-chao'
currency, and 2,000 cash in Kiao-chao currency repre-
sented one tael in silver.—(N.B. one cash = joWo tael.)
A D. 1264. Treasury established in each province; notes
representing 12,000 ting = 600,000 taels constituted
bank-note reserve.
a.d. 1275. Li-chao notes issued, of 2, 3, and 5 cash, but
s00n withdrawn.
A.d. 1287. Chih-yuan-chao notes issued of eleven denomina-
tions from 5 to 2,000 cash. A tael of silver exchanged
for 2,000 cash and a tael of gold for 20,000 cash in these
notes.
a.d. 1309. Chih-ta-chao notes issued of thirteen denomina-
tions from 2 cash to 2 taels of silver. One chih-ta-chao
(tael of silver) was equivalent to 5,000 chih-yuan-chao
cash, a depreciation in twenty-two years of 60 per cent.
a.d. 1312-1321. During the reign of Jen-tsung there was
over-issue of notes, and the issue of the Chih-ta notes
for silver was stopped. The Chung-tung and Chih-
yuan notes continued to circulate to the end of the
Mongol dynasty.
We have a record of the issues (which must include re-
issues for obliterated notes) for the first seventy years from
a.d. 1260, which, not including Kublai's issue of Kiao-chao,
gives us a total issue of irredeemable paper money in sixty-
four of the first seventy years of Mongol rule amounting to
47,611,276 ting or 2,380,563,800 taels nominal face value, the


I56 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
tael being always taken as equivalent to 1,000 cash. This is
an average of over 37,000,000 taels a year; and, as the coach
gains in speed in running down hill, we may assume for the
whole dynastic period of 108 years an annual average of
40,000,000 taels, at a time when the richest of the sovereigns
of Europe, placed inexorably upon a cash basis, counted
himself passing rich in any year in which his budget exceeded
the equivalent of a million taels. How this situation struck
an intelligent European, ignorant of the use of instruments
of credit and bewildered by the apparent signs of wealth
around him, is shown in Marco Polo's comment; and I
reproduce it here to demonstrate how changed is Europe
and how unchanged is China in the six centuries which have
elapsed since it was written.
"The Emperor's Mint then is in this same City of
Cambulac, and the way it is wrought is such that you
might say he hath the Secret of Alchemy in perfection,
and you would be right! For he makes his money
after this fashion.
"He makes them take of the bark of a certain
tree, in fact of the Mulberry Tree, the leaves of which
are the food of the silkworms—these trees being so
numerous that whole districts are full of them. What
they take is a certain fine white bast or skin which lies
between the wood of the tree and the thick outer bark,
and this they make into something resembling sheets
of paper, but black. When these sheets have been
prepared they are cut up into pieces of different sizes.
The smallest of these sizes is worth a half tornesel; the
next, a little larger, one tornesel; one a little larger
still is worth half a silver groat of Venice; another a
whole groat; other yet two groats, five groats, and ten
groats. There is also a kind worth one bezant of gold,
and others of three bezants, and so up to ten.* All
these pieces of paper are [issued with as much solemnity
* The bezant is taken to equal one tael of silver, or 1,000 cash.
One bezant = 20 groats = 133$ tornesel.


THE CURRENCY 157
and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver;
and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty
it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals.
And, when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed
by the Kaan smears the Seal entrusted to him with
vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the
form of the Seal remains stamped upon it in red; the
Money is then authentic. Any one forging it would
be punished with death]. And the Kaan causes every
year to be made such a vast quantity of this money,
which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount
all the treasure in the world.
"With these pieces of paper, made as I have
described, he causes all payments on his own account
to be made; and he makes them to pass current
universally over all his kingdoms and provinces and
territories and whithersoever his power and sove-
reignty extends. And nobody, however important
he may think himself, dares to refuse them on pain
of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily,
for wheresoever a person may go throughout the Great
Kaan's dominions he shall find these pieces of paper
current, and shall be able to transact all sales and
purchases of g00ds by means of them just as well as
if they were coins of pure gold. And all the while
they are so light that ten bezants' worth does not
weigh one golden bezant.
"Furthermore all merchants arriving from India
or other countries and bringing with them gold or
silver or gems and pearls, are prohibited from selling
to any one but the Emperor. He has twelve experts
chosen for this business, men of shrewdness and ex-
perience in such affairs; these appraise the articles,
and the Emperor then pays a liberal price for them in
those pieces of paper. The merchants accept his price
readily, for in the first place they would not get so
g00d an one from anybody else, and secondly, they


I58 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
are paid without any delay. And with this paper-
money they can buy what they like anywhere over
the Empire, whilst it is also vastly lighter to carry
about on their journeys. And it is a truth that the
merchants will several times in the year bring wares
to the amount of 400,000 bezants, and the Grand Sire
pays for all in that paper. So he buys such a quantity
of those precious things every year that his treasure is
endless, whilst all the time the money he pays away
costs him nothing at all. Moreover several times in
the year proclamation is made through the city that
any one who may have gold or silver or gems or pearls,
by taking them to the Mint shall get a handsome price
for them. And the owners are glad to do this, because
they would find no other purchaser give so large a
price. Thus the quantity they bring in is marvellous,
though those who do not choose to do so may let it
alone. Still, in this way, nearly all the valuables in
the country come into the Kaan's possession.
"When any of those pieces of paper are spoilt—
not that they are so very flimsy neither—the owner
carries them to the Mint, and by paying 3 per cent. on
the value he gets new pieces in exchange. And if any
Baron, or any one else soever, hath need of gold or
silver or gems or pearls, in order to make plate, or
girdles or the like, he goes to the Mint and buys as
much as he list, paying in this paper-money.
"Now you have heard the ways and means where-
by the Great Kaan may have, and in fact has, more
treasure than all the kings in the World; and you
know all about it and the reason why." *
Ming Notes
Bayonets form a poor seat for the throne of a ruler, and
• "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," translated by Col. Henry Yule.
London, 1871. Book II. Chap. xxiv.








THE CURRENCY
159
a constant diet of irredeemable assignats is not nutritious.
With all the warlike prowess and rough hardihood of the
Mongols, weakened though they may have been by a life of
luxury, their throne, which endured for three centuries in
India, fell after a single century of dominion in China before
the assault of the unwarlike Chinese, driven to rebellion
by the burden of heavy taxation and by the evils of an
irredeemable and depreciated paper currency. The first
Ming Emperor, T'ai Tsu, whose reign title was Hungwu
(a.d. 1368-1398), found himself confronted by a financial
situation of grave difficulty, and was compelled for a time to
continue, with all its evils, the currency system of his pre-
decessors. Government notes were therefore issued, but
other steps were taken to place the Imperial finances on a
sound basis, and it redounds to the credit of the govern-
ment that, in a single reign and a single generation, they
were able to " resume specie payments."
I have been unable to obtain a copy of a Mongol govern-
ment note, which would have had a special interest as
illustrating the currency, the benefits of which Ser Marco
Polo described in such glowing terms to an open-mouthed
and open-eared Europe. I give, however, a reduced
reproduction of a note for 1,000 cash issued by the first
Ming Emperor (Hungwu, a.d. 1368-1398), who may be
assumed to have followed closely the procedure and copied
the forms of his predecessors. This 500-year-old instru-
ment of credit has a curious history, furnishing an absolute
guarantee of its authenticity. During the foreign occupa-
tion of Peking in 1900-1901 some European soldiers had
overthrown a sacred image of Buddha, in the grounds of
the Summer Palace, and, deposited in the pedestal (as in
the corner-stones of our public buildings), found gems and
jewelry and ingots of gold and silver and a bundle of these
notes. Contented with the loot having intrinsic value,
the soldiers readily surrendered the bundle of notes to a
bystander who was present "unofficially," Surgeon Major
Louis Livingston Seaman, U.S.A., of New York, and he


l6o THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
gave to the Museum of St. John's College at Shanghai the
specimen which is here reproduced.
The note is printed on mulberry-bark paper, which now
is of a dark slate colour, the " something resembling sheets
of paper, but black" of Marco Polo's description. The
sheet of paper is 13-5 by 875 inches, and the design on the
face is 12 6 by 8 3 inches. The border, 14 inch wide, is
made of extended dragons filled around with an arabesque
design, and is surmounted by a panel with the inscription
(from right to left) "circulating government note of the
Ming Empire." The space within the border is divided
into two panels. The upper has on the two sides in con-
ventionalised square seal characters, on the right " govern-
ment note of the Ming Empire," on the left "circulating
for ever and ever "; between these two inscriptions, above,
in large ordinary characters " one kwan" (or tiao or string),
and below a pictorial illustration representing ten hundreds
of cash. The lower panel contains the following: "The
Imperial Board of Revenue having memorialised the Throne
has received the Imperial sanction for the issue of govern-
ment notes of the Ming Empire, to circulate on the same
f00ting as standard cash. To counterfeit is death. The
informant will receive 250 taels of silver and in addition the
entire property of the criminal. Hungwu year
. month day." A seal 3'25 inches square
is impressed in vermilion once on the upper panel, once
on the lower panel, bearing in square seal characters the
legend " The Seal of the Government Note Administrators."
On the back of the note, above, is impressed in vermilion
a seal bearing in square seal characters the legend "Seal
for Circulating Government Notes"; below, within a
border 62 by 41 inches, is repeated the middle part of the
upper panel of the face—one kwan, with a pictorial illus-
tration representing ten hundreds of cash.


THE CURRENCY
Hienfeng Notes.
From a.d. 1403, it may be said, or at any rate from
some time in the reign of Yunglo (a.d. 1403-1425), there
were no fiduciary issues by the government, either of the
Ming or the Tsing, until we come to the troubled times of
Hienfeng (a.d. 1851-1861), when the necessities of the
Treasury drove it to this method of replenishing its depleted
reserves. In 1853, the year in which the issue of token
coins began, the government resumed, after an interval of
four and a half centuries, the issue of paper money, nominally
redeemable but in practice never redeemed. The notes so
issued were of two kinds, for copper cash and for taels of
silver.
The cash notes were of four denominations, 500, 1,000,
1,500, and 2,000 cash, and the silver notes were for 1, 3, 5,
10, and 50 taels of the Metropolitan or Two-tael scale.* The
issue of both was forced, but they rapidly depreciated in
value until, in 1861, they circulated at only 3 per cent. of
their face value, and soon disappeared from circulation.
For nearly forty years from the accession of Tungchih
(a.d. 1862) the issue of paper instruments of credit was left
entirely to private hands, banks and money-changers; but
recently some provincial governments, driven by the steady
absorption of their revenues for Imperial purposes, have
resumed the issue of government notes. Their re-intro-
duction is of too recent a date to permit any extended
comment upon the wisdom of the step, or upon the pre-
cautions adopted to secure their convertibility; but the
partial acceptance which they have obtained is based on
reasons which carry us back eleven hundred years. The
circulation of the notes of private banks is limited to the
radius of credit of the issuing bank; the Tang government
notes were acceptable chiefly because they furnished a
safe and convenient means of transferring funds from place
to place; and, rather to the dismay of the authorities, this
II * See page 174.


162 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
facility of transferring funds provides the chief reason for
the circulation within the limits of a given province of
present issues of government notes.
SILVER CURRENCY
Bimetallic Ratio
There has always, for thirteen centuries at least, and
in theory, been a more or less recognised correspondence
and fixed ratio of convertibility between the copper and
the silver currency of the Empire; and among the many
facts which show this, I need only refer to the few which
have been mentioned above. The Tang coinage of the
seventh century a.d. was based on the trimetallic ratio
of 1 gold = 10 silver = 1,000 copper; in the paper money
issues of the Southern Sung and the Yuan, from the twelfth
to the fourteenth centuries, the tiao or string, or thousand,
of paper-money cash and the tael of silver are always
regarded as synonymous terms (cf. Marco Polo, ubi supra),
notwithstanding the fact that the paper money was much
depreciated; and the first Manchu Emperor (a.d. 1644),
in his desire to conform in every way to Chinese theory
and practice, inscribed on his coins their theoretic silver
value, xoo4o of a tae^ (as shown on plate facing p. 140).
Silver Coins
Five centuries after the Tang rulers had either fixed the
bimetallic ratio or had adopted that which they found in
existence, silver had appreciated to double its value in its
relation to copper cash, one shoe of 50 taels of silver ex-
changing for 100,000 cash; and about a.d. 1183, during
the reign of Hiaot-sung, the second Emperor of the Southern
Sung, China for the first, and (until a few years ag0) last
and only time, minted silver coins. There were five kinds,
weighing 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 taels respectively, each tael
passing for 2,000 cash. They could be used as official


THE CURRENCY 163
and commercial currency, and served equally as metallic
reserve for the paper notes. This silver coinage only lasted
three years.
I am uncertain whether we should regard this as a true
silver coinage of which the face and intrinsic values should
correspond, or whether it was not an issue of depreciated
silver token currency intended to serve mainly as metallic
reserve to support the still further depreciated paper cur-
rency, the issues of which under the same dynasty had begun
fifty years before; a fair parallel, were it not for the relative
credit of the two governments, might be found in the silver
reserve of the Bank of France, which, being based on gold,
is counted at the ratio 1 : 16. A silver coin, an exact
model of the cash of the reign, was issued during the reign
of the Ming Emperor Wanli (a.d. 1573-1619), but this was
probably a mint sport, much like the English silver pennies
issued to-day. The silver coins of the nineteenth century
in the collections of Wylie and Glover can hardly be regarded
as official. This, so far as is known, is the complete record
of the silver coinage of China up to a.d. 1889.
Currency a Weight^
With these insignificant exceptions, China has never
had a government coin of other metal than copper pother
than copper, the currency of the country is not a coin,
but a weight. This weight is the " tael," * as it is called by
foreigners, the Chinese name for it being Hang; and when
'an operation in international trade, a wholesale purchase,
Government indebtedness, or Customs duties have to be
liquidated, payment is effected by weighing out the required
number of "taels" of the stipulated quality of silver.
A century ago Germany was the paradise of the money-
changer with its numerous coinages, each circulating in
its own principality; but that was simplicity itself when
.compared with China.-'In China every one of the hundreds
* Tael—from the Hindu "tola" through the Malayan word
"tahil."


164 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of commercial centres not only has its own tael-weight,
but in many cases has several standards side by side; and
these taels of money will be weighed out in silver which,
even in one place, will be of several degrees of fineness.
Variability of Standards
One town may be taken to typify many—the town of
Chungking, in the province of Szechwan, in the far west of
China. Here the standard weight of the tael for silver
transactions is 555 "6 grains, and this is the standard for all
transactions in which the scale is not specified. Frequently,
however, a modification of the scale is provided for, de-
pending in some cases upon the place from which the
merchant comes or with which he trades, and in others
upon the goods in which he deals. A merchant coming from
Kweichow, or trading with that place, will probably, but
not certainly, use a scale on which the tael weighs 548 9
grains; a merchant from Kweifu, a town on the Yangtze,
a hundred miles below Chungking, will buy and sell with
a tael 5627 grains; and between these two extremes are
at least ten topical weights of tael, all" current " at Chung-
king. In addition to these twelve topical "currencies,"
there are others connected with commodities. One of the
most important products of Szechwan is salt, and dealings
in this are settled by a tael of 556'4 grains, unless it is salt
from the Tzeliu well, in which case the standard is 5577
grains. A transaction in cotton cloth is settled with a
tael of 555 0 grains, but for cotton yarn the tael is 556 0
grains, and for raw cotton the tael is 5477 grains.
This seems confusion, but we are not yet at the end.
Up to this point we have dealt only with the weight on the
scale, but now comes in the question of the fineness of
the silver with which payment is made. At Chungking
three qualities of silver are in common use—" fine silver"
1,000 fine current throughout the Empire, "old silver"
about 995 fine, and "trade silver" between 960 and 970


THE CURRENCY
165
fine; and payment may be stipulated in any one of these
three qualities. Taking the score of current tael-weights
in combination with the three grades of silver, we have
at least sixty currencies possible in this one town.
This is characteristic of the Empire.) The traveller,
even a private individual, journeying from place to place in
China, will be careful to take with him a small steel-yard
and a string of a few selected "cash," the exact weight of
which on his home scale is known to him. His first step
in cashing a draft or exchanging the silver he brought
with him is to ascertain the weight of his string of cash
on the scales of the strange bank in the strange place;
and, having done this, he is able to work out the parity
of exchange between his home and the place of his tem-
porary sojourn. Even then, however, he is dependent
on the banker in the matter of the quality of silver; for-
tunately, the commercial honour of the Chinese bankers
stands high', although it is hardly to be expected that they
should not profit by their expert knowledge.
In China you must prove your axioms. We are ac-
customed to currencies"in which the unit of value is a
defined and accurate weight of an alloy of a precious metal
(commonly gold) of an exact and known degree of fineness.
In China the silver currency is an article of barter, of which
neither the weight nor the quality is anywhere fixed; and
in treating of the tael of silver, we must answer two ques-
tions: What is a tael ? and What is silver? Since " tael"
connotes both a weight and a value, and since an essential
element in value is the quality of the silver, we must first
answer the question, What is silver?
Silver is most commonly current in oval ingots called
"shoes," from their resemblance to a Chinese shoe; but
what may be called fractional currency is in obovoid lumps
weighing up to two or three taels. At Mengtsz the sycee


Silver


l66 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
most commonly current is the chieh-ting, more commonly
known as the pai-fang ingot; when laid flat Qn a sheet of
paper and traced with a pencil, it has eight curvilinear
lines, a figure not unlike the brass pieces inserted in doors
to protect key-holes; in weight the pieces vary from two
taels up to five taels. At Peking the Sungkiang ingot
is about 10 taels. The standard ingot of China weighs
about 50 taels (from 49 to 54) and, formerly called ting,
is now called pao (jewel, article of value, as in the inscription
on the copper cash tung-pao = " current coin ") and more
commonly ytian pao, probably standing for " round ingot"
from its shape, oval in plan.
The shoes of Shanghai are as shown in the accompanying
plate, which represents a shoe inscribed in ink by the
Assay Office of the Foreign Settlements as weighing
49/94 taels and as being of silver for the quality of which
275 must be added; it is also stamped with dies at the
Melting Establishment with the place (Shanghai), the name
of the Establishment (Suiyuan), and a numeral (3) for the
number of the furnace, of which the Establishment has six.
Shanghai shoes weigh close on 50 taels each; a lot of sixty
of which I saw the weighing and touching, had fifty-four
between 49"81 and 49 90 taels, five between 49'91 and 50 00
taels, and one of 50 04 taels; other lots might have the
larger proportion just over 50 taels. Hankow and other
Yangtze ports also cast oval shoes close on 50 taels in
weight, and Tientsin as well. The shoes of Kiangsi are
rectangular, with the lip projecting at each end only half
an inch, weighing also about 50 taels. The shoes ordinarily
have the top of the solid part parallel to the bottom; but
in the Newchwang shoe it is inclined, so that at one end
the solid part is only two-thirds the thickness of the other
end; Newchwang shoes weigh from 53 to 54 taels, and
quotations for " transfer money" (v. infra) are per shoe of
nominally 53 taels. Except to make change the small lumps
of silver are seldom seen at Shanghai, and when received
from other cities are sent to be cast into shoes.














THE CURRENCY 167
The silver contained in the shoe is called sycee, the
Cantonese pronunciation of hsi-sze, "fine silk "; when it
is theoretically standard silver of a fineness of 1,000 it is
called tsu-seh wethyin.
Throughout China generally, except at Shanghai and
in the country subordinated to it, silver is rated for quality
by milliemes of a standard of "pure silver." Thus, at
Tientsin all silver is reduced to a theoretic local standard
of 992; at Chef00, to one of 976; at Hankow, to one of
967. At Shanghai and through the greater part of Kiangsu
and Anhwei silver is rated, not by milliemes of a " pure
silver " standard, but by the addition, to each shoe of about
50 taels weight, of a quantity to indicate the degree of
superiority of quiflity over a presumed standard which
(subject to a certain degree of confusion between premium
and discount) is 944 of the China standard of " pure silver."
By this scheme of notation 2 8 silver (i.e. silver for the
quality of which is added 2 8 per shoe, or 5 6 per 100)
represents silver 1,000 fine, 27 silver is 998 fine, 2-4 silver is
992 fine, or thereabouts.
In Western countries the standard of 1,000 represents
silver chemically pure, with no admixture of gold or of
copper and lead. American quotations of bar silver are
reduced to a basis of 998, and British quotations to a basis
of 925 of this standard. In China the standard of 1,000
seems to refer to a silver commercially pure, as shown by
the crude methods of the touchstone or of crucible assaying.
This is the standard of Kuping; it is the standard to
which are referred all local millieme standards, and in the
Shanghai notation it is 2 8 silver. Even at Shanghai,
however, super-pure silver is known in Chinese circles,
and in the make-up of the Haikwan tael the requisite
quality of silver is rated, not at 2 8, as for the " pure silver"
of the Kuping tael, but at 3-084 (i.e. at 6168 per 100 taels)
to represent a higher degree of purity. Even this, however,
does not graphically represent a quality of silver corre-
sponding to what is called 1,000 fine in Western countries.


l68 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
It has been ascertained in transactions in foreign bar silver
that "pure silver" of the Kuping tael touch is actually
987 fine when reduced to the Western standard of chemically
pure silver; and on this basis silver of the Haikwan tael
touch recognised at Shanghai is actually 992 3 fine.
Working on these figures it will be found that the Shang-
hai tael contains 525 grains of silver of the Kuping tael
touch, 522J grains of silver of the Haikwan tael touch,
and about 518J grains of silver of the Western standard
1,000 fine.
I shall have more to say on the definition of the quality
of silver when I come to treat of the Shanghai tael.
The Tael
> It is not always possible to keep them apart in writing,
but in reading it is necessary always to bear in mind the
distinction between the tael of value and the tael of weight.
At Tientsin, by " Tientsin tael" is meant one Hang-ping
tael in weight of silver of the Hwa-pao standard 992 fine;
by " Hangping tael " is meant one Hangping tael in weight
of silver or any other commodity, and, if of silver, it may
be of Hwapao or any other stipulated standard; to express
fully what the foreigner calls the "Tientsin tael," the
Chinese would say "Hang-ping tael of hwa-pao silver."
It is not possible to use different words for the two meanings
thus connoted, since they are interwoven; and always to
distinguish them otherwise would involve the use of much
circumlocution. It must be left to the reader to make the
distinction, since, even without this, there will be found
to be enough of "proving axioms" to break constantly
the thread of thought.
The Tael of Weight
The tael is the " ounce" of China, of which, as in England
and America, 16 make one catty,* or Chinese "pound,"
* Catty or Kati—Malayan for pound.


THE CURRENCY
l6g
/
In weighing the precious metals, however, the tael is the
heaviest unit, and it has decimal subdivisions, each with
its own name, down to the one thousand-million-millionth
(1.000,000,^00,000,000) Part of a tael' those daay use beinS the
following:
10 Li (cash) = 1 Fen (Candarin).
10 Fen = 1 Tsien (Mace), ^£
10 Tsien = 1 Liang (Tael). vS
Seven places of decimals (the ten-millionth part) of a
tael are frequently, even regularly, seen in statements of
account of revenue and expenditure submitted to the
Throne. This is the tael of the arithmetics, but its actual
weight will best be considered under the head of the tael
of currency; it is sufficient here to say that the weight
ranges, at different places and in the same place, from
540 to 583 grains.
The Tael of Currency
Of the various taels of currency two may be considered
to have a universal range, the Haikwan, or "Customs"
tael, and the Kuping, or "Treasury" tael; and a third,
the Tsaoping, or "Tribute" tael, is current over a wide
area.
Haikwan Tael
The Haikwan tael is the currency in which duties are
levied by the Imperial Maritime Customs, but it is a purely
/fictitious and non-existent currency. Inquiry leads to no
indication that it ever has been an existent currency at
any time since the opening of the Inspectorate-General
of Customs, and it is certain that it is not in current use
•at the present day. At no Custom House does any mer-
chant tender Haikwan taels in payment of duties, and
the invariable practice is to pay all Customs obligations


170 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in local currency at a rate of conversion settled on the
opening of each of the several Customs Offices, now forty
in number. The actual theoretic weight, apart from any
/ question of the quality of silver, is not ascertainable with
any degree of certainty. Using an official weight of 100
taels dated 1867, which had been verified at Canton by a
weight of 1846, it has been found to be 581.55 grains. The
result of independent tests at Canton in the same year
(1905) gave a weight of 581.83 grains, while other estimates
range from 581 to 589 grains. The only outside authority
to which appeal can be made is in the treaties. By the
Trade Regulations annexed to the British treaty of 1858
the " picul of one hundred catties is held to be equal to
one hundred and thirty-three and one-third pounds, avoir-
dupois," giving a catty of 1J lb. av. and a tael of 1£ oz. av.,
equal to 583 3 grains; while the Regulations annexed to
the French Treaty of 1858 fix the picul at 60 kilos. and
453 grammes, which gives a resultant tael of 37.783 grammes
or 5831 grains.
Taking the Haikwan tael, then, as being purely a money
of account, and not an existing currency of the Empire,
the place at which its value may be most conveniently
found is Shanghai, at which port were paid in 1905 duties
to the extent of 34 per cent. of the total Customs collection
of the year. Here since the opening of the port, half a
century ago, the rate of conversion has been Haikwan
Tls.1oo =* Shanghai Tls.11.1.40 worked out as follows:
Weight on local scale .. .. .. 100.0.0.0
Add for difference in weight .. .. 2.8.0.0
Add for touch .. .. .. .. 6.1.6.8
Add for expenses of melting, etc. .. .. 0.2.0.4
Divide by the " Shanghai Convention," 0.98 109.1.7.2
111.4.0.0


THE CURRENCY
(N.B.—The proper name for the Shanghai tael is " Con-
vention Currency," referring to the convention, or under-
standing, by which 98 taels on the scale settle a liability
of 100 taels in money of account.)
It remains to ascertain the true value of the Shanghai
tael. The weight used as the basis of this is the Tsaoping
tael (v. infra), and the equivalence is worked out as follows:
Weight on scale; .. .. .. .. 100.0.0.0
Add for touch 5.6.0.0
Divide by the " Shanghai Convention," 0 98 105.6.0.0
Tsaoping taels 100 = Shanghai taels .. 107.7.5.5
The Tsaoping tael has been found to weigh 565 65
grains; and if in t00 Tsaoping taels of pure silver there are
107.7.5.5 taels of Shanghai convention currency, then the
latter will contain 525 grains of pure silver of Kuping
standard. On this basis the Haikwan tael is the equivalent
of 584-85 grains of pure silver; but note has now to be
taken of the quality of the silver (v. supra, page 167).
Introduced under the treaty of Nanking (1842), the
lapse of sixty years has not sufficed to create modifications
in this standard, which, moreover, is current for revenue
purposes in all the ports open to foreign trade. Even with
this crurency, however, this immutability has to be taken
with some reservation. It seldom happens that the mer-
chant has at hand to pay his duties the fine silver (1.o00)
which is, theoretically, the standard for all payments to
government; and tendering other silver, commonly the
ordinary trade silver of the place, the rate at which it shall
be accepted becomes a matter of arrangement with the
banker; the latter, having to account to the government
for a certain weight of silver 1,000 fine, will be careful to
receive an amount in other silver fully sufficient in value
to cover his liability. Another element of variation, even


172 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in this currency, is the difference between the receiving
and paying rates in force in all government treasuries,
all banks, and with those merchants of sufficiently strong
standing to make their own counting-house rules; this
difference, usually between a quarter and a half of one
per cent., is made not by charging a commission, but by
boldly using two sets of weights, one for receiving and
one for paying, and is intended to compensate for the
labour of weighing ingots and lumps of silver of no fixed
weight, and for the risk incurred and expert knowledge
requisite for taking in^silver of unknown degrees of fineness.
The practice is defended on the same ground as that of the
foreign exchange banks in quoting different buying and
selling rates for bills of exchange.
Kuping Tael
The Kuping tael is the currency in which are collected
all other dues to the government than Customs duties,
excepting only those which are levied in kind (such as the
grain tribute) or in copper cash. Theoretically uniform
throughout the Empire, there are still differences to be
observed apart from the differentiated receiving and paying
rates referred to above. In one respect this tael may be
considered as "bank money"—a fictitious medium of
exchange from one currency to another—as when we find
that (with normal exchange at 1,200 cash to the tael)
2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 cash or more are levied where a
tax, assessed in taels, is collected in cash, while the ex-
change is fixed at 800 cash or less where a tax, assessed
in cash, is collected in silver. This, however, from another
point of view, may be taken as an eccentricity of the Chinese
taxing offices. The normal standard Kuping tael is 575 8
grains of silver 1,000 fine; this is the receiving rate (the
paying rate being 0-2 per cent. lighter) at the Imperial
Treasury, and the several provincial treasuries vary from
this standard in some instances as much as one per cent.


THE CURRENCY 173
Where the foreign obligations of the Imperial Government
are concerned the equivalence of the several currencies is
taken as follows:
100 Haikwan taels = 101642335 Kuping taels.
100 Kuping taels = 109' 60 Shanghai taels.
Tsaoping Tael
As the weight element of a currency tael, the Tsaoping
tael is current throughout the provinces contributing tri-
bute in kind (mainly rice) which is forwarded to the capital,
either by sea or by the Grand Canal,]viz. in the provinces
of Kiangsi, Anhwei, Kiangsu, and~Chekiang; it is also
the regular tael in use at Chefoo, on the sea route to the
north, but is not known at Tientsin, the northern terminus
of the Grand Canal and the port of disembarkation by
the sea route. It may be stated with some degree of con-
fidence to weigh 565 65 grains, subject always to the possi-
bility of oscillation in the standard. While the weight
is more or less constant, varying between one place and
another by no more than a tenth to a half per cent. (100
Soochow Tsaoping taels = 99 90 Shanghai Tsaoping taels
by weight), the tael of currency is based in different places
on different standards of silver. At Chefoo the standard
is 976, at Kiukiang and Wuhu 994, at Hangchow 997.
In places where the standard of silver is quoted by degrees
of betterness, as at Shanghai and on the lower Yangtze,*
the standard for Tsaoping is 275 silver which, referred to
a Kuping standard, is 999.
Local Taels
It may be said that every commercial place has, apart
from the various government taels, its half-dozen, or dozen,
or score of local taels, all generally recognised and all cur-
rent; i.e. each of them is a recognised currency when it
• v. supra, page 167).


174 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
is so stipulated, as we have seen in the case of the cur-
rencies of Chungking. Usually, however, if not generally,
among these various taels there is one which is recognised
as the currency of the place, in which payments would
be made when there is no stipulation to the contrary, which
will be commonly stipulated, and into which remittances
are made from other places; for even in China the necessity
is felt for some limitation on the kaleidoscopic varieties
which would otherwise perplex the minds of even Chinese
bankers. Sometimes, but by no means generally, this
recognised local tael will extend its influence over the
surrounding country within a limited radius; but ordi-
narily the right of even the country banker to live is fully
recognised, and every place is privileged to adopt its own
standards. I have notes of 170 well-recognised and different
currencies, gathered mainly from the treaty ports and
their immediate vicinity.
Peking Taels
The capital, Peking, is one place, it may be said the
one place of importance, in which no one currency has
emerged as the one local tael. Being the capital, the
Kuping tael is of course much in evidence as the currency
of all official government transactions. Besides this there
are three standards of tael weight—the Kung-fa of 5557
grains, the Market of 552 4 grains, and the Metropolitan
or Two-tael * scale of 5417 grains—and two recognised
standards of silver, 1,000 and 980 fine respectively. Each
standard of weight (except the Kuping) is expressed in
each of the two standards of silver, with the result that
there are at Peking seven taels all equally current. The
foreign banks established there have within a few years past
adopted the Kung-fa tael of 1,000 silver as their currency
of account. Each of these currencies, except the Kuping
* The addition of 2 taels in the hundred, 2 pec cent., will bring
this to the value of the Market tael; hence probably the name.


THE CURRENCY 175
and Kung-fa, is further subject to a difference of 0 6 to 0-9
per cent. according as it is "equalised" or "empty" or
"mercantile" or "complete"; thus 100 Kung-fa taels
are equivalent to Metropolitan taels 102 80 if mercantile,
10270 if empty, 102 60 if equalised, but only 102'00 if
complete.
Tientsin Taels
At Tientsin I have note of nine taels generally known,
and two standards to which silver is reduced. Of these,
the tael which for forty years past has been recognised
as "the Tientsin tael" is the Merchants tael weighing
557'4 grains of silver 992 fine. For some occult reason
there has lately (since 1900) been introduced a "New
Merchants" tael of 557 6 grains, differing from the old
established local tael by only o 00038 part of itself or less
than of one per cent., the standard of silver remaining
the same; this new tael has ,not yet worked its way into
general acceptance. As an illustration of the ordinary
Chinese rough-and-ready methods of banking it may be
noted that the true equivalence of Haikwan Us.100 is
Tientsin Tls.105215; and that for fifty years, in paying
Customs duties, for every 100 Haikwan taels Chinese mer-
chants paid Tientsin Tls.106, foreign merchants in general
paid Tientsin Tls.105, and Russian merchants for tea paid
Tientsin Tls.104. A further complication was added in 1908,
as shown by the following extract from the report on the
trade of Tientsin for that year:
"Since the year 1900 the standard of the sycee current
in the port has been steadily deteriorating, and the touch,
supposed to be 992, has fallen as low as -965. Matters came
to a crisis in February 1908, by the issue on the part of the
Taotai of a notification to the effect that, it being stipulated
by treaty that duties should be paid in pure silver, from the
1st March duties would have to be paid at the equivalent
of Hangping Tls.107 for Haikwan Tls.100, instead of the
Hangping Tls.105 paid theretofore. A protest from all the


176 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
foreign merchants resulted, and was followed by a further
notification, on the 28th September 1908, to the effect that
the previous notification was cancelled and that thereafter
duties could be paid at Hangping Tls.105 = HaikwanTls.100;
but that all duties must be paid in Kungku silver. This gave
rise to further difficulty, as the foreign banks were possessed
only of current sycee and would not honour a cheque
marked ' Kungku silver.' Merchants have thus been put
to great inconvenience in paying duty, having either to pay
in sycee or purchase a native order at a premium from one
of the six melting shops licensed by the Assay Office. The
position is briefly this: the Chinese authorities hold that
merchants are bound by treaty to pay duty in pure silver
and that they must do so whatever be the standard of the
local currency; the merchants, on the other hand, claim
that the authorities are responsible for the depreciation in
the currency, and that they should bear the loss occasioned
thereby."
Hankow Tael
At Hankow one tael stands out above the rest as " the
Hankow tael"; and, though the triple city at-Hankow
is a great commercial emporium not created by foreign
trade, this is the "Foreign rule" tael, weighing 5547
grains, of "Foreign rule " silver 967 fine.
Canton Tael
At Canton, and for a considerable area commercially
tributary to it, extending beyond the limits of the province
of Kwangtung, the standard tael is the Sze-ma tael, weighing
579 85 grains, being the heaviest mercantile tael in the
Empire; silver was originally, and is now in theory, reduced
to the standard of 1,000 fine. This sounds as if we had
here a departure from the prevailing diversity of currency,
and could point to a tael, uniform in weight and value.


THE CURRENCY
177
not confined to one city, but current through a large com-
. mercial area. The bankers must, however, be reckoned
with; and, both in Canton and throughout the whole area,
while we find the Sze-ma to be the standard of weight, it is
usually varied by being subject to discounts, fixed for each
sub-standard, but supplying that variability which is
demanded for all transfers in China from place to place,
from bank to bank, or from account to account. These
sub-standards are known by the per-mill proportion to the
Sze-ma standard; and I have note of taels of the 998,
996, 995, 993, 992, 990, 988, and 986 scale, being respectively
02, 0 4, 0 5, 07, 0 8, 10, 12, and 1-4 per cent. lighter than
standard Sze-ma in weight. Formerly the silver was
always taken as 1,000 fine, but in the last half-century
dollars, mainly Mexican, more or less battered and chopped,
have entirely supplanted ingots; for large transactions
payment is always made by weight, and never by count.
The result is a curious medley, it being always necessary
to express clearly if the tael is of " foreign silver " (900 fine)
or of " pure silver "; in the latter case payment is effected
by the rough-and-ready method of weighing out 10 per cent.
additional of the dollar silver. The question is even further
complicated by a practice, which has crept in of recent years,
of making 20 per cent. of payments in subsidiary silver
coins (800 fine), with perhaps some bargaining as to whether
the proportion shall be 15 or 25 per cent. Here we have
a case of degeneration within the memory of men now
living. Disregarding any question of what constitutes
"pure silver," a tael containing 579 85 grains of fine silver
becomes one of 5741 grains, and ultimately one of 561-4
grains; and, as there is a tendency now (1906) to substitute
20-cent pieces entirely for dollars, the tael is on the way
to become one containing 510-3 grains of fine silver. These
figures are all subject to proportionate reduction for each of
the various sub-standards of weight.
12


178 THE TRADE AND ABMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Shanghai Tael
I come now to the consideration of the currency at
Shanghai, the commercial metropolis of China. Omitting
the government and other exceptional taels, I must first
note the exclusive use of the Canton standard (tael = 579-85
grains) for dealings in foreign bar silver; a practice origi-
nating when foreign trade was centred at Canton and con-
tinued when the foreign banks and merchants brought
Cantonese as their first compradors and shroffs to Shanghai,
has been sanctified by use and by the ingrained habit of
introducing, whenever possible, further elements of con-
version into all dealings with the precious metals. Then
the Tsaoping tael, described above, is fully current and fully
recognised at Shanghai and in a large area around, and
is the ordinary currency for Chinese remittances through
Chinese banks to places in China, e.g. a remittance to Han-
kow is converted from " Shanghai taels" to Tsaoping taels
and thence to "Hankow taels." Finally the legitimate
banking and trading currency of the place is the " Shanghai
tael" or "Shanghai convention currency," which is also
the standard of international exchange for the trade of
North China and the Yangtze basin, all other quotations in
local currencies being re-conversions from the rate for
Shanghai currency. The rate of the day is accepted by
merchants as the rate of conversion between two fixed
currencies; and yet, if we take exchange on London as an
example, one of the currencies stands for the immutable
in finance, while in the other it is doubtful if many of the
foreign merchants who so blindly base their operations on
this exchange quotation could go into the treasury of a
Chinese bank and weigh out for themselves a Shanghai tael,
assuming even that they could read the inscriptions on the
weights they used. The value of the Shanghai tael is made
up of three elements—the weight, the quality of silver, and
a convention. The weight on the scale is the Tsaoping
tael of 565 65 grains, the silver is reduced to a standard


THE CURRENCY
179
of 944 fine on the Kuping basis of 1,000 fine, and the con-
vention is that 98 taels of this weight and this silver settle
a liability of 100 taels "Shanghai convention currency."
In order fully to understand what is a Shanghai tael, how
it may be ascertained, and what may be done with it when
once ascertained, let us consider the processes to be gone
through in an exchange operation under present conditions.
Of course, in Shanghai as in London, the merchant will
ordinarily draw his cheque, against which the bank will
give him its bill of exchange; but somewhere, and some
time, there will be a cash transaction; and thoroughly to
understand the situation we must see what, in Shanghai,
corresponds to the act of a London merchant who takes
a thousand sovereigns to the bank and gets a draft on
Paris for 25,150 /. or 25,175 /. according to the exchange.
Let us assume the simple case where our Shanghai mer-
chant wishes to remit the contents of a box full of silver
(if he wishes to make up an exact sum in Shanghai currency,
certain complications are added). The silver in the box
will be in the shape of "shoes" of " sycee" of about 50
taels each, and of varying " touch" (degrees of fineness).
If these shoes are marked, in ink, with the results of a
previous assay at the Assay Office for the Foreign Settle-
ment, the preliminary stage becomes unnecessary; but if
they have come in the course of trade from another port,
or if their last previous assay was made by the Assay Office
for the Chinese City, then all existing marks are washed
off and the silver must be sent to the proper office. Here
each shoe is weighed and the result written on one side;
it is then "touched" and the difference (usually an ad-
dition) from a certain standard, as indicated by the colour
on the touchstone, is written on the other side. This
difference for touch is so much for the shoe irrespective
of its exact weight, which is anything between 49 and 54
taels, but an allowance of 0-05 tael is added for each tael
by which the weight of the shoe exceeds 50 taels; thus if
the quality of the silver is 270, the addition for a shoe


l8o THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
weighing 4975 or one of 50 05 taels is 270, for one of 5125
taels is 275, for one of 5215 taels is 2 80, and so on. Let
us take two such shoes weighing 50 and 51 taels and having
2 60 and 2 40 respectively added for touch, making for the
two 50 + 2 60 + 51 + 2-40 = 106 00; this result, divided
by 0 98 (the Shanghai "convention "), gives 108-163 as the
number of Shanghai taels in our two shoes. If the tran-
saction is one in Shanghai currency only, this ends it, the
whole operation corresponding to the single action of the
London merchant who takes £108 3s-. from his cash
to pay a bill; but we have now to connect this with foreign
exchange. First, it is to be noted that at the present day
no other currency is used at Shanghai, all others being
actually moneys of account, which, in making payment,
require first to be reduced to Shanghai taels. The govern-
ment, for example, in making payments for indebtedness or
indemnity, does not use the Kuping ("Treasury") tael
weights or the pure silver (1,000 fine), which make up the
Kuping tael currency, but pays in Shanghai currency at the
rate of 109 60, calculated as follows:
Kuping taels 100 weight = Tsaoping taels .. 101800
Add for touch of pure silver on two shoes .. 5 600
107-400
Divide by the " convention " 0 98 .. .. 109-592
Add for meltage fee ., .. .. .. 008
109600
So with Customs duties, merchants pay in Shanghai
taels at the fixed rate 1ll 40 and never tender the " Hai-
kwan tael-weight of pure silver " specified by treaty.
Coming now to the exchange operation, we have first
to find our parity of exchange, and to do this we must get
the equivalence in foreign notation. The weight used for
Shanghai currency is the Tsaoping tael, and this is 565 65
grains; for pure silver the addition for touch is 2 8 per shoe,


THE CURRENCY
181
which the Chinese treat as if it were 5 6 per cent.; and the
"convention " is 0 98. One Tsaoping tael of pure silver is,
therefore, 1 07755 Shanghai tael; and one Shanghai tael
contains 524 93 grains of fine silver. In one ounce of silver
British Standard (0 925) are 444 grains of fine silver, or
84 6 per cent. of the amount in the Shanghai tael; and to
get the parity of exchange for the latter the London price
of bar silver must be divided by 0 846.* The actual rate of
exchange is, of course, affected by the demand and supply
of bills wanted and offered, but in the great and frequent
fluctuations in the value of silver bullion we have an ever-
present element of instability which must be taken into
account. Our Shanghai merchant, who has once gone
through such a series of manipulations and calculations, is
likely to consider his time of too much value to repeat
the transaction, and, as is actually the case, will leave such
operations in future to his comprador, until such time as he is
put on the same footing as his London brother.
Newchwang Transfer Money
One currency practice, recalling the " bank money" of
the old Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, must be referred to.
At Newchwang the local tael is 555 1 grains of silver 992
fine. Except of copper there is (or, as the war may have
caused a change, has been) little of the metals in circula-
tion, silver being commonly deposited at the banks, which
permit withdrawal only on the first days of the third, sixth,
ninth, and twelfth months, but allow transfers from account
to account. This "transfer money" is exclusively used
in the settlement of all mercantile transactions. On deposit,
and for renewal on each quarter day, the depositor is credited
with a premium which varies with the demand for money,
but which, in ordinary peaceful times, ranges from 0 20
to 6 per cent. Exchange quotations also are always quoted
* Subject to modification by consideration of the true standard
Of quality of silver {v. supra, page 167),


182 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in transfer money, not in hard silver. An ordinary exchange
operation would be as follows:
Silver deposited, Newchwang taels .. 100 00
Premium on deposit, 160 per shoe .. 3 00
Transfer money credited .. .. .. 103'00
Exchange premium 3i per cent 3 35
Shanghai taels ,. 106 35
It may be noted that the parity of exchange is 100
Newchwang taels of silver = 104-89 Shanghai taels. The
rates of premium given above are, as has been stated, those
of ordinary conditions; the effect of the stress of war on
the money market and the financial position of the bankers
may be seen from the quotations of the last day of 1904:
Silver Tls. 1,000 = Transfer-money Tls. 1,358 50 (quoted
Tls.72 per shoe); Transfer Tls.1,000 = Shanghai Tls.785.
These figures show the banker protecting his reserves,
apparently giving 36 per cent. premium for deposits and
charging 22 per cent. discount for withdrawals instead of
giving a premium. This works out to a rate of exchange
for cash transactions, however, of Newchwang Tls. 100 =
Shanghai Tls.105-65. , -
Introduction of Foreign Coins
A foreigner, as an individual, objects to carrying around
in his pocket a 4-lb.lump of silver which he cannot subdivide,
and he equally objects to carrying 6 lb. Weight of coppers as
the only fractional equivalent of the silver dollar to which
he is accustomed; he also objects to ignorance of the
quality of the silver which he will take from his pocket to
make minor paymentsj All this seems axiomatic to people
at home, but it is necessary to state the axiom in order to
explain why foreign coins have been introduced into China.


184 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
from Canton to the Yangtze. On the introduction of the
Mexican dollar, sixty years ago, it was readily accepted at
Canton and the Carolus was " demonetised." At Shanghai,
however, and in the Yangtze basin the Carolus held its own
and was the sole currency of the foreign banks and merchants
and for the sale of imports and purchase of exports and for
exchange quotations. The ravages of the Taiping rebellion
restricted the consumption of imports, and notwithstanding
increased importations of Carolus dollars, collected from all
parts of the world, they were soon driven to a premium,
which by 1855 amounted to 50 per cent., and in 1856 to over
80 per cent. of their intrinisic value; and the curious spectacle
was seen of exchange quoted at Canton at 4s. nd. per
dollar (Mexican) and on the same day at Shanghai at ys. gd.
per dollar (Carolus). The situation became intolerable,
and on a fixed day merchants' accounts at the banks were
transferred, unit for unit, from a currency (the Carolus)
containing 374J grains of fine silver, to a currency (the
Shanghai tael) containing nominally 525 grains of fine silver
per unit. A Carolus dollar lies before me as I write,
bought in Wuhu in 1906 for 140 Mexican dollar. With a
diameter of 1.56 inch, it weighs 26 08 grammes = 402 5
grains, over 3 per cent. lighter than a full-weight Mexican
dollar. On the obverse it bears the King's head wreathed
with laurel and the inscription .1808. carolus. iiii. del
gratia. On the reverse is a shield quartered with the arms
of Castille and Leon, countercharged with three fleurs-de-lys,
the shield surmounted by an Imperial crown and standing
between two columns (the Pillars of Hercules) bearing a
scroll inscribed plus ultra; the inscription reads .hispan.
et ind. rex. &. 8 R. t.h. The milling is as usual and the
reeding -0-0-0-. The obverse is stamped in black with a
design having a Chinese character in the middle, constituting
the guarantee of some Chinese banker. In Formosa * the
chopped Carolus remained the ordinary currency at its intrin-
• Two and a quarter million of these dollars were imported at
Tamsui in 1895 for the tea season.


THE CURRENCY
185
sic valuation up to the time of the Japanese occupation in
1895.~-The next to be accepted was the Mexican, called by
Chinese the " Eagle " dollar from its design—an eagle grasp-
ing a cactus in its talons. This has never been displaced
from popular estimation, though various attempts have been
made. Thirty years ago an American "trade dollar"
was introduced, but the wisdom of Congress decreed that it
should displace its rival by its weight—420 grains instead of
the 416 grains of the Mexican; the natural result, when
these two coins were put into circulation side by side among
this shrewd people, was that the heavier coin went at once
into the melting-pot. The Japanese dollar (the yen) followed,
and attained a moderate degree of popularity, but the
establishment of a gold basis for this coin put an end to its
issue as a monometallic silver coin. The later British and
French trade dollars have not met with any great degree
of success, except perhaps since the outbreak of the Russo-
Japanese war.
Chinese Dollars and Subsidiary Coinage
4^-The Chinese themselves have seen the utility of coins
and have established large plants for minting at several of
cast from moulds, are crude productions; but the fine
stamped copper cash, which were the first product of the
mints, met with no favour; and, as their issue involved a
loss to the government, it was not continued. The mints
then turned their attention to the dollar, and many millions
of these coins were turned out. These Chinese dollars were
not freely received for taxes, and when taken were accepted
by weight, and not by count; they had not the prestige of
the Mexican, but had only a provincial guarantee, and out-
side the province of issue circulated only at a discount; they
would have disturbed, had they any vitality, the calculations
of money-changers; they gave no seigniorage to the mint;
and of late years the annual output has been thousands
instead of millions. The energy of the mints has in


Their time-honoured copper coins,


186 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
/recent years been devoted to the issue of subsidiary coinage.
f First 10-cent and 20-cent pieces, which, consisting of silver
800 fine, while the dollar was 900 fine, could be sold from the
mint at 110 cents for the dollar and still show a profit ^these
pieces became popular with the smaller money-changers
because of the margin between the rate of issue and the
intrinsic value, and because of the petty speculation per-
mitted by the margin of value. Then followed the copper
cent which is now the popular coin, since it has an exchange
value greater than the hundredth part of a dollar, and the
money-changer, who makes his profit from the depreciated
silver coinage, will make it also from appreciated copper
xoin. The tourist who draws on his letter of credit at a
'foreign bank in Shanghai, having to receive so many dollars
and so many (say 74) cents, for the odd cents will be given 70
cents in depreciated silver, but for the 4 cents he will receive
3 copper cents and 2 copper cash, since by the exchange
of the day 32 cash are the equivalent of four-hundredths of
a dollar. I leave the last two sentences as they were written
in 1905, in order to show how great has been the depreciation
in this coin. Twelve months later, in July 1906, the
tourist still received his 70 cents in depreciated silver,
but for the 4 cents he was no longer given 3 copper
cents and 2 cash, but received 4 copper cents—actually
worth $0 0357.
General Considerations
In China the currency is at the top a weight pure and
simple, in the middle a combination of weight and token
currency, and at the bottom a coin which stands on its own
feet, and neither receives support from nor absolutely gives it
to any other unit in the series. At the top is the tael (call it
the " ounce," and it will be better realised), in which pay-
ments are made in precisely the same way that delivery is
taken of a lot of silver bars. Then comes the dollar, which,
though a coin, is nowhere legal tenderjand of which the


THE CURRENCY
specimens from the Chinese mints are inscribed, not generally
dollar or "yuen," but merely 72 hundredths of a tael;
though so inscribed, dollars of silver are nowhere fixed in
terms of taels of silver, but are quoted at rates which vary
from day to day according to the demand and supply,
fluctuating within a range of six or more per centr—Then
come subsidiary silver coins fractional to the dollar but sub-
ject to a fluctuating rate of exchange such that the dollar
may this year change for 110 cents and next year for only 95
^/cents in small coin. Next comes the copper cejytj inscribed
at the mints of some provinces as worth " one-hundredth of a
dollar," and of others as worth " ten cash," but never treated
as correlated to the dollar; whether considered in its relation
to the dollar or to the cash, it is a token coin worth intrinsi-
cally less than half its nominal value:—Last comes the
copper cash, the currency of the people. /.'into this series
of non-related currencies, each unit of which is in a state of
unstable equilibrium, fixed neither in itself nor in relation
to other units, China is now required to introduce system
and uniformity and to give a legal tender character to any
coin or currency which she may adopt, while the inborn
disposition of her people is to accept no coin and no currency
as legal tender, but to make them all accept the lowly cash
the subject of barter. Where shall she begin? Is she to
'take her fundamental coin, the cash, with a present-day
value of the ten-thousandth part of a pound sterling, and
build upon it? This seems the natural course to those who
consider first the well-being of her patient, industrious people,
whose householders maintain their families on sixpence a
day, and through the existence of this mite of a mite are
enabled to maintain them in comfort. Or shall she con-
sider first the broader interests of her international exchanges
and of the powerful body of bankers and merchants active
in the distribution of goods through the Empire?
Multiply what has been written above a hundredfold, and
some idea will be conceived of the currency question in China.
To reform it would naturally appear no more difficult than


188 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
to introduce the metric system into England; it should even
have behind it a greater weight of popular support in propor-
tion as the simplification of the currency of four hundred
millions should give ten times greater relief than the simpli-
fication of the measures of forty millions. This presupposes
that the four hundred millions are crying for relief, but we
must first see who it is that call for currency reform. The
foreign merchant stands in the first place, with his crying
need for fixity of exchange between gold and silver, which
requires for its establishment a fixed unit of currency, which
in turn can only be attained by coinage. That he will also
be freed from bondage to his comprador does not appeal
to him, since he is unlikely to realise their relative positions,
and the activity of his advocacy will be weakened by so
much; moreover, there are in China less than a thousand
firms of European and American nationality, even including
the protected races, such as those from British India, and
including branch firms. Then come the foreign banks,
ten in number; they may consider that their profits from
rapid fluctuations in exchange, of the causes of which they
have prior knowledge, will be made good by the development
of legitimate trade resulting from certainty of exchange;
and they may set against their profits from changing funds
from one standard of currency to another their newly
acquired ability to keep their own treasuries. The govern-
ment of China will welcome any measure which will set a
limit to the amount which it must take from its revenues to*
pay the indemnities due to the Foreign Powers; and, as a
corporate entity, may be willing to have a uniform currency
in which the revenue may be paid and received. No other
element of support can be brought in by any flight of the
imagination. All the vested interests in China will be against
the change. The members of the Government as individuals,
from the highest Minister of State in Peking to the humblest
assistant-deputy sub-district magistrate, will give it their
tacit, if not openly-expressed opposition. The tax-collector,
with his assistants and his servants, and backed by his family


THE CURRENCY
in all its many branches, will fight strenuously against any
obligation to pay into the Treasury the exact coin which
he has received from the taxpayer. The powerful body
of Chinese bankers, organised as such when Europe did
not yet know the science, will accept the change only if
they are shown the possibility of greater profits than under
existing conditions. The compradors and shroffs may be
trusted to do their best to resist any attempt to curtail their
privileges and profits. Even the native merchants and
tradesmen, who will benefit enormously by simplification of
the currency, will also oppose a change from the present
system, in which each man counts confidently on getting
the better in the encounter of wits. Ordinarily the prole-
tariat remains neutral in such a question; but in China the
merest coolie, earning sixpence by a long day of hard work,
will spend an hour of his time to gain on exchange the
equivalent of ten minutes' work.


CHAPTER VI
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
While the currency of the Empire is in a state of confusion,
it is at the same time regulated by, and in the interest of,
the bankers and money-changers, trained in their pro-
fession for many centuries. The state of the weights and
measures is, however, chaos itself, and the amount of regu-
lation applied to it is infinitesimal. In this country of
weak application of the governmental function and of
widely democratic organisation, the trader uses as a matter
of course the differentiated measures which are illegal in
modernised countries, buying with a long or heavy measure
and selling with a short or light measure; and the only
interference by government takes the form of an Imperial
edict at an interval of perhaps a century, or an occasional
proclamation which is disregarded as soon as the rain has
washed the ink. The gilds make some attempt to pre-
serve a local uniformity in the measures accepted by them-
selves, but they have no official function, and their efforts
are mainly directed to secure open dealing between their
own members, their motto being that of the New York
statesman, "The public be damned." In this chaos,
however, some conventions must be recognised if trade is
to go on, and fixed theoretic standards can be found; but
it may be said at once that in any place every trade has
its own standard, and that the trade standards of one place
are not the same as those of other places.
The English peoples are in a position to understand,
better than any others, the theoretic system—the tables of
190


WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 197
weights and measures—prevailing in China, having them-
selves a system in which the various measures have no
common inter-relation, and of which the tables in use in
the United Kingdom and the United States proceed on
no one notation, but skip lightly from dozens to scores,
from sevens to fours, from a decimal to a duodecimal no-
tation. In this last respect the Chinese are wiser, and
with two exceptions base their tables on a purely decimal
notation; but in their disregard of any common relation
between the different measures, they are on the same
f00ting as ourselves.
While in theory their tables are based generally on
a decimal notation, the Chinese would not be Chinese if,
in applying this theory to practice, they did not make some
differences, perfectly recognised and accepted as the custom
of the trade and place. Thus the table gives 100 kin
(catty) as making 1 tan (picul); but at Amoy the picul of
indigo is 110 catties, of white sugar 95 catties, and of brown
sugar 94 catties; of rice the picul at Shanghai is 100 catties,
at Amoy 140 catties, and at F00chow 180 catties; for
tribute rice the stipulated picul is 120 catties, but at Nan-
king it is 140 catties. These are enough to illustrate this
form of irregularity; but generally the purpose of this
chapter is to consider only the standards accepted at each
place by the gilds concerned.
Weight
As in England and America 16 ounces make 1 pound,
in China 16 Hang (tael) make 1 kin (catty), constituting one
of the two exceptions to the purely decimal system; then
100 catties make 1 picul. In practice quantities of ordinary
commodities are usually, and in exact accounts invariably,
stated in the single unit of catty, even when the amount is
millions; and for valuable articles, such as musk, in taels,
even to the amount of thousands. The catty generally known
to foreigners is that imposed by treaty as the weight to
be used for levy of Customs duty, 21J ounces avoirdupois, as


I92 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
stipulated by the British treaty, 604 53 grammes as stipu-
lated by the French treaty, the two differing by 0.4 gramme
or 6 grains. This is a purely arbitrary standard imposed
by, or on, the foreign merchant, and accepted because it
was a round figure approximating closely to the merchants'
standard prevailing at Canton, actually weighing 21 "21
ounces avoirdupois, with which the English trader first came
in touch, and which a hundred years ago he used in buying
his tea and silk. At Canton and in its vicinity there are
other standards, by which the catty ranges from 19 68
to 22 06 ounces. In the trade area of Shanghai there is a
standard for the use of Chinese in their foreign dealings
by which the catty is 20 4 ounces, while the regular gild
catty is 18 6 ounces; the Soochow gild catty is 197
ounces, that for rice paid as Imperial tribute is 20 6 ounces,
while that for the sale of oil is 23'2 ounces and for sugar
is 27'25 ounces. At Hangchow there are seventeen different
standards, ranging from 16 to 24 ounces, all equally recog-
nised in their respective trades; and throughout the
Empire catties are known, ranging from 12 to 42 5 ounces.
Capacity
The Chinese table of capacity gives sixteen decimal
divisions, down to i,ow,6w,o(w,ooo,oooth Part. of the shih '•
those in common use are the tow (^5), sheng (y^o), and
ko (tooo). Measures of capacity are seldom used except
for rice and grain, and these are ordinarily sold wholesale
by weight; fluids, such as oil, spirits, molasses, etc., are
almost invariably sold by weight. Grain tribute is assessed
. on the tax note by measures of capacity, but is generally
collected by weight at a rate of conversion fixed by the
collectors, when it is not collected in money at rates also fixed
by the collectors. The tow (which we may call peck) for
tribute contains 629 cubic inches (10 31 litres), but in
different parts of the Empire different standards of tow exist
ranging from 176 all the way to 1,800 cubic inches.


WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
193
Length
The table of length is divided decimally down to the
lo.ooo.ooot*1 P31* °f a foot' §oes UP to 10 feet = 1
chang. The foreign merchant knows as the unit of length
the chih, commonly called " foot," imposed by treaty, ac-
cepted by the Customs for the measurement of cloth, and
measuring 14*1 English inches; this finds no exact counter-
part at Canton, where the carpenter's foot is 13 8 inches and
the tailor's foot is 14 8 inches. Land is sometimes measured
by a special standard, but usually throughout China by the
carpenter's foot: Canton is divided into two magistracies
(hsien) by a line running through the middle of the city;
on the west of this line, land is measured by a foot of 147
inches, and on the east by a foot of 14 8 inches, which is the
tailor's foot of Canton. At Shanghai the tailor's foot is
13.85 inches and the carpenter's foot is 111 inches; the
official land foot is 121 inches, but the foot in ordinary
use for transfers of land is 13 2 inches. At Nanking the
carpenter's foot is 12 6 inches, but the foot for measurement
of timber is 13.5 inches. At Soochow the tailor's foot
is 13'45 inches, but that used for the measurement of cloth
is 1ll inches. At Shiuhing carpenters use a foot of 14
inches, but masons working on the same building use a
foot of 13 6 inches, and flooring tiles are made by a foot
of 1n inches. These instances of inconsistency might
be amplified indefinitely; suffice it to say that in China
local standards of the foot range from 8 6 to 27 8 inches.
Distance
The Chinese do not much trouble themselves with the
accurate measurement of distance, and would sympathise
fully with the Dutch measurement of canalboat-runs by
the number of pipes smoked. A theoretic unit exists, the
li, measuring 1,800 of the land foot; but, as the latter
varies throughout the Empire, so would the li vary, if any
13


1g4 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
one cared to measure it. Based on a foot of 14.1 English
inches it would measure 705 yards, or four-tenths of a
statute mile. In practice it is one-hundredth of the distance
a laden porter will cover in a day of ten hours marching;
on the plain this would represent a third of a mile, a half-
kilometre, more or less, but in hilly country it varies con-
siderably. By Chinese reckoning, if it is 50 li to the top of
Mount Washington, returning by the same road to the same
point the distance may be 25 li; and similarly a mountain
may be spoken of as 100 miles high—by road.
Area
The table of area is purely decimal, the unit, the mow,
being divided down to the 10.000,000^ part; 100 mow
make a ching. In the calculation of the mow occurs the
second of the two departures from the decimal system in
China: it is 240 square "paces" or "bows," each bow
being 5 feet long, and is therefore 6,000 square land feet;
but as the land foot varies, so does the mow vary. The
"customary" mow at Shanghai is exactly one-sixth of an
English acre (7,260 square feet, English); but throughout
the Empire the mow varies from 3,840 to 9,964, with one
standard of 18,148 English square feet.
To give further details of all the vagaries of the measures
of China would take a volume, but enough has been written
to indicate in some degree the variability of what are held
to be standards, and the mental attitude of those on whom
it is sought to impose uniformity. The example of other
countries may be cited, where order has been evolved from
chaos and uniformity from diversity, but it must be re-
membered that China is not one country, it is a dozen; it
is a continent, with the population and the diversity of a
continent, with the inborn habit of centuries to stereotype
the minds of the people, and with the natural stubbornness
of an old civilisation to resist all change.


CHAPTER VII
EXTRATERRITORIALITY
The privilege of extraterritoriality was, thirty years ago,
and even less, more commonly referred to as exterritoriality.
Of these terms Sir Francis Piggott * says:
"The words' exterritoriality ' and' extraterritori-
ality' are treated by some writers as identical; by
others as indicating, the first the privilege of Am-
bassadors and their suites, the second the Treaty
privilege under which Consular jurisdiction has been
established in the East. Both these privileges are,
however, more correctly described as ' exterritorial';
the condition of those to whom they are accorded as
'exterritoriality.' On the other hand the government
of the privileged persons by their own authorities from
home is ' extraterritorial.'"
Notwithstanding this dictum the orotund forms extra-
territorial-ity-ised have prevailed and are now applied to
governors and governed alike. This chapter is intended
to explain how the exceptional privilege originated, and the
manner of its working.
In the earliest times the traveller was protected by no
law; the Tyrian voyager along the coasts of the Mediter-
ranean secured only such rights as he could buy or enforce,
but he neither carried with him his own law nor was he
entitled to claim the protection of the law of those among
whom he sojourned. With the extension of the Roman do-
minion the pax Romana spread, and every citizen travelling
* " Exterritoriality," by F. T. Piggott. 1892.
»95


196 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
was under the aegis of the jus Romanum; the principle
established was that the Roman elsewhere than in Rome was
extraterritorialised—he was not required to submit to the
territorial laws of the "foreign" country, but remained
outside them and continued to enjoy the protection of his
own laws. As an echo of this privilege we find that in the
Constitution of a.d. 824 imposed upon the people of Rome
by Lothair, acting as vicegerent for his father, Lewis the
Pious, each inhabitant of the city was required to choose the
code—Roman, Frankish, or Lombard—by which he wished
to live, and was then judged according to the law selected.
The underlying principle is obvious. It was recognised as
inequitable that, for example, the Frank, who was entitled
by his native law to compound for a homicide by payment
of weregeld, should by the accident of residence in what,
though the capital of the Empire, was still to him a foreign
city, be compelled to submit to what would appear to him
the cruel and vindictive penalty of death; and while he
wished to preserve for himself his own law, he did not wish
to impose it on the Roman people or on the Lombards who
less than a century before had been masters of the city.
The Frank in Rome was fully extraterritorialised, but of
Rome the Frank was titular sovereign.
Edward I of England in 1303 granted his Carta
Mercatoria to foreign merchants resident in London, assign-
ing to them, in exchange for an increase in customs duties,
many valuable privileges for the furtherance of their trade.
Among them one clause provided that, in any suit between
a foreigner and a native, the jury should be drawn, six from
the men of London, and six from the men of the same
town as the foreigner party to the suit.
When the West first met the East on equal terms at
shorter range than a lance's length, it was found that their
laws were incompatible: that no Venetian or Genoese, the
pioneers in commerce in those days, would willingly or could
in reason be expected to submit himself to Moslem law,
based on the stem requirements of the Koran; and that no


EXTRATERRITORIALITY 197
follower of the Prophet could yield obedience to a code
whose leading exponent was the Pope. There was no
thought of requiring either to conform to the law of the
other ; as between one country of Europe and another the
lex loci might be applied, but to assimilate the legal pro-
cedure of two diverse civilisations was the mingling of oil
and vinegar. The question was one-sided, since no Moslem
ever strayed from the fold, and the Padishah settled it
off-hand by bidding the Giaours judge, control, and pro-
tect their own nationals according to their own customs.
While the trading states were weak and the Moslem power
strong, the imperium in imperio thus created caused no more
trouble than the old protection which the Roman citizen
carried with him everywhere; but in the course of years the
Turkish realm lost its old-time force, the more powerfully
organised nations of Europe entered the field, and the
obligation of extraterritoriality became a right, claimed by
all strong enough to enforce it, enjoyed by all in the comity
of nations, and duly sanctioned by the Capitulations signed
with each Power. These are the Charter of extraterritori-
ality in the Turkish Empire and in the states now or formerly
vassal to it.
At first the natural assumption was that the traveller
carried his law with him, in so far as he was entitled to the
protection of any law; but by degrees, in the history of those
countries whose government is based on law and not on
the will of the governors, law became paramount, and the
law of the locality was never set aside to pleasure a chance
visitor. This is now the rule, the Capitulations in Turkey
being merely survivals of the Middle Ages. When the
European first came to the Far East, he had no thought
that he was entitled to carry his law with him, and sub-
mission to the lex loci was merely an incident in his ad-
venturous career, duly provided for in his profit and loss
account. The Black Hole of Calcutta was typical of the
treatment likely to be accorded to the English anywhere
in India at the time, when once removed from the protection


1gS THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of the British flag; the Portuguese in China enjoyed life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only on condition of
remaining safely in the tiny peninsula of Macao; and the
Dutch in Japan, cooped up in Desima, were allowed to
monopolise a profitable trade, but were otherwise subject
to the whims of the Japanese. At the opening of the
nineteenth century the English and Americans resident
in China were restricted to the "Factory " or trading post
of Canton, privileged for exercise to walk a hundred paces in
one direction and then a hundred paces in the other. They
were in general well treated, since the trade so profitable
to them was equally profitable to the Chinese, and were
not molested so long as they were law-abiding—but law-
abiding in the sense of abiding by the law of China. It
was irksome to them to have no lawyer to instruct them
in the law of the land, to have no fixed and certain law to
appeal to, to be doubtful of the application of the law to
any particular case, and to have no doubt whatever on the
course likely to be followed by the administrators of the
law; but this was all an incident of their position, and
the rapid accumulation of fortune enabled them to shake
the dust of the country from their shoes after a very short
stay. So the position was endured, and the lex loci sub-
mitted to, probably, from what we know of the English
and American character, with many murmurs but without
overt opposition.
It is no part of my purpose to describe the state of the
prisons of China or the methods by which testimony and
confession are elicited, nor to demonstrate the insistent
need to the Chinese people of the article in King John's
Magna Carta, "To no man will we deny or sell justice."
The incompatibility of laws based on diverse civilisations
is nowhere more marked than in China. There no bank-
ruptcy law is possible: if a debtor's own estate will not
suffice to pay his debts, the deficiency must be made good
by his father, brothers, or uncles; if a debtor absconds,
his immediate family are promptly imprisoned; if the


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
debtor returns, he is put in prison and kept there indefinitely,
so long as he can find money for his daily food, until released
by payment in full or by death: this is the law. When
in 1895 Admiral Ting found himself forced to surrender
Weihaiwei and his fleet, he committed suicide; by this
courageous step, technically dying before surrender, he
saved his immediate family—father, mother, sons, and
daughters—from decapitation, and their property from
confiscation, the penalty when a commander surrenders an
Imperial fortress: this is the law. When in the old days
an English gunner caused the death of a Chinese by firing
a salute from a cannon from which, by oversight, the ball
had not been removed, he was seized, tried, and executed;
and in 1839, when in the course of a disturbance with English
and American sailors at Canton a Chinese was killed, the
authorities demanded that, if the guilty person could not
be detected and executed, the whole party should be handed
over for execution: this is the law. Intention is never
taken into account. A dollar for a dollar, an eye for an
eye, a life for a life, and all for the Emperor and his repre-
sentatives: this is the law of China. The feeling against
continued submission to this law and to its arbitrary and
inequitable application had been growing; and when the
Chinese authorities committed an overt act of aggression
in seizing and destroying the property of the foreign
merchants of all nationalities at Canton, burning their
"Factory," in which alone, as in a Ghetto, they were
permitted to reside, and forcibly expelling them from
Chinese soil, the British took up the cudgels and the war
of 1842 followed. The movable property destroyed con-
sisted of opium, and consequently the war is in common
parlance called the "Opium War "; this is an ill-chosen
designation for the Americans as for the English, since, as
the direct result of the war, the American Government
secured a treaty containing even more favourable terms
than the British treaty. In fact, the direct cause of the
war was the growing sense of the need for better protection


200 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
to life and property, though behind this was the ground
cause of the need for better relations generally. John
Quincy Adams gave it as his opinion that the Kotow was
the cause of the war. In the words of Dr. Hawks Pott's
"Sketch of Chinese History "—" The first war with China
was but the beginning of a struggle between the extreme
East and the West, the East refusing to treat on terms of
equality, diplomatically or commercially, with Western
nations, and the West insisting on its right to be so treated."
As has been the rule from the outset, England bore the
brunt of the battle in securing the rights of the West, and
the privileges secured to her as the result of the war, became
the heritage of all the Western Powers coming later into the
field. Equality of treatment was conceded in 1842 on paper,
but the execution of the concession in practice left much to
be desired, and friction continued. There were, of course,
faults on both sides, as is always the case where a bold
aggressive race comes, especially in matters of trade, in
contact with a weaker race given to supplement its want
of strength by methods of chicanery and indirectness; but
underlying everything were the demand for equality of
treatment and extraterritorial rights on the one side, and
on the other a stubborn disinclination to yield either. A
second war became necessary in which the French joined
hands with the English, and a second time America and
other interested Powers came in and secured treaties simul-
taneous and identical with those signed by the British and
French Envoys. These treaties, signed independently by
Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States in
1858, by Prussia and the North German Confederation in
1861, and by other Powers in later years, are still the charter
of liberty of the foreigner resident in China; and in each of
them, in addition to a "most favoured nation" clause, is
contained the stipulation of extraterritoriality.
The earliest treaties with China were made by Russia,
whose Envoys came by the Siberian route, and whose
colonists and armed forces were in constant conflict with


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
201
the Manchus and the sons of Han on the long frontier of the
Amur and in Central Asia. The earliest of these treaties,
that of Nipchu (or Nerchinsk) signed in 1689, contains
(Art. VI.) the following provision:
"If hereafter any of the subjects of either nation
pass the frontier and commit crimes of violence against
property or life, they are at once to be arrested and
sent to the frontier of their own country and handed
over to the chief local authority, who will inflict on
them the death penalty as a punishment of their
crimes."
The Treaty of the Frontier (called also the Treaty of
Kiakhta, at which place the ratifications were exchanged)
signed in 1727, contains (Art. X.) the following provision:
"Those who pass the frontier and steal camels or
cattle shall be handed over to their natural judges
(leurs juges naturels), who will condemn them to pay
ten times, and for a second offence twenty times,
the value of the property stolen; for a third offence,
they shall be punished by death."
The supplementary treaty of Kiakhta, signed in 1768,
contained minute stipulations for the arrest and extradition
of criminals, but includes this provision:
"The subjects of the Middle Kingdom (China) who
shall have committed acts of brigandage shall be
delivered, without distinction of persons, to the tribunal
which governs the outer provinces and punished with
death; the subjects of the Oros (Russia) shall be
delivered to their senate, to undergo the same penalty."
Here then, from one to two centuries before the first of
the treaties with any of the maritime Powers, we have the
principle of extraterritoriality accepted: the penalties are
prescribed by negotiation between the two Powers con-
cerned, but the culprits are to be handed over to their
own natural authorities—are to be judged and condemned
according to the legal procedure of their native land.
The British treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842, as the


202 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
result of the war of that year, contained provisions for uni-
formity of Customs duties and equality of treatment for
British officials; but the only reference to Consular juris-
diction is found in Art. II., to the effect that Consuls are
"to be the medium of communication between the
Chinese authorities and the said merchants, and to see
that the just duties and other dues of the Chinese
Government as hereafter provided for are duly dis-
charged by Her Britannic Majesty's subjects."
The supplementary treaty of Hoomunchai (1843) contains
provisions for extradition, and annexed to it are some
"General Regulations under which British trade is to be
conducted at the five ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow,
Ningpo, and Shanghai " which had been published at Hong-
kong by a proclamation issued on July 22nd, 1843, by Sir
Henry Pottinger, Minister Plenipotentiary and Super-
intendent of Trade. Of these Regulations, No. XIII.,
after stipulating that " disputes shall be arranged amicably,"
i.e. by arbitration or by diplomatic procedure, makes the
following provision:
"Regarding the punishment of English criminals,
the English Government will enact the laws necessary
to attain that end, and the Consul will be empowered
to put them in force; and regarding the punishment
of Chinese criminals, these will be tried and punished
by their own laws, in the way provided for by the
correspondence which took place at Nanking after
the concluding of the peace."
This regulation was in its form a concession to the
Chinese, designed to control the unruly members of the
crews of foreign ships. It was reserved for the United
States of America, peacefully following on the sound of the
British cannon, to step into the breach, and to express more
clearly the one condition which renders it possible for
American, English, German, or other merchants to enjoy in
quiet the fruits of their trading activity, or for their mission-
aries to peacefully pursue their holy calling, subject to


EXTRA TERRITORIA UTY
203
the laws of the land of their allegiance and not of the land
of their sojourn. In the Treaty of Wanghia, signed in
July 1844, Art. XXI. reads as follows:
"Subjects of China who may be guilty of an}'
criminal act towards citizens of the United States shall
be arrested and punished by the Chinese authorities
according to the laws of China, and citizens of the
United States who may commit any crime in China
shall be subject to be tried and punished only by the
Consul or other public functionary of the United States
thereto authorised according to the laws of the United
States; and in order to the prevention of all con-
troversy and disaffection, justice shall be equitably
and impartially administered on both sides."
The French Treaty of Whampoa, signed in October
1844, contained a similar provision that French subjects
accused of any crime should be "livres a Taction reguliere
des lois francaises," adding, however, an enunciation of the
principle of extraterritoriality:
"II en sera de meme en toute circonstance analogue
et non preVue dans la presente Convention, le principe
6tant que, pour la repression des crimes et delits commis
par eux dans les cinq ports, les Francais seront con-
stamment regis par la loi francaise."
The underlying principle was more clearly expressed in
the Chef00 Convention (1876) between Great Britain and
China, and again in the American Supplemental Treaty of
Peking (1880); in the latter, Article IV. reads as follows:
"When controversies arise in the Chinese Empire
between citizens of the United States and subjects of
His Imperial Majesty which need to be examined and
decided by the public officers of the two nations, it is
agreed between the Governments of the United States
and China that such cases shall be tried by the proper
official of the nationality of the defendant. The
properly authorised official of the plaintiff's nationality
shall be freely permitted to attend the trial, and shall


204 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
be treated with the courtesy due to his position. He
shall be granted all proper facilities for watching the
proceedings in the interests of justice. If he so desires,
he shall have the right to present, to examine, and to
cross-examine witnesses. If he is dissatisfied with the
proceedings, he shall be permitted to protest against
them in detail. The law administered will be the law
of the nationality of the officer trying the case."
This is the principle adopted since that time in all
treaty negotiations entered into with China by each one of
the treaty Powers, which, in the order of the dates of the
first treaty with each, are Russia, Great Britain, the United
States, France, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, Germany,
Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary,
Japan, Peru, Brazil, Portugal, and Mexico.
This is extraterritoriality, secured by two wars and by
treaties with seventeen Powers, each one of which must
consent to its abrogation or modification. By it the
foreigner resident in China is subject to no one provision of
the law of China, either as to his person or to his property,*
but at all times and in all places is entitled to the protection
of his own national law administered by his own national
officials. There are no two voices as to the necessity for
this right among those resident in China, and the right has
been recognised by the various governments as supplying
the one condition under which their nationals can remain
in that country. We have now to consider the application
of this right by, and to, the Consul, the merchant, and the
missionary; and, as different national laws, regulations,
and customs cannot be treated on one common footing, the
application of extraterritoriality to the American will be
taken as typical of all.
The Consul
We all know, or think we know, the ordinary functions
* Except that in the tenure of land the Ux loci must apply.


EXTRATERRITORIALITY
205
of the ordinary Consul. Practically they may be reduced
to three. He is the commercial agent of his government,
and in that capacity must study the commercial possibilities
for American traders and manufacturers in the country to
which he is accredited, and inform the nation by the reports
which he writes. He is a notary public, certifying invoices
for the U.S. Customs, and attesting documents signed
before him for use in the United States. Finally he is the
adviser to Americans sojourning abroad, supplementing
their ignorance of foreign laws and customs, and indicating
to them the means by which they may be in the position,
as to knowledge, which they would occupy in their own
country. Coming to China, we find the Consul performing
these functions, and many more besides, all of which add
to his cares and his responsibilities.
First, by the direct action of the principle of extraterri-
toriality, he is a police magistrate to try offences com-
mitted by American citizens, civil judge for suits brought
against Americans by Chinese, by other Americans, or by
foreigners of other nationalities, and criminal judge for more
serious crimes committed by Americans, even up to murder
in the first degree. He is also coroner, probate judge, and
registrar of deeds. From his decisions appeal is difficult.
His judgment may be reviewed by the U.S. Minister at
Peking, but this is in no sense a re-trial; and in certain
cases an appeal may be taken to the U.S. (federal) Circuit
Court of California, six thousand miles away. His position
is the more difficult from the fact that he has to administer,
not the law of Massachusetts or of New York, or even of Cali-
fornia, the nearest state, but "American law," and this
often without the aid of trained lawyers; he must administer
the common law unelucidated by any statutes of later date
than 1776, and must often give judgments which Solomon
would have envied. Besides American law he must have a
sufficient knowledge of the lex loci, as in the case of a land
suit to which an American is defendant, and instances have
been known when his judgment has depended upon the right


206 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
interpretation of the tenets of the Buddhist religion.* With
all this complexity he has still another element of difficulty:
his instructions from the State Department require him
first to bring two suitors to common terms of settlement,
and having attempted this without giving one party a clue
to the case of the other, and having failed, he must then erase
from his mind all he has learned in the matter and go on the
bench to sit as judge.f
Besides requiring him to act as judge, the extraterri-
torialised position of the foreigner in China places on the
Consul's shoulders still another burden of responsibility.
Beyond the protection of American law, the American in
China is safeguarded by the stipulations of the treaties.
These specify, to select a few among the many instances,
that Customs duties shall be uniform, that inland transit
dues (akin to octroi) may be compounded, that Americans
may freely rent or charter houses, boats, etc., that they shall
not be prevented from preaching the gospel, that the U.S.
Minister may freely and safely reside in Peking. While
sitting as judge when an American is defendant, when an
American has a plaint against a Chinese defendant the
Consul is by law the official advocate in the case (a position
presenting some embarrassment in cross-suits); when the
plaint is against the Chinese Government, the Consul is the
more necessarily an advocate from the need of interpreting
and applying the stipulations of the treaties—not only
of the American treaties, but, under the " most favoured
nation" clause, of all the treaties made with China. This
» See Appendix B.
f The opening on January 2nd, 1907, of a United States District
Court for China will remove cases of a certain class from the Consul's
jurisdiction, and to this extent will modify what has been said in this
paragraph; but this description still applies, more or less exactly,
to the Consuls of other Powers, such as France, Germany, etc. Only
Great Britain and the United States have thought it necessary to
establish separate courts. Appeal from a French Court is taken to
Saigon, from a Russian Court to Vladivostock, from a German
Court to Leipzic.


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
207
makes of him a diplomatic representative, not merely a
representative of the Minister at Peking, but of the State
Department at Washington; and in this capacity he has
to present arguments and bring pressure to bear on the
Chinese officials to an extent not sanctioned by procedure
in European countries.
In cases of riot and disturbance in a country of weak
government, the foreign military and naval forces must be
called in to give due protection to their nationals. The
Consul is the natural diplomatic intermediary with the
Chinese officials, and all representations, by way of per-
suasion or of ultimatum, must pass through him. It is for
him alone to judge when the toga must yield to arms; and,
added to all his other responsibilities, he is the resident civil
authority in control of the armed forces of his own country.
By virtue of extraterritoriality direct action against
a foreigner's person or estate can only be taken through his
own Consul, and in the case of an arrest for contravention
of municipal regulations it is by him that the prisoner must
be tried. The foreign communities are little self-governing
and self-taxing republics, each in its square mile or two of
territory, but even against their own members those com-
munities cannot act through their own courts, which do
not exist. If the municipal police arrest gamblers, let us
say, among whom are men of six different nationalities,
plaint must be made before six different Consular courts,
with, incidentally, the result that one culprit may be fined
a dollar and another a hundred dollars on the same day for
the same offence. The Municipal Council governing such a
community is subject to no legally constituted tribunal,
since none such exists of competent jurisdiction; and,
being after all only a body of private gentlemen of many
nationalities with no official status, can only communicate
with the Chinese officials, with whom they have constant
and important dealings, through " their own " Consuls. To
meet these varying needs of the regularly constituted
governing body of these little republics, the Consuls take


208 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
united action, holding deliberative meetings for that purpose,
and act by the voice and pen of the " Senior Consul"—the
Consul longest in residence; and they appoint certain of
their number to constitute a Consular Court, a tribunal
before which the Municipal Council may be sued.* This
gives the Consul an important part in the municipal control,
not only of his own nationals, but of all foreigners in the
community.
The Merchant
The position of the merchant in the days of the old trade
has been indicated in this chapter, and is further described
in Chapter IX.; and in giving some details of his excep-
tional position under extraterritoriality, it is necessary
from point to point to contrast it with what would be his
normal condition.
On the entry of a ship in the ante-treaty days she became
a chattel in the hands of the Chinese authorities and of
monopolists licensed by them, and was the subject of " milk-
ing " limited in amount only by what the trade could stand.
The sums extracted were not all capable of being put into
a detailed statement, but one authentic official account
(given in Chapter IX.) shows that to the constituted authori-
ties, over and above irregular exactions, one ship, which
for the same charges would to-day pay £25, paid what
was then equivalent to £900. To-day a ship's papeis are
deposited with her Consul, and the Chinese authorities can
exercise control only through him, while all attendance
and supplies may be obtained in the open market.
The cargo could formerly be sold only to licensed monopo-
list dealers, while now an importer may find his own buyers
and make his own terms; and for exports the same monopoly
has been exchanged for the same freedom.
The merchant formerly lived and stored his goods in
• Jurisdiction over the municipality of a "Concession" is in
the hands of the Consul of the controlling Power, as explained in
Chapter VIII.


EXTRATERRITORIALITY
209
the Factory, in which he was the tenant and guest of the
monopolists who alone could buy his imports and sell him
his exports, and which he could not leave even to inquire
the market prices of commodities. Now he is privileged
to rent or build his own premises, subject only to the con-
dition that they shall be at one of the treaty ports, now
over forty in number, and usually within a circumscribed
area at those ports; but in any case he now has free access,
without intermediaries, to his ships and to his market.
Formerly the merchants had no knowledge of the amount
of taxation levied, inwards and outwards, on his goods, but
it was none the lighter for that. Now the tax is strictly
limited to the rates, based on a uniform 5 per cent. levy,
specified in a revenue (non-protective) tariff, which forms
an integral part of the treaty under which he lives and
trades. From the inland taxation, too, which presses so
heavily on Chinese traders who are subject to the levy of
likin, his goods are exempted by payment of " transit dues"
not exceeding a nominal 2\ per cent. ad valorem.
No Chinese authority has a right to claim any municipal
taxes from foreign premises; and within the " areas reserved
for foreign residence and trade," all taxes levied are solely
for the benefit of such reserved area. The foreign resident
is equally free from the incidence of benevolences, or from
the necessity of contributing to public charities and patri-
otic funds, or from inducement to buy official honours and
titles, to all which the Chinese merchant is liable.
No capitation fee may be imposed, or right of deporta-
tion exercised on foreigners by the Chinese officials, as was
the case in the old days.
No foreign merchant is now liable for any but his own
criminal offences, and for those with which he may be charged
he is judged according to the provisions of his own laws.
In civil cases he is held accountable for the requirements
of the commercial code of his own country; and in suits
against Chinese he is aided by the advocacy of his own
official representative, the Consul.


210 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Finally, in at least ten of the treaty ports, the foreign
merchants collectively are privileged to form their own
municipal government, subject only to the oversight of the
Consuls, to tax themselves and administer the proceeds of
the taxes, to construct their own roads, and to control their
own measures of police and sanitation.
Others could be added, but these constitute a formidable
list of exceptional privileges, enjoyed by the foreigner and
denied to the Chinese. It is no part of my purpose to
inquire if these privileges are equitable or not; it is enough
to say that they will be maintained so long as foreign nations
are strong enough to insist on their maintenance. Protec-
tion is thus given to foreigners in their daily business such
as Chinese do not enjoy; and it would be unreasonable to
expect that no foreigner would be found ready, for a con-
sideration, to lend a corner of his flag to cover the nakedness
of the poor Chinaman. Among the foreigners resident in
China there is the same proportion of good, bad, and in-
different as among the same class in the home lands, and the
malpractice is common; but while the abuse of the flag pro-
vides a decent income to many among them, it causes great
injury to the legitimatecommerce of the countries from which
they come, and disorganises the methods of administration,
right or wrong, just or unjust, of the land in which they
live. Because an American can take certain goods from
one place to another for a hundred dollars in taxes, while it
would cost a Chinese twice that sum, provides no reason good
in the eyes of the American nation, the American manu-
facturer, or the legitimate American trader, why the Chinese
should be allowed to save half his outgo by the misuse of the
American flag ; the differential taxation is a matter between
the Chinaman and his own government and is no concern
of the American nation, and yet, if an American has lent
his name to the transaction, the American Consul is bound
to intervene to protect the Chinaman's goods. This is only
one example of many in which extraterritoriality is abused
to give to Chinese a protection from their own officials to


EXTRATERRITORIALITY
211
which they could otherwise lay no claim. Instances have
been known where a foreigner with no capital—not a penny
—opened branch firms in several places and ran steamers in
his name and under his flag, but had no share in the working
of the business and was never heard of, except when it
became necessary to call a case out of the Chinese magis-
trate's yamen to the foreign Consular court. In one
instance a small steamer was transferred within a few
months first to the British, then to the French, then to the
American, then to the Italian flag, in order to keep her out
of the Chinese court to which both the claimants to her
ownership were subject; the transfers were frequent because
the case was t00 notorious to be upheld even by the lax
methods of China, but the legal machinery was there and
was used. Each Power professes to wish to stop these
abuses, but nothing can be done except by unanimous con-
sent of all the seventeen treaty Powers; one recalcitrant
Power would provide for its nationals a rich harvest from
the traffic denied to other foreigners; and it is unlikely
that anything will be done, unless the great commercial
nations take the matter in hand and decide it by themselves.
The Missionary
While the merchant may live at the treaty port, and
even within the reserved area at the port, and find his cus-
tomers come to him readily, provided the wares he offers
are wanted, the missionary must go to the people and offer
them his evangel; they will not hunt him up. To reach
their hearts, he must go into the highways and byways to
preach the gospel; and to shut him up in the treaty port is
to neutralise all the facilities for his work which have been
secured by treaty. China is no exception to the rule that
the heathen are quite content with their existing religious
state, and have no desire for a " new religion" ; and the
history of missionary work in this country is as much marked
by the martyrdom of the saints, allowance being made for


212 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the general ethical progress of the world, as ever in any
country in which the Cross has been advanced. The
Chinese government has never for long actively encouraged
the Christian propaganda. St. Francis Xavier, the proto-
missionary, was denied access to the mainland, and died in
1555 on its threshold, on the island now called St. John.
Matteo Ricci first arrived at Nanking in 1595, but secured
the right of living in the city only after four years more.
Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary, was
for some years unable even to obtain a teacher from the
bigotedly conservative literati, and finally secured the in-
struction he desired by virtue of his connection, as inter-
preter, with the East India Company, and even then by
stealth. The Russian Orthodox religion was, however,
protected from the first, for the reason that little or no
attempt has ever been made to proselytise. The treaty of
1727 provided for the maintenance in Peking of four priests
of the Orthodox Church, and of six others, students of the
language; this, be it observed, during the continuance
of the great persecution of the Roman Catholics decreed by
Yungcheng (1723-1735). The treaty of 1851 provided that
the Chinese government would interpose no obstacle to
"Russian subjects celebrating in their factories divine ser-
vice according to the ritual of their own religion " ; and the
Russian Treaty of Tientsin, 1858, granted facilities to " la
nission eccldsiastique russe."
The first reference to missionaries, otherwise than as
citizens of their respective states, in the treaties of other
Powers was in those of 1858. The British and American
were almost identical. Article XXIX. of the American
treaty being as follows:
"The principles of the Christian religion, as pro-
fessed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches,
are recognised as teaching men to do good, and to do
to others as they would have others do to them.
Hereafter, those who quietly profess and teach these
doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on ac-


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
213
count of their faith. Any persons, whether citizens
of the United States or Chinese converts, who accord-
ing to these tenets peaceably teach and practise the
principles of Christianity shall in no case be interfered
with or molested."
To the French the question was more material. That
government had for centuries been recognised as protector
of all Roman Catholic missions in the Orient, and its prin-
cipal casus belli was the murder of the missionary Auguste
Chapdelaine in Kwangsi; and Article XIII. of the French
treaty was as follows:
"La religion Chrétienne ayant pour objet essentiel
de porter les hommes à la vertu, les membres de
toutes les communions Chrétiennes jouiront d'une
entière sécurité pour leurs personnes, leurs propriétés
et le libre exercice de leurs pratiques religieuses, et une
protection efficace sera donnée aux missionnaires qui
se rendront pacifiquement dans l'intérieur du pays,
munis des passeports réguliers dont il est parlé dans
l'Article huit. Aucune entrave ne sera apportée par
les autorités de l'Empire chinois au droit qui est
reconnu à tout individu en Chine d'embrasser, s'il le
veut, le Christianisme et d'en suivre les pratiques sans
être passible d'aucune peine infligée pour ce fait.
"Tout ce qui a été précédemment écrit, proclamé ou
publié en Chine par ordre du Gouvernement contre le
culte Chrétien est complètement abrogé et reste sans
valeur dans toutes les provinces de l'Empire."
When the allied forces reached Peking and had again
to impose terms on the Chinese Government, Article VI. of
the French Convention of Peking, 1860, stipulated as
follows:
"Conformément à l'édit impérial rendu le vingt
mars mil huit cent quarante-six par l'auguste Empereur
Tao-Kouang, les établissements religieux et de bien-
faisance qui ont été confisqués aux Chrétiens pendant
Jes persécutions dont ils ont été les victimes seront


214 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
rendus a leurs proprtetaires par l'entremise du Ministre
de France en Chine, auquel le Gouvernement Imperial
les fera delivrer avec les cimetieres et les autres Edifices
qui en dependaient."
To the Chinese, but not to the French, text of this article
was added, surreptitiously as the Chinese government has
always declared, the following clause:
"And it shall be lawful for French missionaries in
any of the provinces to lease or buy land and build
houses."
As cognate to the same subject it will be well to give
here for reference the much debated wording of Article XII.
of the British treaty of 1858:
"British subjects, whether at the Ports or at other
places, desiring to build or open Houses, Warehouses,
Churches, Hospitals, or Burial-grounds, shall make
their agreement for the land or buildings they require,
at the rates prevailing among the people, equitably and
without exaction on either side."
There are two points which have been raised in connec-
tion with missionary work under the treaties—the right of
residence in the interior, and the protection to be accorded
to converts.
The right of residence in the interior depends upon the
application to a pre-existing practice of a liberal interpreta-
tion of the treaty provisions given above. When the Roman
Catholic missionaries entered on the mission field in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were no treaty
ports, and, except later at Canton, no place at which
foreigners were privileged to reside, and they spread over
the Empire wherever they found a centre suitable for their
propaganda. When the Emperor Kanghi was confronted by
the infallible decision of the Pope, contrary to his own, on
the correct rendering into Chinese of the name of the Deity,
he and his successor Yungcheng decreed the exclusion from
his dominions of this alien power, and all teachers of the
gospel were banished and their churches closed; in the


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
215
Liangkiang viceroyalty alone a hundred prosperous churches
were so closed, and even in the extreme west, in Szechwan,
there were churches not a few. Upon the resumption of a
policy of toleration the pastors returned to their flocks, and
the nineteenth century again found them in every province
of the Empire. The edict of the Emperor Taokwang in
1846 restored to the missions all the property of which
they had been deprived " during the persecutions "; and,
even without the interpolated clause, the year 1860 found
the Roman Catholic missions owning and occupying, by
right, churches and houses at important centres in all parts
of the Empire. Apart from special treaty privilege, they
have had a right of user, dating back three centuries with
interruptions, and uninterrupted, except by massacre
and arson, for over seventy years; this right was confirmed
by treaty in 1860, and upon this right, sanctioned by accept-
ance for that period and strengthened by the interpolated
clause, is based the further right to acquire new property
now secured by the later commercial treaties, the British
of 1902 and the American of 1903.
What is permitted to one nation is ipso facto granted in
China to all nations, the privileges of one Church may be
claimed by other Churches, and what is conceded to the
Roman Church becomes at once the right of the Protestant
Churches of Great Britain and America. The earlier Pro-
testant missionaries clung to the ports; but, compelled to
seek their hearers, they went into the Chinese cities and the
densely populated suburbs, away from the " areas reserved
for foreign residence," and in principle as much in " the in-
terior" as places a hundred miles away. When the foreign
Legations were established at Peking, the Protestant mis-
sionaries accompanied them, and joined the Roman Catholics
who had been there for three centuries, in what was not
then and is not now a treaty port; and in the sixties and
seventies they t00 spread over the country, wherever they
could find men to listen to their words. But besides the
prescriptive right derived through the Roman Catholic


2l6 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
missions, they claimed under Article XII. of the British
treaty, given above, by the terms of which they were per-
mitted to own property '' whether at the ports or at other
places" ; it was not intended by the negotiators on either
side that the right of residence in the interior should be
granted by these words, but, strictly interpreted, they cer-
tainly carry on the rights claimed and continued by their
Roman Catholic colleagues.
Of German missions there are both Protestant and
Catholic, though neither are numerous, but they attract
attention because of the terms of the German treaty of 1861,
of which Article X. reads as follows:
"Die Bekenner und Lehrer der christlichen
Religion sollen in China voile Sicherheit fur ihre
Personen, ihr Eigenthum und die Ausiibung ihrer
Religions-Gebrauche geniessen."
Thus to Germany, and therefore to all nations, by this
curt clause is guaranteed full security to the persons and
property of missionaries and their converts; and this brings
us to the second debated question in connection with mis-
sionaries, the degree of protection to be accorded to Chinese
subjects who have become Christians.*
The German treaty, in its brevity, seems to remove the
convert from the jurisdiction of his own laws and to extra-
territorialise him; but is it for a moment to be supposed
that this was the intention of the negotiators, even on the
German side? The convert remains a Chinese subject, and
is under the jurisdiction of his own laws and entitled to such
justice as they will give him, as much after his conversion
as before, subject only to the proviso that he shall not be
persecuted because of his faith; and in this respect the
same right of user cannot be claimed as in the case of mission
property and residence in the interior, since the Chinese
government has always, even in the time of its greatest
weakness, resisted the idea that its subjects could change
their status. With the reservation of the case of persecu-
* See Appendix C.


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
217
tion, most missionaries, certainly most Protestant mission-
aries, generally accept this position; but they cannot
always be trusted to temper zeal with discretion and to
distinguish what is right from what is lawful. In this lies
an element of danger to the missionary and to his cause.
Not only in the treaty ports, the sole authorised places for
foreign trade, is the Westerner covered by his extraterri-
torialised position, but in every corner of this vast Empire
in which he may put his f00t. When the missionary far in
the interior, many miles from the observing eyes of his
Consul, transfers a corner of his protecting cloak to his p00r
Chinese convert, he may be doing what is right, but it is
not lawful; and this is the naked fact underlying many an
episode leading to a riot. You cannot eradicate from a
missionary's mind the belief that a convert is entitled to
justice of a quality superior to that doled out to his un-
converted brother: it could not be got out of your mind, or
out of mine, in a similar case. None of us could endure that
a protegé of ours should be haled away to a filthy prison for
a debt he did not owe, and kept there until he had satisfied,
not perhaps the fictitious creditor, but at least his custodians
who were responsible for his safe keeping. The case is
particularly hard when the claim is not for a debt, but for
a contribution to the upkeep of the village temple—the
throne of heathendom—or of the recurring friendly village
feasts held in connection with the temple—counterparts of
Fast Day and Thanksgiving; and when conversion drives
its subject to break off all his family ties by refusing to con-
tribute to the maintenance of family ancestral worship and
the ancestral shrine, the hardship is felt on all sides—by
the missionary, who cannot decline to support his weaker
brother in his struggle against the snares of the devil; by the
convert, who is divided between his allegiance to his new
faith and the old beliefs which made all that was holy in his
former life; by the family, who not only regard their re-
creant member as an apostate but are also compelled to main-
tain the old worship with reduced assessments from reduced


2l8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
numbers; and by the people and governors of the land, who
inay find in such a situation a spark to initiate a great con-
flagration. No missionary, none of ourselves, could refuse
his support in such a case; and yet few missionaries con-
sider that the support should be given: almost to a man
they think that they must regard, in such matters, what is
lawful and not necessarily what is right; and almost to a
man it is always " the other fellow " who does these things.
With all this self-abnegation, direct interference and direct
representations to the judges of the land, in cases of "re-
ligious persecution," in suits for debt, in land suits, and even
in criminal cases, are only too common; and in some parts of
the country, notably in Chekiang, Catholic and Protestant
converts frequently engage in clan fights, while the mis-
sionaries on either side charge those on the other with
fomenting the trouble and with enlisting the aid of the
officials to support their side.* The strength of a chain is
that of its weakest link, and the rights of the missionary in
the interior may some day have to be tested, not by the con-
duct of the decent majority, but by that of an aggressive
minority bent, for one reason or another, on extending their
own extraordinary rights to Chinese converts, who other-
wise must share such justice as is meted out to their fellow-
subjects.
There are, however, two sides to this question. There
are numerous cases, susceptible of proof to the man on the
spot but of which it would be difficult to carry conviction
to the minds of those at a distance, where the missionary
undoubtedly intervenes to make capital for his mission, and
to secure for his followers some tangible advantage from
their acceptance of his propaganda. At the other extremity
there is the manifest tendency, clearly recognised by all,
even the most impartial, but quite incapable of legal demon-
stration, for the judges of the land, in cases where the right
is not obviously on one side or the other, to decide ex motu
suo against the convert; ostensibly such decisions are given
• See Appendix D.


EXTRA TERRITORIALITY
219
on as g00d legal grounds as any case in China is ever de-
cided, but practically the underlying reason is the convert's
religion—not the judge's antipathy to the religion itself, but
his ingrained feeling that the convert has become less Chinese
than the non-convert, that he has received that foreign taint
which, in 1900, sent missionary and convert alike to one
common sacrifice on the altar of nationalism. When cases
fall under one or other of these extremes, and either the
pr00f is forthcoming or the decision has to be taken by one
capable of feeling where lies the right and where the wrong,
there can be no question on the course to be followed. The
great majority of cases, however, are such as to be insus-
ceptible of pr00f, or fall into the wide field between these
two extremes; and in them the missionary must be held
bound to exercise the greatest discrimination, in the in-
terests of his mission work, of his own national government,
and, not least, of his converts themselves.
Mixed Courts
The law applicable to Mixed Courts in China at the
present day is that prescribed by the Chef00 Convention of
1876 with Great Britain, and in Article IV. of the American
treaty of 1880, given above, but they merely regularised
what had been the practice since foreign nations undertook
the task of enforcing justice on and for their nationals.
There is not anywhere a special tribunal, as in Egypt, for
the trial of all mixed cases; but the court is, in each in-
stance, a court of the defendant's nationality, giving its
decision under the supervision of a competent representa-.
tive of the plaintiff's nationality. This is the theory. In
practice the Chinese have seldom sent representatives to
sit on the bench in the foreign courts, since it has generally
been recognised that the judgments rendered there are based
on the law and the evidence; on the other hand, the foreign
Powers have never felt the same confidence in Chinese de-
cisions, and no suit is brought in China by a foreign plaintiff


220 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
against a Chinese defendant and left to the sole decision of
the Chinese judge, without the presence of an assessor of
the plaintiff's nationality or acceptable to him.
In a " concession," such as those at Tientsin, Hankow,
or Canton, this Chinese court for mixed cases sits at the
Consulate of the lessee Power, and the assessor is invariably
the Consul of that Power or his representative, irrespective
of the actual nationality of the plaintiff. To allow any
other assessor would admit an impertum in imperio, sub-
sidiary to the foreign imperium already interjected into the
Chinese imperium; besides, as Chinese, other than employés
of the foreign residents, are not permitted to live on the
"concession" of the old type, the cases appearing before
such a court are generally only police cases, and defendants
in civil suits must ordinarily be sought on Chinese soil.
Shanghai has a problem all its own. There, living
within common municipal limits, and those the limits of the
"area reserved for foreign residence and trade," are (in 1905)
12,328 treaty-power foreigners, and 535,500 Chinese, in
addition to somewhat over 100,000 Chinese living in the city
or its suburbs under purely Chinese jurisdiction; and legal
action against one of the half-million Chinese is taken before
the nineteenth of the courts of competent jurisdiction ex-
isting in Shanghai. This Mixed Court is presided over by
an official with the rank of Deputy Prefect (the present in-
cumbent has lately received the substantive rank of Prefect),
with two Assistant Magistrates to relieve him. The foreign
assessors are an essential part of this court, and are supplied
in rotation by the American, British, and German Consulates;
when a person of other nationality than that of the sitting
assessor appears as plaintiff or is interested in a police case,
the case is remanded until an assessor of his own nationality
ean sit, either (if one of the three) in due rotation, or (if of
another Power) until an assessor can be supplied from his
own Consulate.
In criminal cases, in which by Chinese law the death
penalty is, or might be, inflicted—such as homicide, rebellion,


EXTRA TERRITORIA LIT Y
221
counterfeiting, rape, etc.—the proceedings take the form of
a demand for extradition; and, upon a prima facie case
being made out, the defendant is remitted to the custody
and judgment of the Shanghai city magistrate (Hsien), who,
though of nominally lower rank than the President of the
Mixed Court, is yet an Imperial representative, qualified to
administer the criminal law of China. In criminal cases of
lesser magnitude the judgment is rendered by the President
of the Court, but subject to the approval of the foreign
assessor sitting with him. This course is followed also in
police cases for contravention of municipal regulations; but
as it is not required that these regulations should have the
prior approval of the Chinese authorities, and as Occidental
and Oriental ideas are not always in harmony in such
matters as sanitation, nuisances, control of traffic, incidence
of license fees, etc., there is here an opening for a judicial
review of alien legislation which is not always lost, and it
happens occasionally that the opinions of the judge and the
assessor do not agree.
Civil cases in China are commonly settled by gild
action, and are seldom brought before the official tribunals,
but the relative uniformity of justice secured by foreign
supervision has caused a greater resort to the Shanghai
Mixed Court. When the plaintiff is a foreigner, the ordinary
course is followed, and the approval of the assessor is held
necessary to the judgment of the court. Not infrequently
it happens that a case with plaintiff and defendant both
Chinese becomes a mixed case by the interjection of a
foreigner into the plaintiff's claim; the Chinese authorities
have always tried to distinguish these pseudo-claims, but
it is generally held that on them lies the onus of pr00f of
non-interest, not an easy thing to prove. These cases then
generally follow the usual course, unless it can be definitely
proved that the foreign interest was introduced at the
eleventh hour in order to divert the course of justice.
Suits which are admittedly between Chinese on both
sides are a bone of contention. One side maintains that,


222 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
being purely Chinese, they are no concern of the foreign
Powers, and are therefore not subject to the decision of the
foreign assessor; the other side holds that every judicial
question arising within the " area reserved for foreign resi-
dence and trade'' concerns the foreign Powers, and that the
foreign assessor of the day is bound to exercise an oversight.
On both sides it is felt, but not generally admitted, that
there is some reason in the contention of the other; and the
assessor is generally passive unless there are evidences of
extortion and flagrant injustice, while the magistrate gene-
rally puts himself into agreement with the assessor when a
municipal regulation comes into the case, neither being too
desirous of crystallising the differences and precipitating a
conflict. Occasionally, however, when the incompatibility
of view cannot be compromised, a sharply defined issue is
made.*
The Chinese official view is unimpeachable; appeal is
made to the letter of the treaty stipulations granting to
foreign Powers the right of oversight in cases in which
a foreign interest is involved, and only in those cases. The
foreign official view is equally unimpeachable. When in
the years 1853-1864 the Taiping rebels devastated the
country for hundreds of miles around Shanghai, many
thousands of refugees found there under the foreign flags
the protection to life denied them under their own flag.
In the ten years which elapsed before the restoration of
order these thousands were sheltered within the area reserved
for foreign residence, from which it would have been in-
human barbarity to expel them; and while there police
and sanitary measures were necessarily adopted to protect
the foreign residents from them, and them from each other.
The impetus thus given, Chinese continued to flock to the
foreign settlement of Shanghai, within the limits of which
there are to-day over half a million. There has thus grown
up a foreign interest in real estate valued at over two
hundred million taels, and a foreign interest in the main-
* See Appendix E.


EXTRATERRITORIALITY 223
tenance of order and the administration of justice among
the half-million Chinese living under the same jurisdiction
as the foreign residents; and the foreign official view is
that foreign supervision is necessary over foreign and
Chinese residents alike in the interest of foreigners; and,
further, that two independent police and justiciary ad-
ministrations cannot be allowed to function within the same
area, and that, if there is to be one administration, it shall
be the foreign.
To the ordinary functions of a Consul, the foreign repre-
sentative in China adds those of judge, diplomatic agent,
civil authority in control of the military, and has a potent
voice in municipal administration. The foreign merchant
is entirely removed from the jurisdiction of the laws of
China, and is entitled to the protection—for life, liberty, and
property—of his own national laws. The foreign missionary
carries the protection of his own flag to the remotest corner
of the Empire. All this arises from extraterritoriality.
This remedy for the intolerable situation of the first half
of the nineteenth century has now been in force for seventy
years, and through it life in China has been rendered possible
for all foreigners; without it, during those seventy years
the contention of the Chinese government that none of the
outer barbarians should abide on the sacred soil of the
Middle Kingdom would have worked its own accomplish-
ment. It is based on force, as was the first occupation of
Massachusetts Bay and the progress of the Union from
the Atlantic westward to the Pacific, or as was the settle-
ment of New Zealand and of Canada; and on manifest
destiny so long as its beneficiaries can compel destiny. It
has no logical or moral argument to uphold it; and yet it
is a necessity of the case, if the foreign merchant and the
foreign missionary are to remain in the country; and so long
as their stay there is legitimate, so long will extraterritori-
ality provide them with a buckler in following their lawful
occupations. The right will not, and cannot, be abrogated
until all the foreign Powers concerned are unanimous in
1


224 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
their opinion that residence in China will be as safe, and
protected by guarantees as sound, as in other countries;
or until the growing strength and improved administration
of China herself enable her to claim and to maintain the
right of governing all within her borders.


CHAPTER VIII
THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS
China Proper is divided into eighteen provinces, and to
distinguish it from the rest of the Empire this part is
commonly, and even officially, referred to by the Chinese
as "The Eighteen Provinces." The events of the last
few years, since 1894, have brought into commercial and
political prominence the region which we call collectively
Manchuria, divided for administrative purposes into three
provinces; these are called by the Chinese '' The Three
Eastern Provinces," lying east of the eastern end of the Great
Wall, where it comes to the sea at Shanhaikwan, built to
protect the Eighteen Provinces forever from invading hordes
from the north, whether Mongol or Manchu. The estimated
area of the Empire, based not on any cadastral survey but
on the simple process of multiplying degrees of longitude
by degrees of latitude, may be put as follows:
China Proper 1,535,000 Eng. sq. miles
Manchuria .. .. .. 365,000 „ „
Mongolia, Tibet, Turkestan, etc. 2,400,000 „ „
Total .. .. 4,300,000 „ „
The population is variously estimated from 270,000,000
(Hippisley 1876, and Rockhill 1904) to 421,800,000 (Popoff
1894); Parker's estimate * of 385,000,000 is probably the
safest to follow. For China " outside the Wall" the safest
estimates are 16,000,000 for Manchuria and 10,000,000 for
* "China: Fast and Present " (1903).
15 225


226 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Mongolia, Tibet, etc., making, with Parker's estimate for
China Proper, a total of 411,000,000. An official census
taken in 1910 gives a total of 311,374,000 for China Proper,
14,917,000 for Manchuria, which, with 10,000,000 added for
the dependencies, gives a total of 336,291,000.
The Eighteen Provinces extend roughly from latitude
200 to 400 N. and from longitude 980 to 1220 E., comprising
the seventh and eighth hours of Zone time east of Greenwich.
The western part is mountainous, filled with the spurs of
the Central Asian plateau; while on the east are the great
plains formed by the outfall of the Yellow River and the
Yangtze; and in the south is the small, but incredibly rich,
plain of the Pearl (or West River) delta, lying around
Canton. Of the nineteen provinces (treating Manchuria
as an undivided area), treaty ports have been opened in
fourteen—coast, riverine, and frontier—while five (Shansi,
Shensi, Kansu, Honan, and Kweichow) find their outlet
through extra-provincial ports.
Treaty Ports
Treaty port is almost synonymous wtth " port of entry,"
but it is something more. The first men of the West,
Portuguese, Dutch, English, or American, to come to China
conducted their trade mainly at Canton. The Portuguese
in their enterprising days had traded at Ningpo and Foochow
as well, but under such circumstances that in 1557 they
obtained a lease of Macao, 88 miles from Canton, and there
they settled—and stagnated. In the eighteenth century
the traders of that day, the English and Dutch, visited both
Canton and Macao; but the traders of the early part of
the nineteenth century, the English and Americans, made
Canton their commercial centre. Here, cooped up in their
factory, or trading post, they had the privilege of residing,
and here they bought and sold—much of the former and
little of the latter. The conditions, both of residence and of
trade, were unsatisfactory, and the British Treaty of Nan-


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 22J
king (1842) opened the first " treaty ports," five in number:
Canton, Amoy, F00chow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. These five
ports have now grown to over forty, including some that have
been opened voluntarily by China, not under the obligation
of any treaty, but on the same f00ting and under the same
trade regulations as the regular treaty ports. At these
ports foreign nations are privileged to establish Consulates,
foreign merchants are permitted to live and trade, and on
the trade at these ports are levied dues and duties according
to a tariff settled by both parties by treaty. At some ports
are national concessions, as at Tientsin, on which municipal
and police administration is under the control of the Consul
of the lessee Power; at others are settlements or "reserved
areas for residence," as at Shanghai, with municipal organi-
sation, but at which the Power which issues the title-deeds is
China; at others, including most of the newer ports, there
is neither concession nor reserved area, excepting " Inter-
national Settlements'' established at a few places by the
Chinese authorities. At all the treaty ports, however, there
is one common right, the privilege of exempting g00ds by
one payment from all further taxation on movement. On
a bale of sheetings imported at Shanghai, a treaty port,
the importer will pay once duty at the tariff rate; it may
then, perhaps a year later, be shipped to Hankow, a treaty
port, without further payment; it may then be shipped to
Ichang, a treaty port, without further payment; it may
then be shipped to Chungking, having the privileges of a
treaty port, without further payment; but if it then goes
on fifty miles farther, or if, instead of taking the journey
of 1,400 miles in three stages to Chungking, it goes " inland"
to a place which is not a treaty port thirty miles from
Shanghai, the bale is liable to the taxation which is levied
in China on all movement of commodities not exempted by
special privilege. A treaty port may be miles away from
the nearest navigable water, it may be the most inland of
inland marts, but in matters of taxation and of privilege
a broad distinction is drawn between these forty ports


228 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and all the rest of China, which, even on the coast, is " in-
land/' This is the one reason underlying the constant
demand for the opening of new treaty ports, with all the
expense for administrative and preventive work imposed
on China, and for the enforcement of extraterritorial rights
imposed on the foreign Powers.
Manchuria
Of the three eastern provinces, two, Heilungkiang
and Kirin, may be dismissed with few words. The chief
interest in them attaches to the Amur (or Heilungkiang,
Black Dragon River) and the Sungari and their degree
of navigability, and to the great wheat production of Kirin
and the flouring mills established by the Russians at Harbin.
This town is important as the junction between the rail-
way north from Port Arthur, Talien (Dairen or Dalny),
Newchwang and Moukden, and the Russian main line from
Irkutsk and Lake Baikal to Vladivostock. The southern
province, Shengking, is the most important, and contains,
probably, nine-tenths of the total population of Manchuria;
of this population it is estimated that less than a fourth, and
possibly not more than a tenth, consists of the original stock
of the conquering Manchus, the great majority being immi-
grants from Shantung and Chihli, and their descendants.
The western part of this province is made up of the plain
of the Liao and the valleys of its tributaries, and grows
wheat and durra for f00d, and beans from which are made
an esculent and illuminating oil, and bean-cake shipped to
restore exhausted fertility to the fields of Japan and of
Kwangtung. The eastern part is mountainous and hostile
to the husbandman and the soldier, and its principal pro-
ducts of value are opium and silk. The latter product China
supplies from as far south as latitude 22° N., in its highest
excellence from latitude 300 N., and, in the shape of " wild"
silk or tussore from worms feeding on the oak, from beyond
latitude 400 N. In minerals Manchuria is sufficiently rich
to call for development, gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, and


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 229
coal being known to exist. In the province of Shengking
are three treaty ports, and in addition there is the territory
of Port Arthur and Dalny (Talien in Chinese, Dairen in
Japanese), granted in 1898 to Russia on a lease, which was
subsequently, in 1905, transferred to Japan. In Heilung-
kiang and Kirin are seven ports.
Newchwang. (400 41' N., 1220 16' E.) This port,
situated 13 miles above the mouth of the Liao, was opened
officially in 1861, but actually in 1864, at Yingtze or Ying-
kow, 30 miles below the unimportant city of Newchwang.
Recently the port has been distinguished as Yingkow, but
Newchwang is and has been the name officially given to
the Treaty Port, the Custom House, and the Post Office.
A British concession was laid out, and through the long years
of waiting for trade the little clump of buildings on this—
dingy, dirty, and dusty—sufficed for all the requirements of
the port. Now there are, on the left bank, the remains, not
yet eroded out of existence, of the old British concession,
and a new Russian concession, with 6,000 feet frontage, at
the terminus of the branch line connecting the port with the
main line of railway at Tashihkiao, which presumably goes
with the railway to the Japanese; and, on the right bank,
a new British concession with 3,000 feet frontage and a
Japanese concession with 3,000 feet frontage, have been
staked out, but not yet agreed to by China, and, next down
stream, the "Imperial Chinese Railway Reserve," with
13,000 feet frontage. The Chinese population at the port is
estimated at 75,000, and on December 31st, 1905, there were
within the district 291 resident civilian foreigners, of European
and American nationality, and 7,408 Japanese reported by
the Consulate. The slow development of trade at New-
chwang will be judged from the following figures, which in
this case, as in the case of all the other ports to be described,
show the value of the traffic in " foreign-type vessels" (i.e.
nowadays mainly steamers) under the cognisance of the
Imperial Maritime Customs, and do not include the junk
traffic under the cognisance of the Native Customs,


230 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.»
1864
709.738
1,710,398
2,420,136
1874
2,433.135
1,753,543
4,186,678
1884
3,690,410
4,123,084
7.813,494
1894
7,886,161
8,532,443
16,418,604
1904
29.358,392
12,159,486
41,517,878
1911
31,359-794
26,722,737
58,082,531
1918 (war)
20,437,165
9.55o,996
29,988,161
During 1904 the junk trade amounted, in addition, to
Tls.6,365,261 for imports, and Tls.4,313,861 for exports, a
total of Tls.10,679,122. This gives a total of Tls.52^97,000
as the value in 1904 of the water-borne trade of the
district, of which Newchwang has been until 1906 the sole
official and legal port of entry, and does not include any
trade which may have been carried by rail across the land
frontier or through Dalny. Among imports the principal
items are cotton woven fabrics (value in 1904 Tls. 10,050,000
for foreiga, and Tls.7,815,000 for native weaving), cot-
ton yarn (value Tls.3,946,000), hemp and gunny bags
(Tls.315,400), cigarettes (Tls.428,8g0), flour (Tls.837,000,
supplies from Harbin being shut off), matches (Tls.428,500),
paper (Tls.1,705,o00), kerosene oil (Tls.1,087,000), sugar
(Tls.1,497,000), rice (Tls.962,000), and wheat (Tls.603.000).
Of products of the district finding their outlet at New-
chwang the principal are beans (value in 1904 Tls.6,577,000),
bean-cake (Tls.4,589,000), bean-oil (Tls.2,133,000), silk
(Tls.2,005,000), and such opium as was declared for assess-
ment of duty (Tls.289,000).
Moukden (410 51' N., 1230 26' E.) is the Manchu name
of what in Chinese is known as Shengking (the Sacred
Capital), and administratively was from a.d. 1625 called
Shenyang, and is now officially termed Fengtien. The old
capital of the Manchus before they marched to the conquest
* The tael (Tls.) of silver had an exchange value of 6s. 8d. in 1864.
of 6s. 4<i. in 1874, of 5s. yd. in 1884, of 3s. 2d. in 1894, of 2s. lod. in
1904, of 2s. 8±d. in »gn.andof 5s. 3ji. in 1918 (under war conditions).


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 2$X
of China and migrated to Peking, it still * remains a sleeping
capital, with a complete equipment of Ministries, duly
provided with Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Secretaries;
whose most important functions have for two-and-a-half
centuries been those connected with pay-day. The practi-
cal administration is in the hands of a Governor-General,
who is at the same time Military Governor (Tsiang-kiin,
Tartar General), and of a Civil Governor, who is assimilated
to the Governors of the Eighteen Provinces. Situated at a
distance of one hundred miles from Newchwang, in the heart
of the plain of the Liao valley, it is admirably placed to
serve as a distributing centre. It is connected by rail with
Dairen and Newchwang, and, when the line from Sinmingfu
is extended, will also find direct outlets at Chinwangtao and
Tientsin. Outlets may also be found through Vladivostock
and Irkutsk. The population is estimated at 250,000.
Antung (400 8' N., 1240 14' E.) and Tatungkow, 23
miles below, at the mouth of the Yalu River, which separates
Manchuria from Korea, were opened as treaty ports in
March 1907, and tap the wealth of timber standing on the
mountains flanking the river, providing also an outlet'
for the silk of eastern Shengking, which formerly went
by junk to Chcf00 and Dairen. Antung is a station on the
line of railway connecting Korea with Manchuria. In 1911
the trade of the two ports was valued at Tls.5,662,412 for
imports, Tls.4,810,194 for exports, total Tls.10,472,606.
In 1918, under war conditions, the net combined trade was
valued at Tls.24,545,679 for imports, Tls.15,684,124 for
exports, total Tls.40,229,803.
Harbin, the junction of the railways from Irkutsk to
Vladivostock, and from Harbin to Kwanchengtze, where it
joins the Japanese line to Dairen, has been made the seat
of a Custom House to control the railway traffic. In 1911
the trade passing through the offices at Harbin and the
other points in Heilungkiang and Kirin at which offices
have been opened (Aigun, Sansing, Manchuli, Suifenho,
* In 1906.


232 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Hunchun, and Lungchingtsun) was valued at Tls. 18,395,860
for imports, Tls. 27,190,536 for exports, a total of Tls.
45,586,396. In 1918, under war conditions, the corre-
sponding figures were: Tls.17,303,501 for imports, Tls.
13,857,929 for exports, total Tls.31,161,430, an indication
of the disorganised state of the trade with Russian
territory.
Dairen has been under the control of Japan since 1905,
and a Chinese Custom House controls its trade under regula-
tions similar to those in force at Tsingtau (q.v.). In 1911
the value of the trade passing through this office was
Tls.28,331,120 for imports, Tls.33,730,976 for exports, a
total of Tls.62,062,096. In 1918 the trade passing through
Dairen was valued at Tls.79,811,474 for imports, Tls.
86,012,733 for exports, a total of Tls.165,824,207. The
figures for Dairen and Antung together, contrasted with
those for Newchwang, indicate the strong hold, further
strengthened by war conditions, which Japan has taken on
the trade of Manchuria.
Chihli
The metropolitan province of Chihli, with an estimated
area of 115,000 square miles, and a population* of which the
estimates range from 21,000,000 to 29,000,000, may be
roughly divided into a northern half, mountainous and
thinly peopled, lying mainly outside the Great Wall, and
a southern part, densely populated, of flat alluvial plain,
robbed in the course of ages from the waters of the Gulf
of Pechihli by the detritus carried down by the Yellow
River, and the loess borne on the winds. The hill country
contains much mineral wealth, of which the bituminous
coal mined at Tongshan and the anthracite of the hills west
of Peking are conspicuous examples. The plain is a vast
hive of human industry on which, as everywhere on the
plains of China, man is pitted against the forces of nature,
* Census of 1910 gives 32,571,000,


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 233
and, with no other appliances than those possessed by their
remote ancestors, the men of the hive win out. This is a
part of the country running from Tientsin to Chinkiang
through seven degrees of latitude, and traversed by the
various courses followed during the centuries by the erratic
Yellow River, where man is at a peculiar disadvantage from
the friable nature of the soil, the aggressive character of
the water when in fl00d, and the fact that at such times
the level of the waters is higher than that of the land.
One grand scheme of reclamation is recorded in the time
of Yung-cheng, a.d. 1723-1735, when 120,000 acres of marsh
were converted into g00d arable land, and the canals,
weirs, and bridges by which this work was carried out can
be shown to-day after 175 years; but in recent times little
has been done on any extensive scale. The products of
Chihli are those of the farm and farm-yard, the usual crops
being millet, durra, and wheat. The treaty ports opened
in the province are two in number, Tientsin and Chinwang-
tao; but the exceptional position of Peking calls for a
description of that city.
Peking (390 54' N., 1160 27' E.). The capital of the
Empire was first established at Peking (the Northern Capital)
by Kublai Khan, when he initiated the Yuan Dynasty,
A.D. 1260; the first Ming Emperor, a.d. 1368, established
himself at Nanking (the Southern Capital), but the third
of that line transferred the capital in 1421 to Peking, which
has remained the seat of government continuously since
then. Peking is a quite unofficial and quasi-foreign designa-
tion, the Imperial name being King-shih (The Capital) and
its name, as a unit of the provincial administration, being
Shuntien. In the same way it may be observed that the
Empire has no name; it is designated as " The Empire"
or " (All within) The Four Seas," or '* (All beneath) The
Canopy of Heaven," or, quite unofficially, "The Middle
Kingdom "; it is true that the Republic has adopted the
name Chung-hwa, "Middle Flowery," but the name
"China" is an old Buddhist name which has dropped out


234 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of use in the country which is designated by it, and is to-day,
of all the countries using the Chinese ideograms, employed
only by the Japanese. Peking is a camp, with the head-
quarters of the commander-in-chief in the middle, and the
army encamped around; then to the south, outside the walls
but protected by their own walls, are the camp sutlers—
the Chinese traders purveying to the Manchu garrison. The
Chinese estimate of the population is 1,300,000. Con-
sidered commercially, Pekin is a mouth, fed by the pro-
vinces, and having no industrial output; and yet the foreign
purveyors and hotel-keepers who have gathered around the
Legations have found it to their advantage to act as if the
city had the status of a treaty port—not one with the duty-
exemption privilege, but a place in which they are permitted
to reside, to buy and sell, and to act as general traders.
Against this assumption the Chinese government has re-
peatedly protested.
Tientsin (390 9' N., 117011' E.), " The Ford of Heaven,"
is situated at the junction of the Grand Canal, which, start-
ing from Hangchow, finds here the end of its long course,
of the Peiho (North River) leading north to Peking, and
of the Haiho (Sea River) emptying into the Gulf of Pechihli.
The city is distant from the sea 35 miles by road, but 56
miles by the original corkscrew windings of the river, a
distance since reduced to 40 miles by the work of the Haiho
Conservancy, and in time to be reduced to 36J miles. Even
after all the improvement that has been effected, there are
few cities in the world of equal commercial importance or
supplying so rich a hinterland, which have such poor shipping
facilities. A bar on which certain conditions of wind and
tide will reduce the high-water depth to three or four feet,
a channel in which the summer floods will cause the mud
bottom to rise faster than the water surface, a river of
many bends and restricted width, all combine to impose
a limit on the carrying capacity of steamers entering the
port. The eternal struggle of the enterprising merchants,
foreign and native alike, of Tientsin can only be compared


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 23$
to the fight of the farmers of the province against the
forces of nature, both having the same problem to solve.
Tientsin is, with a few insignificant exceptions, the one
official city of the Empire, of the rank of district city, which
is to-day without the protection of walls. It was in the
reign of Yung-lo (a.d. 1403-1425) that it was permitted
the privilege of walls; these endured until the rule of the
foreign Provisional Government which followed on the
Boxer movement of 1900, when the walls were razed and
the official city was left naked to the winds. Apart from
the humiliation, the loss was a gain; the walls afforded
no protection to the wealthy commercial quarter, which,
as is invariably the case in China, was in the suburb lying
between the city and the river, and they have been well
replaced by the broad avenues made on their site and
providing thoroughfares unknown to other Chinese cities.
Tientsin is rich in " concessions" for residence and foreign
trade, having no less than thirteen—viz. British (1860),
British Extension (1897), British Extra-mural Extension
(1900), French (1861), French Extension (1900), American
(granted in 1861, but at once abandoned and in 1902 added
to the British Concession), German (1895), German Ex-
tension (1901), Japanese (1896), Japanese Extension (1900),
Austro-Hungarian (1902), Italian (1901), Russian (1900), and
Belgian (1902). The last four and the various extensions,
except the British, date from 1900 and later. The original
concession, the British, dating from 1860, is held under a
lease in perpetuity to the British government, a small
ground-rent being reserved to show the ultimate sovereignty
of China. The area was divided into lots, the leases of
which were sold to provide for roads and bunding, and
which are held under a ninety-nine years' lease granted by
the British government, the annual rental being the due
proportion of the reserved ground-rent. The Consul is
ex officio the ruling functionary; all actions of the Municipal
Council, elected by vote of the "land-renters," being
submitted for his approval, and the annual " town meet-


236 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
ing '' or any special meeting being held under his presidency.
The residence of Chinese on the concession being prohibited,
otherwise than as servants of the foreign residents, the
Consul has jurisdiction over all questions of landed property,
and over all other questions in which a non-British European
is not defendant. The Consul, as representative of his
government, is de jure ruler of the concession; but, in
conformity with English practice, he actively intervenes
only in a crisis, and ordinarily the duly-elected Municipal
Councillors are de facto rulers of a self-constituted little
republic. In the other concessions nomination, and not
selection, decides the choice of Councillors. For the French
concession the Municipal Council consists of the Consul as
ex officio President, the six land-owners paying the highest
taxes, and the three tenants paying the highest rent. Ger-
many in 1897 contracted with a commercial syndicate to
develop and administer her concession; and in 1905 the
Reichstag passed an enabling Act to allow self-government
when desired. On the Japanese, Russian, Belgian, and
Italian concessions the Consul is sole administrator. On
the Austro-Hungarian concession there is little if any
Austrian or Hungarian interest, the land-owners and
inhabitants being Chinese; and here the power is vested
in an Administrative Secretary, nominated by the Consul,
and in six of the leading Chinese residents, also nominated.
Of the extensions, the French, German, and Japanese are
merely extensions of the original concessions, held in the
same way under lease in perpetuity to the foreign Power.
In the British Extension, which was the first, a different
principle was followed. The soil remains Chinese, and
title-deeds are sealed and issued by the Chinese authorities
as at Shanghai, and as at Shanghai it is only administrative
functions—taxing, works, and police—which are delegated
by the sovereign power. The Municipal Council, in its
corporate capacity, and the " land-renters" of the British
Concession own a considerable portion of the land in its
extension, and the Municipal Council of the extension is


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 237
composed of the members elected to the Municipal Council
of the concession, ex officio, and four others elected ad hoc;
this makes it possible, while having separate budgets, to
carry on the administrative work of the two areas with a
staff common to both. In 1918 it was decided to abolish
the two forms of government in the British territory, and
to amalgamate all three areas into one British Concession,
as had been originally done with the French, German and
Japanese. In the foreign residential section of Tientsin,
with a total area of 3,550 acres, of which 28 per cent. is in
the Russian Concession, we have thus six distinct forms of
government under eight European Powers. At Tientsin
and in its consular district live (December 31, 1905) a total
of 3,77o civilian foreigners, including 679 British, 387
American, 465 German, 244 French, 115 Russian, 60 Austro-
Hungarian, 100 Belgian, 34 Italian, 1,538 Japanese, and
148 others. Formerly the population of the city and its
suburbs was estimated at a million, but, with all its develop-
ment, recent and more careful estimates put it at 750,000.
The development of trade is shown by the following figures
of the value of merchandise (not including treasure) carried
in foreign bottoms:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
7,645,422
1,730,786
9,376,208
1874
17,682,684
1,144,893
18,827,577
1884
20,328,981
3,610,076
23.939.057
1894
.. 37,412,806
6,864,248
44,277,054
1904
. . 54.059.315
14,895,375
68,954,694
1905
.. 81,826,313
14,739.359
96.565.672
1911
.. 77,241,699
39,294,949
116,536,648
1918
.. 101,958,588
51,180,055
153.138,643
In addition, during 1905, produce to a value of Tls.8,018,223
was exported by junk. Among imports the. principal items
are cotton woven fabrics (value in 1905 Tls.21,314,000 for


238 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
foreign, and Tls.440,000 for native weavings), cotton yarn
(Tls.6,514,570 for foreign, and Tls.574,100 for native spin-
nings), copper (Hs.3,119,000 for foreign, and Tls.460,840
for Chinese), cigarettes (Us. 1,287,000), tobacco (Tls.422,600),
kerosene oil (Tls.2,268,600), railway plant and machinery
in general (Tls.3,995,000), sugar (Tls.3,286,000), timber
(Tls.1,445,000), paper (Tls.2,290,000), rice (Tls. 10,592,000),
silks (Tls. 1,840,000), tea (for local consumption Tls. 1,132,000,
for transit to Russia by land Tls.2,861,600). The principal
among the articles of export were bristles (Tls.831,713),
spirits (Tls.666,500), skins and furs (Tls.5,210,000), straw-
braid (Tls.858,600), and wool of camel, goat, and sheep
(Tls.3,326,400).
Chinwangtao (390 55' N, 1190 38' E.) is a compara-
tively ice-free port on a frozen coast, affording an outlet
when Tientsin (December to February) and Newchwang
(November to March) are frozen up. Originally opened
as a coal-shipping port for the output of the Kaiping mines,
and utilised as a winter landing for passengers and mails,
it proved of great value in enabling the foreign garrisons at
Peking and Tientsin to maintain communication with the
outer world during the winter 1900-1901; and when the
military forces were withdrawn to Tientsin, a Chinese Cus-
tom House was established there in 1902. The trade of
the port developed at once, and in 1905 amounted to
Tls.18,817,120 for imports, and Tls.3,033,959 for exports,
a total of Tls.21,851,079, but in 1911 had fallen to Tls.
6,130,449 for imports, and Tls.3,372,308 for exports, a total
of Tls.9,502,757, the greater part of which should be
added to the trade of Tientsin, of which Chinwangtao
is the " winter jetty." Of its special export, coal, 168,576
tons were shipped in 1905, in addition to 25,183 tons shipped
from Tientsin. On the opposite side of the bay is the seaside
resort of Peitaiho, frequented during the summer by resi-
dents of Peking, Tientsin, and Shanghai, and by missionaries
from the interior of North China.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 239
Shantung
Shantung, the " Mountains of the East," the home of
Confucius, has an area estimated at 56,000 square miles and
a population * estimated at 37,000,000. It is divided sharply
into two halves, the mountainous country to the east and
the plain to the west. The eastern part, with a width of 80
miles at the base and 30 miles at the tip, projects boldly
for a length of 150 miles into the sea, separating the waters
of the Yellow Sea to the south from the Gulf of Pechihli
to the north, and is rich in minerals, notably coal, iron, and
gold. The western part is a portion of the plain formed by
China's Sorrow, the Yellow River. This river has changed
its course many times, finding its outlet into the sea at
several places within a range of eight degrees of latitude;
prior to the sixth century before Christ, it formed a delta
with its northern mouth at Tientsin, latitude 390 N., and its
southern mouth near the present outlet, latitude 380 N. ; from
the seventh century a.d. it emptied by one mouth about
latitude 380 30' N.; toward the end of the twelfth century it
plunged south-east from a point midwaybetween Kaifeng and
Tsinan, and emptied into the Yellow Sea south of Shantung,
at about latitude 340 N.; toward the end of the thirteenth
century it broke away to the south-east from Kaifeng, and
emptied partly through the last mentioned mouth and
partly into the Yangtze, the southern mouth of which is at
latitude 310 N.; in 1324 it broke away lower down below
Kaifeng, and flowed south-east to the mouth at latitude
34* N.; this course it kept until 1853, when it resumed its
north-easterly course, flowing close to the north of Tsinan to a
mouth in the Gulf of Pechihli, north of Shantung, at latitude
380 N. These are what may be termed the "official"
channels, the courses which the river condescends to recog-
nise at seasons of low water. In times of fl00d it breaks
out where it wills, and, even at the present time, finds an
* Census of 1910 gives 29,600,000.


240 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
outlet for its waters where it can, some falling at times into
the Yangtze, some into the Yellow Sea, some as far north
as Tientsin, and some by its present legitimate mouth. In
1887, for example, it broke out above Kaifeng, just below
the spot where the Peking-Hankow Railway now crosses
the river, and formed a temporary channel to the south-
east through Honan and Anhwei. Coming from the treeless
plateau of Central Asia, and flowing through a treeless
country, the River (Ho, i.e. Hwang-ho, as the Chinese call
it) brings down the melting snows and falling rains in sudden
flood laden heavily with detritus from the loess formation
of the west and north-west; and this detritus, checked in
its speed, is deposited so rapidly that the river bed is filled
by degrees until everywhere its bottom is higher than the
surrounding plain. Were is not for the vast sums of money
and vast amount of work spent upon it every year and
through the whole year, the Yellow River would have no
fixed channel, but, with every recurring summer and its
attendant flood, would spread over the plain which extends
from longitude 1140 E. to the sea, and from the Yangtze
latitude 320 N. to Tientsin. Nor do these floods enrich the
soil, as do those of the Yangtze and the Nile, but they deposit
an infertile sand which is prevented from being rendered fer-
tile by the combined action of wind, sun and rain, through
its lightness and friability, which expose it to the destruc-
tive independent action of each element. This, too, is the
only soil on which to raise protecting dykes, and catastrophic
floods from breaches in the banks are of almost annual
occurrence, being recorded in seven of the ten years 1882-
1891, and in seven of the years 1892-1901. With all
this, or because of all this, Shantung, though rich in products,
is richer still in its men, and richest of all in having pro-
duced Confucius. The Master was born B.C. 551 (dying
B.C. 479) in what is now the district of Chow-hsien, and his
Memorial Hall is still standing at Chiichow in the prefecture
of Yinchow, in the western part of the province; and
through all the vicissitudes of revolutions, rebellions, and


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 241
falling dynasties, his memory has been kept green and his
name honoured by the perpetually hereditary rank of Kung
(Duke) bestowed upon his family. His seventy-sixth lineal
descendant to-day divides his time between Peking and his
ancestral home: this, it may be noted, gives an average of
31-4 years for a generation.
Shantung produces coal, iron, and gold, and its farm pro-
ducts are beans, opium, silk, wheat, millet, and tree-fruits.
Within its limits are the treaty port of Chef00 and the
foreign " leased territories" of Kiaochow and Weihaiwei.
Chefoo (37°33' N., 1210 22' E.): the treaty port, opened
in 1863, is not at Chef00, which is on the north side of
its harbour, but at Yentai on the south side. The road-
stead provides a commodious anchorage, safe for vessels at
all times with some selection of a berth, but so far exposed
to certain winds, north and east, as to render the discharge
of cargo difficult at times. Here there is neither concession
nor settlement, in the sense of an administrative munici-
pality; but since the opening of the port the entire promon-
tory of Yentai, which projects into the harbour, has been,
more or less tacitly, and without any formal agreement,
reserved for occupation as a foreign quarter. The residents
have bought their own land, have made their own winding
roads, and have maintained cleanliness and order mainly
through the force of public opinion. They have assessed
themselves and have expended their assessments through
a headless committee, but have no official status as a self-
governing administrative body; and Chef00 represents
the third of the four types of municipal government to be
found operating at the treaty ports, of which the first
is seen in the " concession," as at Tientsin already described,
the second in the " settlement," as at Shanghai, and the
fourth in a special form of government which will be de-
scribed under Yochow. For many years, until about ten
years ago, Chef00 was the sole summer resort available in
China, and is still frequented by many, attracted by its
sea bathing and sea breezes, and by the summer visits oi
16


242 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
many of the foreign war-ships on the station. The resident
foreign population of the port and district in 1905 was
1,431, including 433 British, 221 American, and 547 Japanese.
For trade purposes the port is not well situated, being in
the middle of the northern side of the mountainous section,
and connected with the plain country only by such routes as
are called roads in China, or by junk to the harbourless ports
of the north coast; and yet, as an outlet and supply depot
for the province, its development has been marked. A
portion of its trade is with the coast of eastern Shengking
lying opposite across the Gulf of Pechihli. The value of
its trade during the past fifty years has been as follows,
treasure not included:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
2,766,669
2,758,547
5,525,216
1874
5,851.159
1,960,402
7,811,561
1884
5,922,202
4,138,3T4
10,060,516
1894
8,208,938
6,569,738
14,778,676
1904
21,569,021
12,686,154
34.255.175
1905
27,179,259
11,952,125
39,131,384
1911
16,654,026
13,9l6,5l8
30,570.544
1918
14,730,966
16,094,919
30,835,885
To this has to be added for 1905 the value of the junk
trade, imports Tls.11,531,033, exports Hs.2,311,26o, total
Tls. 13,842,293. Among the imports the principal were
cotton fabrics (value in 1904 Tls.3,120,000 for foreign, and
Tls.155,000 for native weaving) cotton yarn (Tls.1,728,000
for foreign, and Tls.80,355 for native spinning), cigar-
ettes (Tls.674,000), coal (Tls.510,000), flour (Tls.1,332,000),
matches (Tls.578,000), kerosene oil (Tls.1,917,000), sugar
(Tls.1,732,000), and rice (Tls.3,415,00o). Among exports the
principal articles were beans and bean-cake (Tls.2,794,000),
wild silk (Tls.4,803,000), straw-braid (Tls. 1,413,000), vermi-
celli (Tls.1,573,213).


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 243
Lungkow (370 41' N., 120017' E.). A newly opened port
west of Chef00. In 1918 its trade was valued at Tls.2,553,126
for imports, Tls.676,549 for exports, total Tls.3,229,675.
Weihaiwei (370 30' N., 1220 9' E.) was occupied by
Great Britain under a lease from China in 1898, as an
answer to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur and Talien,
which followed on the German occupation of Kiaochow.
The government is by a Commissioner. There is no resident
foreign population to form an electorate, and the Chinese are
ruled more Sinico through the village elders. The port is a
summer station, but not a base, for the British East Asiatic
squadron, and an hotel and a sch00l have been established
there. Considering the meagreness of the population
and that it is supposed, while being a free port, to have no
legitimate traffic with its hinterland, its sea-borne trade
is surprisingly large.
Kiaochow is and remains a Chinese city at the head
of its wide shallow bay, with g00d anchorage only at its
mouth. Here lies Tsingtau (360 4' N., 1200 18' E), the
port and seat of government of the German " Territory of
Kiaochow." Possession of this port and its environs was
taken on November 14, 1897, as reprisal for the murder
of two German missionaries, and subsequently, in March
1898, a lease for ninety-nine years was obtained from the
Chinese government. The local administration is con-
trolled by a Governor, assisted by a Council composed of
the heads of departments, eight in number, to whom are
added three unofficial members. The town and port have
been developed by subsidies provided by the German
government; the town has been laid out with broad streets
and provided with fine buildings, while the port is an
artificial creation with its moles and breakwaters, and
equipped with all needed European appliances; and fifty
million marks is a moderate estimate of the sum expended
on their creation. As a summer resort Tsingtau is growing
in popularity with the residents of Shanghai. The bay of
Kiaochow lies at the junction of the plain and the mountain,


244 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and from its inner end Kublai Khan (a.d. 1260) made a
canal to the north shore at Laichow, which, until the
restoration and completion of the Grand Canal provided
a safer route, enabled the tribute-laden junks to make
their journey to the north without encountering the perils
of the stormy passage around the Shantung Promontory.
The canal has long since been unavailable for transport,
but its modern substitute, the railway from Tsingtau to
Tsinan, 450 kilometres, taps the wealth of production of
the plain part of Shantung, and the trade of the western,
the richer, portion of the province is destined more and
more to gravitate to Tsingtau. This is a German port,
but the authorities have had the wisdom to invite the
fiscal co-operation of the Chinese government, and in July
1899 the Chinese Kiaochow Customs Office was opened
and functioned at the port itself. The fiscal arrangement
then made was tentative, and has since been improved.
Beginning from January 1, 1906, the Kiaochow Customs
t00k entire control of the movement of merchandise inward
and outward, at the same time conceding to Tsingtau all
the trade privileges of a Chinese treaty port; the harbour
with its moles, and the railway terminus with the area
around them, were declared a " Freibezirk," much like a
huge bonded warehouse, into which movement is unre-
stricted, and in which bonded manufacturing may be carried
on; the Chinese Customs tariff duty is levied on exports
when shipped by sea, and on imports when leaving the free
zone; every facility is to be granted to the Chinese Customs
as if on Chinese soil; and 20 per cent. of the collection from
imports is to be handed over to the German authorities
as a contribution to the maintenance of the port. With this
arrangement, if it is found to work, and the railway com-
munication with its hinterland, the future of the port is
assured, the more that the ordinary bureaucratic methods
of German administration are not so much in evidence in
the "Kiautschau-gebiet" as in other German colonies.
Though through railway traffic to Tsinan was initiated
only in 1905, the trade of the port has already made con-


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 245
siderable progress, as evidenced by the following figures,
in which the unimportant junk traffic is included:
Imports (Tls.). Exports (Tls.). Total (Us.).
1900 - 2,852,576 1,104,574 3,957.T50
1902 .. 8,075,250 2,269,392 10,344,642
1905 .. 15,097,422 7,225,258 22,322,680
1911 .. 26,287,988 19,853,669 46,141,657
1918 .. 33.912,790 29,534,540 63,447,330
The tendency of the trade of'Western Shantung to gravitate
to Kiaochow to the detriment of Chefoo, formerly the only
treaty port outlet for the province, is signally evidenced by
the case of straw-braid; of the total export of this product
of home industry from the two Shantung ports in 1903
Chefoo contributed 70 per cent. and Kiaochow 30 per cent.,
while in 1904 the Chefoo contribution fell to 40 per cent.,
and in 1905 fell further to 21 per cent. ; in 1911 the export
from Kiaochow was 88,002 piculs, and from Chefoo only
4 piculs. Other important products exported from Kiaochow
are yellow silk, bean-oil, and ground-nut oil. In November
1914 the port and forts of Tsingtau were surrendered to
a force of Japanese, with whom was a British contingent.
Japan remained inoccupation of the port and leased territory,
but, at the time of the surrender, announced her intention
of restoring them to China after the war, on conditions to
be settled between Japan and China. At the date of writing
(December, 1919) the conditions have not yet been settled.
The Customs arrangement made with Germany, and adopted
also at Dairen, has necessarily been continued. The result of
the Japanese occupation, combined with the effect of war on
industry throughout the world, has been to divert to Japan
a large part of the trade of Tsingtau.both import and export
Other Northern Provinces
On the latitude of Shantung is a string of inland pro-
vinces with no direct outlet on sea or river, the one river
common to and running through them all, the Yellow
River, not being generally navigable in any part of its course.


246 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
. Honan, "South of the Ho" (Yellow River), is hilly
in its western part, where it borders on Shansi, Shensi, and
Hupeh, and a plain to the east where it borders on Shantung,
Kiangsu, and Anhwei. The estimated area is 68,000 square
miles, and population* 21,000,000. A rich country with no
navigable rivers, it is destined to be recreated by railways;
and its produce, which formerly found outlets at Tientsin
in the north or at Chinkiang in the south, is beginning to
find its way to Hankow by the Peking-Hankow line, which
bisects the province from north to south.
Shansi, the "Mountains of the West," lies between
Chihli and Shensi. With practically no rivers intersecting
it, and skirted on the west and south by the unnavigable
Yellow River, it occupies a high plateau with a steep es-
carpment on its eastern side. Any failure of rain brings
drought and almost unrelievable famine, and the difficulties
of transport are such as to be overcome only by the con-
struction of railways. A line connects the capital, Taiyuan-
fu, with the Peking-Hankow line at Chentow. The esti-
mated area is 82,000 square miles, and population 10,000,000.
Shensi lies between Shansi, Honan, and Hupeh on the
east, Szechwan on the south, and Kansu on the west. Its
produce finds an outlet partly through Honan and partly
over the mountains and down the Han River to Hankow.
At or near Sianfu was the ancient capital of what then
constituted the Empire, in the third century before Christ
and again in the sixth century after Christ; and at Sianfu,
to which the Court fled for refuge from the troubles of 1900,
are maintained simulacra of Ministries, as at Moukden,
but without staffs. The area of the province is estimated
at 75,000 square miles, and its population at 8,800,000.
The name of this province affords an instance of the diffi-
culties of the Chinese language and its dependence on tones
or inflexion of the voice. In spelling there is properly no
distinction between Shansi and this province, and to dis-
tinguish correctly the sound as spoken, the former should
* Census of 1910 gives 25,600,000.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 247
be Shansi and the latter Shansi: Shensi is only a convenient
conventionalised mode of distinguishing the two provinces.
Kansu forms the extreme north-west corner of the
Eighteen Provinces, and has an area estimated at 125,000
square miles and a population of 5,000,000. Traversed
by the Yellow River, it is restricted to land transport;
and its produce, mainly w00l of sheep and camel, finds its
outlet through Mongolia, thence down from the north-west
to Tientsin.
Kweichow lies far to the south, but is more conveniently
mentioned here, as the only other province not having
treaty ports. It lies between Szechwan to the north,
Yunnan to the west, Kwangsi to the south, and Hunan to
the east, and has an area estimated at 67,000 square miles,
and population at 11,300,000. It is rich in minerals, especi-
ally of the less common kinds, and its products, of which
opium is the most important, find their outlet through
Hunan and Kwangsi.
Szechwan
Szechwan, the " Four Streams," has an area calculated
to be 218,500 square miles. Nothing better illustrates
the uncertainty impending over everything statistical in
China than the variability of the estimates of its popula-
tion. The estimates made within the last twenty years
have ranged from 35,000,000 (Hobson, 1892) to 79,500,000
(Popoff, 1894); but the general tendency of investigators
has been to put it between 50,000,000 and 65,000,000; Parker
(1903) is inclined, however, to doubt all the high estimates;
and Hosie (1904), than whom few have studied the province
more carefully, puts it at 45,000,000. The official census of
1910 gives it as no more than 23,000,000, but this is probably
an underestimate. The surface of the province is made up
of masses of mountains, through which the Yangtze has
cut its deep and narrow channel, and which is everywhere
cut up by steep-sided valleys and ravines. In the whole


348 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
province there is but one extensive plain, that of Chengtu,
the capital, on which the irrigation system is among the
wonders of the world. Among the minerals found are gold,
silver, cinnabar, copper, iron, coal, and petroleum, and
among its natural products the chief are opium, hemp,
white wax, yellow silk, and some hundreds of products of
its hills and valleys included in the Chinese pharmacopoeia.
Chief among the products of this rich province is salt,
obtained from artesian borings, some of which extend 2,500
feet below the surface, and from which for centuries the
brine has been laboriously raised by windlass and water
buffalo power. The one outlet for Szechwan, except at
the cost of toilsome mountain journeys, is by The Great
River (Kiang) or The Long River or simply " The Kiang "—
the river otherwise without a name, the spinal cord of China,
which foreigners have united to call by the name given to
it by the Chinese only for the last hundred miles of its
course of thousands of miles: Yangtze. Flowing from the
extreme west of China to the extreme east, it is only within
the borders of Szechwan that this route presents any
difficulties, and these are occasioned by the rapids over
which the stream pours tumultuously in its passage through
the famous Yangtze Gorges. Down stream the inherited
and trained skill of the boatmen carries their frail craft
safely past dangers with the current rushing, in places and
at times, as much as fifteen miles an hour; but up stream
this skill is called into full play, and the boats, of about
twenty-five tons capacity, pulled by a struggling, shouting,
sweating crowd of a hundred trackers, more or less, fre-
quently meet with accident in the passage of the rapids.
Repairs are effected and damaged cargo is dried promptly
on the way, but it is estimated that, apart from total losses,
a full tenth of the boats upward-bound arrive with their
cargo more or less damaged by water. Near each of these
rapids is maintained an efficient life-saving boat service, one
of the few public services in China of which nothing but
good is said. The province contains two treaty ports.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 249
Chungking (290 34' N., 1060 31' E.) is situated at the
confluence of the Great River (or the River of Golden Sand,
as it is sometimes called in parts of its course through
Szechwan) and the Small (or Kialing) River. In the Chefoo
Convention (1876) it was stipulated that Chungking should
be an outpost for watching trade, but that "(British)
merchants will not be allowed to reside at Chungking, or
to open establishments or warehouses there, so long as no
steamers have access to the port." The first "steamer"
to reach Chungking was a small steam-launch in March
1898, and the first cargo-carrying steamer was the Pioneer
in June 1900, both taken up by the developer of Szechwan,
Mr. Archibald J. Little; but, in fact, the place had been
opened as a treaty port, with all its privileges, in March 1891.
It is improbable that, under existing conditions, steam
traffic can advantageously engage in the Szechwan carrying
trade; and the trade passing through the "Maritime
Customs" is carried by junk, as is that passing through
the Likin Stations, the latter offering the advantage of a
flexible tariff and complaisant officials, the former based
on its treaty port privilege by which the single import duty
paid at Shanghai carries goods without additional taxation
1,400 miles farther into the heart of China. The city, with
a population of 300,000, occupies a rocky promontory on
which mountain paths and flights of stone steps take the
place of streets. The river rises here in summer normally
70 feet above its winter level, frequently more, and in
1905 rose to a height of 108 feet. The few foreign resi-
dents are scattered over the city and on the opposite shore
and have no municipal organisation. In considering the
volume of trade it must be remembered that it is optional
with merchants to pass their cargo at the Maritime Customs
or at the Likin Stations, and that the latter publish no
statistics. The value of the trade passing the Customs has
been as follows:


250 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
1894
I904
I9II
1918
Imports.
Tls.
5,782,701
18,451.938
19,069,597
15,227,128
Exports.
Tls.
4,997,688
10,952,028
10,069,575
14,872,629
Total.
Tls.
10,780,389
29,403,966
29,139,172
30,099,757
Of the imports five-sixths are made up of cotton manu-
factures, viz. cotton piece goods (in 1904 Tls.3,777,600, all
foreign weaving), and cotton yarn (Tls.8,993,700 foreign,
and Tls.2,681,500 native spinning). Among exports the
principal items were bristles (Tls.477,000), hides(Tls.458,000),
medicines (Tls.974,000), musk (Tls.983,000), opium (Tls.
4,084,000), silk (Tls.1,813,000), goat-skins (Tls.450,ooo),
white wax (Tls.332,000), and sheep's wool (Tls.315,000).
Much of the opium sent from the province takes various
land routes to escape too rigid a scale of taxation, but the
quantity sent down the river through both taxing offices
in 1904 was 36,856 piculs, and in 1905 was 36,311 piculs,
valued at Ichang, after passing the dangers of the river,
at about Tls.16,000,000, in each year.
Wanhsien, the opening of which is provided for in the
British commercial treaty of 1902, is situated on the Yangtze,
midway between Chungking and Ichang. The port was
opened to trade in 1917. For the year 1918 the trade was
valued at Tls.2,921,238 for imports, Tls.2,665,304 for ex-
ports, total Tls.5,586,542.
Hunan
Hunan, "South of the Lake" (Tungting), consists of
mountains to the south and west, with the Tungting Lake
and its surrounding alluvium occupying the north-eastern
quarter. Its area is estimated at 83,400 square miles, and
its population at 23,600,000. Its people are the sturdiest
and most straightforward of the provincials of China, and
they have never allowed the Empire to forget that to them
was due its salvation during the period 1853-1863, when the


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 251
Hunan levies under Tseng Kwo-fan arrested and turned
back the advancing wave of the Taiping rebellion; from
that time, until the recent formation of the " New Model"
army, the Chinese army was largely composed of Hunanese
"braves." Anthracite coal is mined in the south-east,
bituminous coal in the south and west, and from the west
come antimony and others of the uncommon metals. The
alluvial lands and valleys produce rice with an exportable
surplus of over a million piculs annually, tea of which
300,000 piculs are forwarded annually to Hankow, and
sub-temperate products in general; and large rafts of timber
are floated down the Yuan River, the value of annual floats
to Hankow being estimated at upwards of ten million taels.
Formerly a vast trade between Canton and Hankow passed
from Kwangtung over the Cheling Pass and down the
Siang River through Hunan, and Siangtan was then, in con-
sequence, one of the principal trade marts of China; but,
since the advent of steam traffic, this trade now takes
the sea and Yangtze route via Shanghai. In Hunan two
places have been opened to trade as " treaty ports."
Yochow (290 20' N., 1130 E.) was opened voluntarily
by China in 1899. Situated at the point where the Tungting
Lake empties into the Yangtze, it was expected that this
port would tap the entire trade of Hunan, owing to the
presumed necessity of transhipping from the deeper vessels
possible on the Yangtze to the lighter draft boats of the
inner waters, but this expectation has not been realised,
and the later opening of Changsha has effectively killed
whatever prospect of trade Yochow may have had. The
municipal plan adopted at Yochow is one which has been
introduced at some other ports. The Chinese government
expropriated the land required for an "international
settlement," laid out roads and sold the lots by auction,
reserving an annual ground-rent of a substantial amount;
wharfage dues, moderate in amount, are levied; municipal
work and police are under the joint control of the Yochow
territorial Taotai and the Commissioner of Customs; all


254 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of the work of transhipping the Szechwan trade from the
deep-draft lower-river boatsto the lightupper-river boats and
vice versa; while the emporia for the exchange of products
are still at Hankow and Shanghai. The character of the
trade of Ichang may be judged from the following figures
for the traffic which, between Ichang and Chungking, went
by " chartered junk," subject to the control of the Maritime
Customs, and, between Ichang and Hankow, went by
steamer, competing with the lower-river junk, the value
of the traffic by which is not included:
Gross Imports. Rb-Exports Nbt Imports.
(i.e. transhipped).
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1894 .. 10,373,903 9,427.920 945.983
1904 .. 35.559.841 34.129,018 1,430,823
19H .. 7.345.258 4,047,163 3,298,095
1918 .. 6,300,675 4,544,036 1,756,639
Shasi (300 17' N., 1120 17' E.), a city of 80,000 people,
was opened as a treaty port in 1896. Originally, before
the opening of Ichang, it was the ordinary place of tran-
shipment for the Szechwan trade; and in itself should be a
g00d distributing centre, placed in the heart of the Hupeh
plain, with canals radiating from it through the plain and
into Hunan. One such canal connects it directly with
Hankow by a much shorter route than that taken by
steamers on the Yangtze; and to this canal facility must
be attributed its failure to develop as a steamer port.
The value of the trade has been as follows:
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1897 .. 135.292 181,220 316,512
1904 .. 1,334.328 622,043 J.,956,371
1911 .. 1,968,847 979.809 2,948,656
1918 .. 4,192,521 2,169,971 6,362,492


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 255
Hankow (300 35' N., 1140 17' E.), "Han-mouth," is
situated at the junction of the Han River and the Yangtze;
across the Han is Hanyang, containing extensive iron and
steel works; and opposite both, across the Yangtze, is
Wuchang, the provincial capital: the combined population
of the triple mart is estimated at 870,000. This was an
important commercial centre before the foreign trader put
in an appearance; was further developed when it consti-
tuted the head of steam navigation; still further developed
since the opening of the upper reaches of the Yangtze to
steamers; and its recent start as a railway centre can only
add to its importance. Opened as a treaty port in 1861,
an area of 62 acres was granted to the British government
as a concession, governed on the same plan as that of
Tientsin; here for thirty-five years merchants of all nations
lived and traded, content with their modest area and its
half-mile of river frontage. In 1896 this concession was
extended by an additional area of 53 acres, on the same
f00ting as the original grant. Next below the British
concession is the Russian. A French concession was
granted in 1861, but was not taken up, and was re-granted
in 1896. Next below the French comes the German con-
cession, granted in 1895, with an area of 108 acres; and
below the German is the Japanese concession of 31 acres.
Including the Peking-Hankow Railway reservation, still
farther down stream, there is, starting from the Chinese
business quarter of Hankow, a frontage of 6,000 yards
under foreign control, most of it well bunded. The foreign
population of Hankow, in t)ecember 1905, was 2,151,
including 504 British, 500 American, 162 German, 68
French, 89 Russian, 84 Belgian, 134 Italian, 537 Japanese,
and 73 others. When present plans are carried out,
Hankow will be at the intersection of a cross, formed by
the Yangtze from east to west, and the trunk railway
Peking-Hankow-Canton from north to south, and it is
difficult to set any moderate limit to its prospect of de-
velopment. In the past the value of its trade has been
as follows:


25& THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
7.935.558
13.453.425
21,388,983
1874
.. 14.885,471
18,276,094
33,161,565
1884
.. 17,467,883
16,403,998
33,871,881
1894
. ■ 15.915.966
23,218,827
39.134.793
1904
.. 44,364,324
63,085,050
107,449,374
1905
. ■ 53,837.696
57.205.350
111,043,046
1911
.. 43,882,937
74.074.547
117.957.484
1918
62,336,980
102,825,328
165,162,308
To enumerate the principal imports would be to give a
list of the principal imports into China. Among exports
originating in Hankow, and not, as in the case of Kiu-
kiang tea, first originating elsewhere, the principal were
in 1905 tea (Tls.9,729,000), cotton yarn (Tls.1,829,000),
beans (Tls.7,089,000), bean-cake (Tls.868,000), w00d-oil
(from seeds of Aleurites cor data, Tls.3,320,000), cotton
(Tls.3,910,000), jute (Tls.1,704,000), hides (Tls.3,177,000),
pig iron (Tls.987,000), rice (Tls.2,130,000), sesamum seed
(Tls.3,172,900), skins and furs (Tls.2,050,000), vegetable
tallow (Tls. 1,403,000), tobacco (Tls. 2,184,000). Of the
steamers entered and cleared at Hankow during 1905, a
total of 3,715,710 tons, 50 per cent. was under the British
flag, 17 per cent. under the Chinese, 16 per cent. under the
Japanese, and 13 per cent. under the German.
Kiangsi
The province of Kiangsi, with an area estimated at
69,500 square miles and a population of 14,500,000, is
mountainous over much of its surface, but has the general
appearance of a trough trending to the northern border.
The basin of the trough is the Poyang Lake, into which
flow rivers from the east, south, and west, and which finds
its outlet to the north, emptying into the Yangtze at Hukow,
some twenty miles below Kiukiang. The Poyang Lake
and the Tungting Lake in Hunan act as reservoirs to take
the first rush of fl00d waters coming down the Yangtze


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 257
every summer, and reduce their catastrophic effects. The
lake and its affluents, accessible through the portal of
Hukow, furnish the channels of transportation through
the province. From Kiangsi over the Meiling Pass to
Canton runs a main trade route, by which formerly a con-
siderable traffic passed, and by which even now goes much
of the porcelain sent from Kingtehchen to Canton, to be
there painted with the florid Cantonese designs. King-
tehchen itself, a town of no official status, i.e. with no official
head or government, with a population estimated a century
ago by Abb6 Hue at a million, destroyed in the Taiping
rebellion, and revived so as to support a present population
of 150,000, is the centre of production of Chinese porcelain.
Formerly unapproachable in quality and inimitable in the
colouring of its designs, this porcelain rapidly deteriorated
from the end of the eighteenth century, and received its
death-blow on the destruction of the ovens by the Taipings;
and since the revival of the industry the product has been
coarse and heavy in material, and crude in the colouring
and design of what is painted at the place. Other products
of the province are tea, tobacco, paper, hemp, and w00d-oil.
In the province is one treaty port.
Kiukiang (290 44' N., 1160 8' E.), a city of 55,000 people,
opened as a treaty port in 1861, is situated near the outlet
of the Poyang Lake. In this year a British concession
was granted, with municipal government like that of
Tientsin, and this constitutes to-day the residential quarter
for the foreign community. Thirteen miles from Kiukiang
is the mountain resort of Kuling, " Bull Ridge," where, at
an altitude of 3,500 feet, the foreign residents of Shanghai
and the Yangtze valley have established a "summer
cottage" colony, comprising, with no hotels, by the census
of September 1906, a summer population of 1,100. The
intended function of the port, to serve as a tea market,
was maintained for a few years, but by degrees the control
of the business was transferred to Hankow, and to-day
most of the tea prepared for the foreign market remains
17


258 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in Chinese hands until it is sold at Hankow. The progress
of trade at the port is shown by the following figures, the
shipments of tea in thousands of piculs being shown in
parentheses after the export values:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
2,622,319
4,070,948 (137)
6,693,267
1874
. ■ 3,932,987
9,921,679 (245)
13,854,666
1884
.. 2,852,825
6,351,800 (279)
9,204,625
1894
. . 4,9",997
6,705,479 (211)
11,617,476
1904
.. 12,045,395
12,302,165 (186)
24,347,560
1911
.. 15,601,240
19,071,686 (245)
34,672,926
1918
.. 18,863,631
21,180,299 (154)
40,043,930
Among the imports in 1904, cotton yarn was valued
at Tls.4,327,000, kerosene oil at Tls.859,000, sugar at
Tls.767,000; among exports the principal were tea
(Tls.4,945,000), porcelain (Tls.714,300), cotton (Tls.502,300),
hemp (Tls.926,000), paper (Tls.1,443,000), and tobacco
(Tls.645,000).
Anhwei
The province of Anhwei, with an area estimated at
54,800 square miles and a population variously at from
25,000,000 to 35,000,000, but given in the official census of
1910 as only 17,300,000, was formerly a part of the province
of Kiangsu, from which it was separated administratively
in the reign of Kang-hi, a.d. 1662-1723. The portion north
of the Yangtze, except for some part of the extreme west
bordering on Hupeh, is plain, and may be termed the
granary of the Empire, annually producing a greater ex-
portable surplus of rice than any other rice-growing district.
South of the Yangtze, except for plains bordering the river,
is mainly hilly. The principal products are rice, tea,
opium, hemp, cotton, and paper. Anhwei is the country
of Li Hung-chang, who supplemented the work of the
Hunanese Tseng Kwo-fan in suppressing the Taiping re-


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 259
bellion, and who from 1870 until near his death in 1901
was Grand Secretary, Viceroy of Chihli, Imperial Com-
missioner for Foreign Trade, Generalissimo of the military
and naval forces in the north, and principal negotiator for
the Imperial Government of its treaties and conventions;
through his agency the men of Anhwei were brought forward
in official life and in recruiting for the army, thus preventing
the Empire from becoming the exclusive pasturage of the
men of Hunan; and his family have for many years domi-
nated the rice trade of his native province. The provincial
capital, Anking, is a port of call for Yangtze steamers,
and at Tatung is the Superintendency of the Salt Likin
Collectorate, the revenues of which are pledged for foreign
loans. In the province is one treaty port.
Wuhu (310 20' N., 1180 21' E.), a city of 137,000 in-
habitants, was opened to foreign trade in 1877. For
twenty-eight years there was no concession, settlement,
or reserved area for foreign residence; but in 1905 an area
was marked off for an international settlement, to be
administered on the Yochow plan. The following figures
show the development of trade:
1884
1894
1904
1911
1918
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. TIs.
2,681,697 1,206,793 3,888,490
5,068,450 5.I56.090 10,224,540
9,916,453 13,306,930 23,223,383
10,796,055 10,636,102 21,432,157
15,902,901 12,972,728 28,875,629
The imports in 1904 included cotton woven fabrics
(Tls.1,750,000 for foreign, and Tls.274,000 for native weav-
ings), cotton yarn (Tls.818,000), gunny bags (Tls.426,000),
kerosene oil (Tls.718,000), and sugar (Tls. 1,209,000);
the exports included few articles of much importance
except rice, of which the shipments, ranging generally from
2,000,000 to 4,000,000 piculs, amounted to 5,621,143 piculs
in 1904, and 8,438,093 piculs (502,250 tons) in 1905; but in
1911 the export was only 2,665,151 piculs (158,630 tons)


200 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
KlANGSU
The province of Kiangsu is essentially a country of
the plain, comprising nearly the entire area of the alluvial
deposit of the mouth of the Yangtze, and the coast strip,
as far up as Shantung, of the Yellow River deposit. Its
area is estimated at 38,600 square miles, and its population
variously at from 14,000,000 to 39,000,000, but given in
the census of 1910 as 17,300,000. It is a province in which,
through its whole extent, every inch of ground is utilised,
even the otherwise barren wastes of the low coast supply-
ing the salt for the Hwai Administration, which provides
officially for the needs of six provinces or parts of pro-
vinces, with a probable total of a hundred million consumers.
The natural products are rich in quality and infinite in
variety, including silk, by nature the finest in the world,
rice, the choicest of any in China, cotton, of short staple
but fine fibre, besides opium, wheat, beans, etc.; while
the products of its hand-looms, of the silk weavers of Soo-
chow and Nanking, and of the cotton weavers of every
farmstead in the province, have been renowned for centuries.
Trade is an instinct of the province, facilitated by the canals
which everywhere and in all directions intersect its surface,
the Grand Canal being only primus inter pares. The ruined
bridges, temples, and houses of this smiling land, devas-
tated by the Taiping rebels (1853-1864), were a marked
characteristic of Kiangsu thirty years ago, and are still
observable in many places. Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Anhwei
form the Viceroyalty of Liangkiang, "The Two River
(provinces)." In the province are four treaty ports, Nanking,
Chinkiang, Soochow, and Shanghai.
Nanking (32° 13' N., 1190 25' E.), the "Southern
Capital," the official name being Kiangning, " River Rest,"
was the capital of the Empire at several periods of its history,
the last occasion being under the two first Ming Emperors,
1368-1402. Remains of some of the old walls are still
discernible, one of the time of the Six Dynasties, a.d.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 261
221-587, and another of the city under the Southern Sung
(a.d. 1127-1280), and Mongol (a.d. 1280-1368) Dynasties.
The present wall, substantially that of the Ming Hung-wu
(a.d. 1368), but renovated after its capture by the Taipings
in 1853 and its recapture after a siege of eleven years in
1864, has a circuit of twenty-five miles, and encloses an
area sufficient rather for the possible population of the
capital of an Empire than for the present population of
275,000. The walls and city, and the tombs of the early
Ming Emperors attract visitors; but the pride of Nanking,
the famous porcelain pagoda erected by Yung-lo (a.d.
1403-1424), was destroyed by the Taipings. Nanking is the
capital of the Viceroyalty of the Two Kiang, but the
Governor of Kiangsu has his seat at S00chow. The first
treaty made by China with any of the maritime Powers
was the British treaty of 1842, signed at Nanking. The
French treaty of 1858 provided for the opening of Nanking,
then in the hands of the Taipings; but when, in 1865, the
British and French Commissioners visited the place, they
decided that the trade prospects were t00 unpromising,
and it was actually opened as a treaty port only in 1899.
The principal industry is silk-weaving, Which, however,
has not fully recovered from the dislocation caused by the
disorders of the Taiping occupation, the number of l00ms
being said to have been 50,000 in the city and its immediate
vicinity before the rebellion, and to be only 5,000 now. The
development of trade is shown by the following figures:
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1900 .. 2,158,311 1,710,284 3.868,595
1904 .. 5,296,119 3,529,929 8,826.048
1911 .. 6,092,015 2,970,523 9,062,539
1918 .. 14,920,284 8,075,482 22,995,766
The imports comprised the usual requirements of a dis-
tributing centre, and of exports nearly two-thirds of the
value consisted of satin (Tls.2,335,000 in 1904),


262 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Chinkiang (320 13' N., 1190 25' E.) occupies an
important position near to the point where the Yangtze
leaves the old geologic formation and becomes more or
less deltaic in character, and at the point where the Grand
Canal is intersected by the Yangtze. By means of the
Grand Canal it is a distributing and collecting centre for
a large area, extending into Shantung, Honan, Anhwei, and
even into Chihli. The city, with a population of 170,000,
was opened to foreign trade in 1861, and the foreign resi-
dential quarter is on the British concession, administered
in the same way as the British concession at Tientsin. The
course of trade is shown by the following figures:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
4,673,294
1,208,486
5.881.780
1874
.. 11,439,133
1,029,008
12,468,141
1884
11,108,506
976,425
12,084,931
1894
.. 15,165,088
4,127,403
19,292,491
1904
.. 23,941,579
8,381,625
32,323,204
1911
.. 18,237,184
5,242,502
23,479,686
1918
.. 15.735.616
3.382,730
19,118,346
The principal imports in 1904 were cotton woven fabrics
(Tls.3,866,000), cotton yarn (Tls.3,693,000), matches
(Tls.572,000), kerosene oil (Tls.1,786,000), sandal-w00d
(Tls.325,000), sugar (Tls.3,681,000), w00d-oil (Tls.1,058,000),
and tobacco (Tls.594,000). The principal exports were
beans (Tls.535,000), bean-cake (Tls.781,000), ground nuts
(Tls.1,8o4,000), ground nut-oil (Tls.911,000), sesamum oil
(Tls.876,000) and satin (Tls.759,000). Of the total import
of foreign g00ds, excluding opium, in 1904 (Tls.15,185,682),
78 per cent. went inland under transit pass, 38 per cent.
going to destinations in the home province, and 40 per cent,
into other provinces, Anhwei, Shantung, Honan, etc.
Soochow (31° 25' N., 1200 34' E.), the provincial capital,
has for centuries been famous for its wealth and its magni-


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 263
ficence, and is the subject of two well-known proverbial
expressions;
Shang yu tien tang,
Hsia yu S00 Hang.
(Above is heaven's blue,
Below are Hang and Soo.)
The other is more cryptic, and is expressed in three words
"Hang S00 Lin," which may be explained as follows:
"Be born at (Hang-) chow, because there the men are
handsomest and most learned; marry at (S00-) chow,
because there the women are most beautiful; die at (Lin-)
chow, because there may be found the finest w00d for
coffins." Poets have sung the city in many another phrase,
and Western poets may there find keen enjoyment, pro-
vided that, as elsewhere in China, they have no' olfactory
nerves. The population, estimated before the rebellion
at a million, is now about 500,000; the walls are about
ten miles in circuit, and, as is usual with Chinese cities,
the greater part of the trade is carried on in the suburbs,
outside the walls, more especially to the north-west. The
one important industry is silk—reeling, spinning, and weav-
ing. S00chow was opened as a treaty port in 1896, and an
international settlement was laid out, to be administered
on the plan afterwards adopted for Yochow, situated outside
the south wall, at the greatest possible distance from the
business quarter and from the railway station, opened to
traffic in 1906. The opening of the port has produced
but little effect on the course of trade, which continues
to follow old channels to Shanghai; the total value in
1904 was Tls.1,247,668 for imports, of which tobacco
contributed nearly a fourth, and Tls.1,886,194 for exports,
of which silk contributed four-fifths. The figures for the
trade in 1918 show that it had begun to adopt the new
facilities provided: 113.3,910,722 for imports, Tls.14,134,154
for exports, total Tls.18,044,876.
Shanghai (310 14' N., 1210 29' E.), "By-the-Sea," is
now far removed from salt water, but is the first point on
entering the Yangtze at which a port can be established.


264 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
At a distance of 60 miles from the North Saddle light,
on an outlier to the entrance, and at 32 miles from the
Tungsha lightship, marking the outer bar of the southern
entrance to the Yangtze, at the village of Wusung, is the
first affluent of the Yangtze, the Hwangpu, draining an
extensive area of canal-intersected plain between Chinkiang
and Hangchow. The Hwangpu, a tidal river emptying
into a tidal river, has an outer and an inner bar, the latter
originally with only a general depth of 19 feet at high water,
spring tides, though at times this is increased to 23 feet.
This sufficed for the vessels engaged in the carrying trade in
the early days, but, with the increase in carrying capacity of
steamers in recent times, many ocean steamers are now
compelled to discharge outside Wusung, and in 1906 a
Conservancy Board was established by the Chinese Govern-
ment, under the stipulations of the International Protocol
of September 8th, 1901, which has much improved the condi-
tion of the river. Twelve miles up the Hwangpu is the city
of Shanghai, with excellent anchorage and discharging
facilities. The anchorage had thirty to forty years ago a
general width of 1,800 feet, but, by the agency of natural
causes acting mainly upon the works of man, this is now
reduced to about two-thirds of the former available width,
but with unaltered depth. At Shanghai is the junction
with the S00chow Creek, which provides water communica-
tion with the country to the west, and which, almost entirely
through human agency, is now reduced to less than a hundred
yards in width. The approaches from the sea are lighted
by seventeen lights.
Shanghai is mentioned in history 2,150 years ago, and
900 years ago was a mart of sufficient importance to be
made a Customs Station. It was occupied in 1842 by the
British forces on their way to Nanking, and, having been
declared a treaty port by the treaty of Nanking, was for-
mally opened to trade on November 17th, 1843. The first
district to be occupied for foreign residence was selected
by the British authorities, bounded on the south by the
Yangkingpang, a ditch running east and west about a


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 26$
quarter-mile north of the Chinese city, on the north by
the S00chow Creek, on the east by the Hwangpu, and on
the west by Defence Creek dug at one mile distance from
the Hwangpu, enclosing an area of 470 acres with a river
frontage of three-fourths of a mile. In 1849 the French
authorities delimited an area between the Yangkingpang
and the city, and in 1853 obtained in extension the narrow
strip lying between the city and the river, having, with
narrow depth, a river frontage of nearly three-fourths of
a mile. The Americans occupied the district called Hong-
kew, lying north of the S00chow Creek, with frontage on
that creek and on the river, including the most valuable
part of the wharfage of Shanghai. This American Settle-
ment was in 1863 amalgamated with the British Settle-
ment, both governments waiving their exclusive rights and
thereby creating the self-governing republic styled " The
Foreign Community of Shanghai, North of the Yangking-
pang," the French Government having refused to surrender
its jurisdiction over the so-called " Concession Francaise."
In 1899 these various settlements were extended, and the
authority of the Municipal Council of the "International
Settlement," as it is called for short, now extends over
5,584 acres, while the present area of the "Concession
Francaise" is 358 acres. The resident population of the
International Settlement at different periods and of the
whole of Shanghai and district for 1910 are shown on
next page.
The resident population under the French Municipality
in 1905 was 831 foreigners (including 274 French, 109
British, 47 German, 73 Japanese) and 84,792 Chinese. By
whatever name they are called, and whatever the minor dif-
ferences in their form of government, the several " reserved
areas" at Shanghai, whether British, French, American, or
International, are not concessions such as exist at Tientsin
Hankow, and Canton, where a grant has been made by a
lease in perpetuity from the government of China to the
foreign Power, and where the "land-renter" holds under
a title-deed issued by the foreign lessee Power, and regis-


266 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
18 Bo.
1885.
1890.
1895.
Z900.
1910.
Int.
Sett
.
Int
.
Sett.
Int
.
Sett
.
Int
.
Sett
.
Int
.
Sett
.
Int.
Sett.
All
Soai.»
British
1,061
2 30
41
159
168
285
3
31
9
76
32
102
1,5"
2 74
1,663
2,055
328
138
314
250
731
28
39
83
154
86
478
2,987
562
176
525
736
978
47
83
60
in
76
433
5.269
940
330
811
3.361
1.495
317
102
124
140
"3
534
5.569
961
862
886
5.535
2,199
377
107
131
140
123
665
American
323
114
244
French
66
216
595
457
5
German • • • •
Japanese ,. ..
Portuguese .. ..
Russian
386
Austro-Hungarian ..
44
564
7
38
22
Italian
31
232
Spanish
229
69
Danish .. ..
Other foreign ..
51
191
162
Total .. ..
2,197
3.673
3.821
4.684
6,774
13.536
17,555
Chinese
107,812
125,665
168,129
240,995
345.276
488,005
690,000
tered only at the Consulate of that Power. They are
"Settlements," reserved areas within which foreigners are
permitted to acquire land, in which Chinese may continue
to hold land, in which foreigners acquire land by direct
negotiation with the original owners—for such land a bill
of sale is not issued, but it is held under " perpetual lease,"
sealed and issued by the Chinese territorial authority;
and this title-deed may be registered at any Consulate,
ordinarily that of the land-renter, and not compulsorily at
that of the titular controlling Power. The Settlement has
complete self-governing power, including the power of
taxation and police; but the systems on the two sides of
the Yangkingpang differ. They are alike only in not
granting the franchise to Chinese, who are considered to
be residents of the Foreign Settlements by sufferance, a
sufferance dating from the time when they came by thou-
sands as refugees from the Taipings, and found under the
foreign flags the safety they could not find under their own.
The first Land Regulations for the British Settlement
were drawn up in 1845, with a " Committee of Roads and
* The figures included for the population outside the Inter-
national Settlement are those for 1905.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 267
Jetties" nominated by the Consul. These, as amended in
1854 and approved by the Chinese authorities, extended
the privilege of acquiring land within the Settlement to
all foreigners; and when in 1863 the British and American
Settlements were united, the Municipal Council, first
elected in 1855, became the Municipal Council of the Settle-
ment with the long name mentioned before. The Land
Regulations were last amended in 1898, and, having re-
ceived the assent of the foreign Ministers at Peking, are
now the governing charter of the community. The elec-
torate consists of all householders who pay rates on an
assessed rental of Tls.500 a year, and owners of land valued
at Tls.500. The French Municipality was organised in
1862; the electorate consists of all owners of land, occu-
pants paying a rental of 1,000 francs a year, and residents
having an income of 4,000 francs a year; and the Municipal
Council is under the presidency of the French Consul-General,
whose assent is necessary for the validity of its decisions.
Under these forms of government the place has grown in
wealth, the International Settlement, built up by British,
American, and German enterprise, naturally more rapidly
than the French. In the International Settlement in 1905
the assessed value of the 5,584 acres contained therein
was ^s.83,000,000,* representing a market value well over
Tls.100,000,000; on 2,471 foreign and 45,328 Chinese houses
the assessed annual rental was Tls.8,350,000, representing
an additional capital value of over Tls.100,000,000. The
assessed value of the 358 acres of land under the French
Municipality in 1905 was Tls.8,500,000, and the assessed
rental of houses was Tls.1,145,000. The soil on which
the Settlement is built is described by a competent au-
thority as consisting of " a water-logged highly micaceous
sand of extreme fineness and of alluvial deposit and generally,
under pressure, with no more consistency than a quick-
sand "; and it says much for the enterprise of the com-
* Shanghai tael, worth less by 10 per cent. than the Haikwan
tael in which the values of trade are expressed.


268 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
munity that a modest beginning has been made in sky-
scrapers of six storeys in height.
When the foreign trader advanced his outpost from
Canton to Shanghai, this, the chief mart of Central China,
was to him North China, a fact preserved for posterity in
the name of its oldest newspaper, the North-China Herald,
with its daily edition, the North-China Daily News; and
the absence of good deep-water ports in the north has con-
tinued to Shanghai its old-time function of distributing
centre for North China as well as for the Yangtze basin.
The commercial history of the port can be shown by figures
better than by any narrative.
Tonnage of Shipping Entered and Cleared.
British
American ..
German
Japanese ..
Other foreign
Chinese steam
1864.
991,786
548,175
"6,945
750
130.397
1884.
2,306,036
544.032
I05.458
206,473
158,060
7°4.439
1904.
6,524,801
394.659
1,614,027
495,292*
1,143,970
2,009,049
1911.
7,311,167
454.467
1,600,051
3,986,523
1,754,010
3.073.254
Total .. 1,788,059 4,024,498 12,181,798 18,179,472
It is important to show the distributing trade of Shanghai
rather than its purely local trade, and this is brought out
in the following figures:
Foreign Products Imported
Gross Imports.
Re-Exports.
Net Imports.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1859
.. 32,429,232
2,609,603
29,819,629!
1864
.. 30,522,183
17.723.355
12,798,828
1874
52,902,102
43,764.978
9.137.M4
1884
.. 47,158,013
39,690,117
7,467,896
1894
.. 96,920,931
66,435,217
30,485,714
1904
.. 196,905,998
151,617,898
45,288,100
1911
.. 220,279,867
139,160,662
81,119,205
1918
.. 220,900,052
132.515.864
88,384,188
* Japanese tonnage in 1904 reduced from 1,744,249 tons in 1903,
owing to Russo-Japanese war.
f The Yangtze and northern ports not having been opened to foreign
shipping, re-exports thither did not pass through the Customs in 1859.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 269
Chinese Produce Imported
Gross Imports. Re-Exports. Net Imports.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1859 — — —
1864 .. 27,542,065 17,062,865 10,479,200
1874 .. 36,734,241 29,946,189 6,788,052
1884 .. 39.454.313 32.576.102 6,878,211
1894 .. 53,361.347 47.092.l63 6,269,184
1904 .. 127,970,828 107,966,192 20,004,636
1911 .. 173,806,469 147,781,070 26,025,399
1918 .. 231,104,855 170,580,017 60,524,838
Chinese Produce Exported
Original „ _ _
Exports. Re-Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1859 .. 33,003,545 — 33,003,545
1864 .. 20,137,038 17,062,865 37,199,903
1874 .. 27,541,834 29,946,189 57,488,023
1884 .. 26,603,194 32,576,102 59,179,296
1894 45,340,093 47,092,163 92,432,256
1904 .. 80,187,434 107,966,192 188,153,626
1911 .. 90,115,886 147,781,070 237,896,956
1918 .. 175,089,475 170,580,017 345,669,492
Total Trade
Inward. Outward. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1859 ■■ 32,429,232 35,613,148 68,042,380
1864 .. 58,064,248 54,923,258 112,987,506
1874 .. 89,636,343 101,253,001 190,889,344
1884 .. 86,612,326 98,869,413 185,481,739
1894 .. 150,282,278 158,867,473 309,149,751
1904 .. 324,876,826 339,771.524 664,648,350
1911 .. 394,086,336 377.057.618 771,143,954
1918 .. 452,004,907 478,185,356 930,190,263
In the original exports from Shanghai in 1904, silk and
its products figured for Tls.33,411,000, raw cotton for
Tls. 16,000,000, cotton cloth from steam factories Tls.747,000,


27O THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and from hand-l00ms Tls.5,920,000, factory-spun cotton
yarn Tls.4,15o,000, and rice Tls.5,100,000.
Chekiang
Chekiang, with an area of 36,700 square miles and a
population estimated at 17,000,000, formed the northern
end of the ancient Kingdom of Yueh, which extended along
the coast from Canton to Shanghai. It is divided by the
Tsientang River, emptying into the sea between Hangchow
and Shaohing, into a large southern section, generally moun-
tainous, but with some considerable plains in its northern
part, and a smaller northern section, almost entirely plain,
deposited by the Yangtze. The plains of the northern
section and of the northern part of the southern section
are protected from incursions of the sea by well-built sea
walls, starting from Hangchow and skirting both sides of
the estuary of the Tsientang, with a total length of about
250 miles. The Hangchow or Tsientang bore or eger,
seen at its best opposite Haining, is among the wonders of
the world, presenting the sight of a solid and almost
perpendicular wall of water, 12 to 15 feet high, rushing
into the estuary and up the river at a speed of 12 to 15
miles an hour. The plain country, especially north of the
Tsientang, is intersected by canals, including the Grand
Canal, the southern starting-point of which is Hangchow;
all are on the same level, and freely intercommunicating,
except those from Hangchow along the coast to Haining
and intersecting the city of Hangchow, which are on a higher
level. Being in China, where so much is topsy-turvy, the
high-level canals adjoin the estuary of the Tsientang, in
which the range of spring tides is 25-35 feet, and the low-
level canals are inland. The principal products of the
province are silk, tea, and cotton, and it contains three
treaty ports.
Hangchow (300 12' N., 1200 12' E.), the provincial
capital, and for a time the capital of the Southern Sung


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 271
Empire (a.d. 1129-1280), was opened as a treaty port in
1896. A centre of the silk industry, in which it surpassed
Soochow, it shared the fate of other cities of the Yangtze
plain during the Taiping rebellion, and has not yet fully
recovered from the devastation it suffered at that time.
Its present population is estimated at 350,000. As at
Soochow, opened at the same time, an International Settle-
ment with an area of 182 acres was set aside by the Chinese
authorities and retained under their control, and alongside
it was granted a Japanese concession of 120 acres. Some
fifty miles from Hangchow is the mountain resort of Mokan-
shan, with many summer cottages built by residents of
Shanghai and other places. Trade communication outside
the district is entirely with Shanghai, by a route following
the Grand Canal and other inland waterways, and is main-
tained by " trains" made up of passenger and cargo-boats
towed by steam-launches. A considerable trade ends and
originates in Hangchow, as shown by the following figures:
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1898 .. 2,960,234 5.033.245 7.993,479
1904 .. 8,702,249 9,I58,519 17.760,768
1911 .. 8,065,977 9,632,054 17,698,031
1918 .. 9,418,301 9,269,781 18,688,082
Among the imports of 1904 cotton manufactures figured
but little, the principal being tin (Tls.197,000), kerosene
oil (Tls.699,000), matches (Tls.97,000), sugar (Tls.1,710,000),
beans (Tls.795,000), bean-cake (Tls.275,000), bean-oil
(Tls.134,000), wood-oil (Tls.135,000), rape-seed (Tls.111,000),
and tobacco (Tls.418,000). Among exports the principal
were cotton (Tls.306,000), fans (Tls.800,000), silk and its
products (Tls.3,182,000), and tea (Tls.4,245,000).
Ningpo (290 53' N., 1210 33' E.) was visited by the
Portuguese in 1522, but their traders were expelled in 1542.
It was occupied by the British forces in 1841, and in 1842
was declared a treaty port. Its population is estimated


272 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
at 260,000. There is no foreign concession or reserved
area, and the police and roads are maintained at the cost and
under the control of the Chinese authorities. There was in
the early days some question whether Ningpo or Shanghai
should become the commercial centre for trade at the
mouth of the Yangtze, but the strong organisation of the
Ningpo merchants in the gilds kept the trade of the port
in their own hands, with the result that Shanghai t00k
metropolitan rank. Ningpo is, and for fifty years has
been, commercially subsidiary to Shanghai, with which
almost alone trade is carried on, communication being
maintained by a daily steamer. The opening first of Wuhu,
then of Hangchow, diverted a part of the trade from Ningpo.
The course of trade is seen from the following figures:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
10,264,616
6,250,306
16,514,922
1874
7.532,465
7,013,845
14,546,310
1884
6,649,117
4.773.272
11,422,389
1894
8,984,676
5.6l5,08l
14,599.757
1904
13,296,271
8,001,141
21,297,412
1911
.. 14.357.4n
7,863,141
22,220,552
1918
15,820,957
14,141,813
29,962,770
With so slight an expansion of values expressed in silver,
obviously a non-progressive port. Among the imports of
1904 the principal were cotton fabrics (Tls.2,950,000),
cotton yarn (Tls.533,000), tin (Tls.1,300,000), kerosene oil
(Tls.561,000), sugar (Tls.1,529,000), and tobacco, including
cigarettes (Tls.312,000). The chief exports were cotton
(Tls.1,972,000), rush mats (Tls.290,000), tea (Tls.3,409,000),
and fishery products (Tls.339,000).
Wenchow (280 1' N., 1200 40' E.), a city of 80,000
inhabitants, is situated toward the south of Chekiang. A
fairly clean and very picturesque city, intersected by canals,
it reminds the visitor somewhat of Venice. It has no
foreign settlement, and few foreign residents. It was
opened as a treaty port in 1877, and has failed to develop


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 273
a trade. In 1904 imports were valued at Tls.1,523,480,
including kerosene oil (Tls.189,000) and sugar (Tls.137,000);
and exports at Tls.866,905, including tea (Tls.505,000);
making a total trade of Tls.2,390,385. The trade of 1911
and 1918 was only a little more.
FUKIEN
Fukien, with an area of 46,300 square miles and a
population variously estimated from 8,000,000 (Ross, 1891)
to 25,000,000 (Popoff, 1894), but given by the census of
1910 at 13,100,000, is essentially a mountainous province.
The principal river is the Min, which, with its many branches,
drains the greater part of the province, and has its mouth
at F00chow. The valleys and f00t-hills produce tea,
sugar, opium, and f00d for the inhabitants, while from
the mountains come timber, bamb00s, and, in recent years,
camphor. One of the most important industries is fishing,
and the passenger on the mail steamer, out of sight of land
or seeing only projecting headlands, will pass through fleets
of thousands of fishing-boats, cockle-shells riding buoyantly
on the waves of the stormiest piece of water in the world,
the Formosa Channel. Supported mainly by the sea, with
a rough and not particularly fertile hinterland, the people
of the province are driven to emigrate in great numbers,
and from Amoy, it is estimated, at least 200,000 able-
bodied men go every year to the Southern Seas, usually
on arrival indentured for terms of three to five years. In
Fukien are three treaty ports.
Santuao (260 40' N., 1190 40' E.), the " Haven of the
Three Marts," has one of the finest harbours in the world,
eminently suitable for a naval station; and this, with the
desire to protect it by quasi-neutralisation, led to its volun-
tary opening in 1899. The port is shut off by mountains
from all except a small distributing area, and the opening
has produced but small effect on trade, the only visible
result being that a quantity of tea, which formerly was
18


274 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
carried by porters over the mountains to Foochow, now
originates in Santuao, is shipped to Foochow for its old
market, and is re-exported thence. In 1904 the imports
by steamer were valued at Tls.53,723; to exports, tea
(110,772 piculs) contributed Tls.1,936,000, and all other
goods Tls.5,359.
Foochow (250 59' N., 1190 27' E.), the " City of Happi-
ness," the provincial capital, has a population estimated
at 625,000. It is situated on the Min River at a distance
of thirty-four miles from the sea, and nine miles above
Pagoda Anchorage, the highest point reached by steamers.
At Pagoda is the Foochow Arsenal, a government dock and
ship-building yard, partly destroyed by the French in 1884.
Foochow was opened as a treaty port under the British
treaty of 1842, but nothing was done to develop its trade
until ten years later, when traders went there to secure
the teas of Fukien, Kiangsi, and Anhwei, coming over the
mountains to the port; even after the opening of the
Yangtze ports in 1861, tea continued to go to Foochow
from the southern part of Anhwei. Foochow was opened
before the period of residential concessions (1861), nor has
it a settlement such as those of Shanghai, opened under
the same treaty. The residential quarter is on the south
side of the river, opposite the city, and its municipal organi-
sation is of the inchoate form described under Chefoo.
The resident foreign population of the district in 1905 was
841, including 194 British, 163 American, and 349 Japanese.
Foochow is an instance of a port which, as far as foreign
interests are concerned, is decadent; it depended mainly
on one industry, tea, and, with a diminishing tea trade,
its former prosperity has departed. In the following
figures, after the export value are given in parentheses the
quantities (in thousands of piculs) of shipments of tea,
including in 1904 and 1911 re-shipments of tea received from
Santuao.


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 273
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
.. 7,134.000
13,124,000 (487)
20,258,000
1874
4,668,220
15,406,672 (683)
20,074,892
1884
.. 5.038,689
8,508,752 (680)
13.547.441
1894
.. 6,425,919
7,025,013 (487)
13.450,932
1904
.. 10,048,966
7,217,002 (293)
17.265,968
1911
.. 8,437,141
8,859.075 (307)
17,296,216
1918
.. 8,253,811
7,388,408 (214)
15,642,219
Those are the figures for the trade by steamer, to which
in 1904, to get the total trade of the port, must be added
the value of the junk trade, imports Tls.3,134,173, exports
Tls.8,316,932, total Tls.11.451,105. During the year 1904
the principal imports, by steamer and junk, were cotton
fabrics (Tls.810,000 for foreign, and Tls.584,000 for native
weaving), cotton yarn (Tls.1,011,000), tin (Tls.159,000),
kerosene oil (Tls.747,000), sugar (Tls.309,000), beans
(Tls.516,000), bean- and tea-oil (Tls.475,000), and wheat
(Tls.485,000). The principal exports were tea (value,
including Santuao tea, Tls.7,117,000), soft-w00d timber
(Tls.4,736,000), edible bamb00 sh00ts (Tls.919,000), paper
(Tls.3,612,000); among other noted products of the port
are lacquered ware and ornaments carved from soapstone.
Amov (240 27' N., 1180 5' E.), a city of 300,000 in-
habitants on an island of the same name, serves as steamer
port for the prefectures of Chuanchow (Chinchew) and
Changchow. The outer anchorage offers g00d holding-
ground, but is exposed to the south-west, while the inner
harbour affords perfect shelter, except from typh00ns which,
getting in, are unable to find their way out. The inner
harbour, with a width of a third to a half-mile, lies between
Amoy, on which are the business offices, and the rocky
island of Kulangsu, which constitutes the foreign residential
quarter. The municipal organisation was of the headless
and unsanctioned kind until 1903, when Kulangsu was
made an International Settlement with powers of self-
government, much on the Shanghai model. In 1899 a


276 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Japanese concession was marked out on the Amoy side,
but has not been developed. At the upper end of the
inner harbour is a graving dock, 300 feet long and 60 feet
wide. The resident foreign population of the district in
1905 was 1,912, including 364 British, 35 American, and
1,426 Japanese. /Amoy is one of the tea markets of China,
the earlier shipments begin mainly of Amoy Oolong; this
soon deteriorated in quality, and, as the export fell off,
its place was taken by Formosa Oolong, the culture and
preparation of which were introduced by Amoy tea-men,
and which, even since the Japanese occupation of Formosa
(1895), has continued to find its way to Amoy to be there
blended, packed, and matted. The history of the trade in
Oolongs is interesting, and may be read in the following
figures of the quantities in piculs shipped from Amoy and
from Tamsui respectively, the Tamsui output being entirely
re-shipped to foreign countries, chiefly the United States:
Amoy Teas.
Formosa Teas.
via Amoy.
Direct.
1864
• «
• • 37,217
—
—
1874
• •
• • 71.560
24,610
—
1884
• •
.. 42,923
98,754
—
1894
• •
.. 29,312
137.245
—
1904
• •
3.065
100,683
63,630
1906
• •
2,450
59.005
67,717
1911
• 1
1,741
337
The following figures show the course of trade at Amoy,
the value of exports including that of Formosa tea imported
and re-exported:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
7,064,720
2,830,359
9,895.079
1874
5,692,781
4,617,061
10,309,842
1884
8,745,061
4,831,021
13.576,082
.1894
10,043,128
7,771,091
17,814,219
1904
.. 14,522,053
6,604,634
21,126,687
1911
16,671,785
3.74L554
20,413.339
1918
.. 11,431.407
2,494,876
13,926,283


278 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
people of the country are industrious husbandmen, and in
the cities is a laborious industrial population. The province
produces great quantities of rice, and imports annually
some half-million tons additional to supply the deficiency
for its needs; it also produces silk, good but inferior to
that of Kiangsu and Chekiang; tea, far inferior to its
former quality; matting, from a rush grown on the low
islands of the delta coast; cassia, from Loting ; ginger, from
the north-west; sugar from the eastern parts of the pro-
vince, from Leichow, and from Hainan; fruits, from all
parts; and sub-tropical produce generally. The industries
carried on in the cities are literally innumerable, but all
such as can be carried on by one man and his immediate
family working in his own shop or in his own home. In
the province are six treaty ports, Swatow, Canton, Samshui,
Kongmoon, Kiungchow, and Pakhoi; two Customs Stations,
Kowloon and Lappa, to supervise the junk trade between
China and Hongkong and Macao respectively; and two
ceded and one leased territories, Hongkong, Macao, and
Kwangchowwan.
Swatow (230 22' N., 1160 40' E.), an unofficial town
with a present population of 60,000, the port of Chaochowfu,
the easternmost prefecture of Kwangtung, was opened
to trade in 1860. The anchorage is good, four miles up
stream from Double Island, which lies as a breakwater
across the mouth of the Han River. The foreign com-
munity lives partly on the north, and partly on the south
side of the river, with the business offices on the north side,
and they have no municipal organisation. The people of
the Chaochow prefecture, commonly called the Swatow
men, are very clannish, holding themselves apart even
from their co-provincials the Cantonese, and are well
organised and closely united in every place in the Empire
to which trade has called them; and on many occasions
they have successfully resisted attempts to impose more
stringent conditions upon them (such as lower prices for
their products, higher freights, special clauses in a bill of


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS
lading, etc.) by united gild action, proceeding even on
occasion to the extreme measure of a boycott or of ab-
stention from all trade. The district is a large importer
of beans and bean-cake, and, though rice-producing, of rice
as well; its staple exports are sugar and tobacco. The
following figures show the course of trade:
Imports.
Exports.
Total.
Tls.
Tls.
Tls.
1864
6,399786
3,700,165
10,099,951
1874
.. 11,057,659
4,367,739
15,425,398
1884
., 12,385,969
7,386,349
19,772,318
1894
.. 19,424,841
6,483,667
25,908,508
1904
. . 34.615,923
14,664,863
49,280,786
1911
36,095,506
15,320,190
51,415,696
1918
35.048,206
15,134,731
50,182,937
The large excess of imports introduced into this self-
contained district is striking, and is explained by the value
of an export not recorded in ordinary statistics of trade,
that of the hardy and industrious c00lies who emigrate in
thousands for short-term service in the islands of the Malay
Archipelago. Among imports in 1904 the principal were
cotton fabrics (Tls.2,146,000), cotton yarn (Tls.3,699,000),
tin (Tls.645.000), flour (Tls.312,000), matches (Tls.256.000),
kerosene oil (Tls.738,000), rice (Tls.7,422,000), beans
(Tls.2,525,000), bean-cake(Tls.5,432,000),hemp(Tls.696,00o),
and wheat (Tls.343,000). The principal exports were
sugar (Tls.6,050,000), tobacco (Tls.866,000), grass-cloth
(Tls.837,000), and paper (Tls.1,749,000).
Canton (230 7' N., 1130 16' E.), the provincial capital,
is styled the " City of Rams," from the legend of the five
Immortals who rode into the city on five rams in the time
of the Chow dynasty (B.C. 1122-255); the rams were
turned into stone and are there to-day as visible evidence
of the truth of the tale. The name of the city is Kwangchow,
Canton being the Portuguese rendering of the name of the
province, Kwangtung. The estimates of the population
have ranged from 500,080 to 2,500,000, the figure now


280 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
generally accepted being 900,000. The foreign residents
in the district in 1905 were 1,437, including 225 British,
484 American, 65 German, 158 French, 140 Japanese, and
334 Portuguese. In the early years of trade the merchants
lived in the " Factories," surrounded by unsavoury Chinese
streets, and this continued after Canton was made a treaty
port in 1842; they were driven away in 1856, and on their
return in 1857 found their houses in ruins. The head houses
of the firms were then generally established in Hongkong,
and, in foreign trade, Canton became a mere commercial
dependency of the British colony. At Canton the'' factory"
sites were abandoned, and in 1859, a new residential quarter
was created by embanking and reclaiming Shameen, a mud
flat about half a mile long and a fifth of a mile wide in its
widest part, situated at the south-west corner of the city.
Of this reclamation four-fifths were assigned as the British
concession and one-fifth as the French concession; and
here, surrounded by a wide moat with guarded bridges,
the foreign community lives, somewhat restricted for space,
but self-governing on the model of the corresponding con-
cessions at Tientsin. This completes the list of the old-time
foreign concessions, all dating from 1859-1861—Newchwang,
Tientsin, Hankow, Kiukiang, Chinkiang and Canton. The
city and suburbs of Canton form a buzzing hive of workers,
and few sights in the world are more instructive, to the
sociologist and ethnologist, than a mere cursory trip in a
sedan-chair through the narrow, crowded, reeking, and
malodorous streets, in which the busy throng, hustling,
shouting, and pushing, yet manages to disentangle itself by
some rule of the road imperceptible to the insight of the
mere Westerner, and where a shop, filled with priceless
treasures of antiquity or with the dainty work of ivory-
carvers and silk-embroiderers, stands cheek by jowl with
a shop in which an artisan carries on some primitive handi-
craft with the implements and by the methods employed
by his progenitors a thousand years ago. Even the hasty
globe-trotter, who allots from his tour three days to India


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 281
and three hours to the Empire of China, may profitably
employ those three hours in such a trip, and feel that his
time has not been wasted; and as he steams back to Hong-
kong he will have the history of half a century of foreign
relations recalled to his mind by the sight of the stately
Roman Catholic cathedral erected by the French on the
site of the Viceroy's Palace, destroyed in 1857 by the
allied forces, who then occupied Canton, as a reminder of
the wanton destruction of foreign property in the preceding
year. The early history of the trade of Canton is the
history of the foreign trade of China, and is treated in that
chapter. In 1842, by the British treaty of Nanking, Canton
lost its monopoly of trade, and the produce of the country
was allowed to find its outlet where best it could by any
one of the four other ports—Shanghai, Ningpo, Foochow,
and Amoy—then opened to trade; and when, in 1860,
the Yangtze ports and Swatow were thrown open, Canton
was absolutely restricted to its own producing and supply
district. Since that time the course of trade is shown by
the following figures, the value of silk and its products (in
millions of taels) being put in parentheses after the value
of the export trade:
Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls.
11,516,815 (37) 24,578,045
9,860,220 (40) 12,253,305
16,287,633 (91) 22,914,074
13,853.243 (80) 25,740,024
18,031,721 (126) 45.417.597
43.361,439 (29'5) 96.247.076
54,627,044 (33-6) 102,224,621
58,020,793 (38-8) 103,226,078
It will be convenient to consider here the status of the
two supervising stations for the junk trade with Hongkong
and Macao, the stations of Kowloon and Lappa.
The foreign colonies of Hongkong and Macao being
free ports, with no Customs duties or supervision to trammel
Imports.
Tls.
1860 .
. 13,061,230
1864 .
• 2,393,085
1874 .
6,626,441
1884
. 11,886,781
1894 .
• 27,385,876
1904 .
• 52,885,637
1911
• 47.597.577
1918 .
• 45.205,295


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 283
the junk traffic from Chinese ports, mainly in the Canton
district, to Hongkong and Macao; and the value of the
trade passing their stations, added to the value of the trade
passing the Canton Customs, given above, may fairly
represent the collective trade of the Canton delta. This
collective trade has been as follows:
1887
29,186,636
31,656,019
60,842,655
1894
■ . 53,792,843
41,607,808
95,400,651
1904
92,650,896
65,102,878
157,753,774
1911
90,961,424
73,76o,559
164,721,983
1918
94,472,676
77'894,438
172,367,114
The principal imports into the delta through
the three offices
in 1904were cotton yarn (Tls.4,171,o00),flour (Tls.1, 133,000),
kerosene oil (Tls.3,834,000), rice (Tls.11,423,000), sesamum
seed (Tls.2,763,000), and sugar (Tls.1,276,000). The princi-
pal exports were silk and its products (Tls.31,420,000),
cassia (Tls.1,233,000), eggs (Tls.509,000), fans (Tls.572,000),
leather (Tls.601,000), straw mats (Tls.929,000), matting
(Tls.3,369,000), paper (Tls.1,234,000), and tobacco (Tls.
1,605,000). Tea, which in 1860 with shipment of 263,264
piculs, contributed 50 per cent. to the value of the export
trade of Canton in that year, in 1904 contributed (53,250
piculs) less than 2 per cent. to the value of the exports
passing the three offices.
Samshui (230 6' N., 1120 53' E.), " Three Waters," an
unimportant city of 5,000 inhabitants, situated at the
junction of the West and North Rivers, was opened as a
treaty port in 1897. It was expected to tap all the North
River trade and much of that by the West River, but the
hopes entertained have not been realised. In 1904 imports
were valued at Tls. 1,828,935 and exports at Tls.1,217,873,
a total of Tls.3,046,808. In 1911 the figures were Tls.
4,37o.103, Tls.1,315,146, and Tls.5,685,249.
Kongmoon (220 35' N., 1130 9' E.), "River-mouth," a
city of 35,000 inhabitants, situated on a side creek of the
Imports.
Tls.
Exports.
Tls.
Total.
Tls.


284 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
delta near the mouth of the westernmost branch of the
network of rivers, distant 70 miles steaming from Canton,
87 miles from Hongkong, and 45 miles from Macao, was
opened as a treaty port in 1904. The object of its
opening was to tap the trade of the western part of the
delta and of the district lying west of it, and a measurable
degree of success has been obtained. Not including the
trade by junk to and from Hongkong and Macao, which
is included in the statistics of the Kowloon and Lappa
stations, the value of the trade by steamer and junk
in 1905, the year following the opening, was—imports
Tls.3,082,954, exports Tls.3,794,676, total Tls.6,877,630.
In 1911 the figures were—imports Tls.4,191,990, exports
Tls.1,309,902, total Th.5,501,892. The principal exports
are palm-leaf fans, straw mats, and poultry.
Kiungchow (200 1' N., 1100 16' E.), the prefectural city
of the island of Hainan, contains a population of 35,000,
and is situated 3 miles inland from Hoihow (" Seaport ")
its port. Its opening as a treaty port was stipulated in the
treaties of 1858, but, as none of the mercantile community
had any interest in it, the actual opening was deferred
until 1876. The port serves the trade of Hainan and of
the prefecture of Luichow on the mainland, across the
Straits of Hainan, 12 miles wide. Hoihow, the port, has a
population of 25,000, and the anchorage is a roadstead open
to the Straits from north-east around to north-west, and
accessible to cargo-boats loading and discharging only at
high water of the one daily tide which rises here as in the
whole of the Gulf of Tonkin. The course of trade has
been as follows:
1884
1894
1904
1911
1918
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1,326,499 1,119,682 2,446,181
1,817,398 1,283,821 3,101,219
2,548,725 2,469,878 5,020,509
3,308,601 2,106,679 5,415,280
2,347,0I3 3,195,662 4.542,675


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 285
The principal exports in 1904 were pigs (65,306 valued
at Tls.881,631), sugar (Tls.507,000) and betel-nuts
(Tls.120,000).
Pakhoi (210 29' N., 1090 7' E.), "North of the Sea,"
a dirty, insanitary town of 20,000 inhabitants, situated at
the head of the Gulf of Tonkin, is the seaport of Limchowfu,
13 miles distant, and was opened as a treaty port in 1877.
In common with other ports on the Gulf it has but one tide
in the twenty-four hours. The district directly served by
it is poor and sandy, producing sugar, indigo, and ground-
nuts, with fishing and piracy as bye industries; and the
chief hope for any development of trade lay in the use of
the port as a side door through which to evade the fiscal
obstructions imposed on the natural routes to Yunnan and
Western Kwangsi, viz. the Red River through Tonkin and
the West River through Kwangsi. The figures for the trade
of Pakhoi given below are for years which have been selected
to show the paralysing effect of the Chinese system of
internal taxation, driving trade from natural water routes
to a channel by which expensive transport over hill roads
must be substituted; and they must be considered with
reference to the following dates:
1884 (seven years after opening of port), French occu-
pation of Tonkin transformed the frontier from an internal
to an external boundary.
1889, the opening of Mengtsz and relaxation of fiscal
restrictions in Tonkin restored the Red River to its natural
use as a trade route to Yunnan.
1897, tne opening of Wuchow as a treaty port, carrying
the one-duty privilege into Kwangsi and neutralising the
likin barriers of Kwangtung, made the West River avail-
able througn its entire course as a route to Yunnan and
Western Kwangsi. (For table see next page.)
The value of the trade of Pakhoi in 1904 was—imports
Tls.1,892,235, exports Tls.1, 122,423, total Tls.3,014,658.
The exports included sugar (Tls.296,000) and indigo
(Tls.257,000).


286 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Goods.
Annual Average in
1881-83.
1888-90.
1894-96.
1898-1900.
Shirtings Yards
36,120
4,081,600
3,127,160
1,488,120
499.250
576,900
T.-Cloths
1.337.95°
14,600
2.987.875
1,315,660
91,481
20,109
1.357.050
790,920
76,090
13.171
Fine cottons „
Cotton yarn, Piculs
",323
5.306
45.654
6,434
Long Ells Pieces
Total value of all
cotton and wool-
len good3 Tls.
357.899
2.454.334
1,922,160
1,221,749
Cessions in Kwangtung
There are no less than three areas in Kwangtung ceded
to foreign Powers under different conditions—Macao to
Portugal, Hongkong to Great Britain, and Kwangchowwan
to France.
Macao (220 11' N., 1130 33' E.) was first occupied
by the Portuguese in 1557, after their traders and trading
ships had been driven away from Ningpo and F00chow.
Here for three centuries they held under conditions which
were never clearly defined, one side contending that it was
by right of conquest and occupation, the other disputing
this and maintaining Chinese taxing stations within the
colony itself: one indisputable fact being that the Portu-
guese government paid to the Viceroy at Canton a rent
of Tls.500 in every year up to 1848. In that year the
Portuguese authorities refused to continue to pay the rent,
and expelled from the colony the Chinese taxing stations
and all other signs of Chinese authority. The sovereignty
of Portugal was recognised finally by China in the treaty
of 1887. The Portuguese and Dutch trading ships fre-
quented the port in the seventeenth century, the English
came there in the eighteenth century, and the English
and American in the first half of the nineteenth century,
making usually their final departure from Macao; and
when, in 1839 again in 1856, the merchants were


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 287
driven from their factories at Canton, it was in Macao that
they found refuge. The cession of Hongkong to the British
in 1842 and its development from 1856 gave a final blow
to the decadent legitimate trade of Macao, and from that
time its prosperity depended mainly upon the c00lie traffic,
until the Portuguese government suppressed it in 1874.
The Chinese Customs Station of Lappa {vide anted) was estab-
lished in 1887 to control the trade by junk between Macao
and Chinese ports. Macao occupies a small peninsula
connected by a narrow isthmus with Chinese territory,
and the cession includes two islands, Taipa and Kolowan,
dominating the harbour. The population on December 31,
1899, was 63,991, composed of 3,780 Portuguese, 154 other
foreigners, and 60,057 Chinese.
Hongkong (220 18' N., 1140 10' E.), '* Fair Haven,"
was formally occupied by the British authorities by a
notification published on May 1, 1841, and its cession was
recognised by China in the treaty of Nanking, the ratifica-
tions of which were exchanged at Hongkong on June 26,
1843. The Royal Charter creating the colony was dated
April 5, 1843. The original cession included only thel
island of Hongkong, with an area of 29 square miles. North
of this, between it and the mainland, is the fair haven of
Hongkong, one of the few harbours in the world which may
be called perfect, the eastern entrance being 600 yards wide,
and the western entrance full wide, but protected by out-
lying islands, while the anchorage has a general width of
a mile. The Kowl00n peninsula, with an area of about
two square miles, projecting towards the harbour on its north
side, was added to the cession in 1860. The northern side
of the harbour was dominated through its whole extent,
except for the Kowl00n peninsula, by Chinese territory;
and in 1899 the "Kowl00n Extension," with 376 square\
miles on the mainland, was added to the colony by a lease I
from the Chinese government for ninety-nine years, the lease
including also the large island of Lantao and the waters to
the farther shores of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay. Hongkong


288 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
has been a busy mart, especially since 1856, and has filled
for the ports of South China the function of distributing
centre, filled for North China and the Yangtze basin by
Shanghai; of the collective foreign trade of the whole of
China it may, with a fair degree of certainty, be said that
one-fourth of the imports and one-third of the exports are
financed and distributed through Hongkong, the balance
being handled by Shanghai or, to a small extent, directly
by subsidiary ports. This cannot be supported by re-
ference to the statistics of Hongkong, since the colony
publishes no statistics of trade; and the only statistics it
publishes—those of shipping—are misleading, since they
include in the foreign trade shipping actually engaged
in the coasting trade to places often only a few miles
, away. Hongkong was formally declared a free port on
I February 6, 1842, and a free port it has remained ever
since, subject only to the aid it has given, since 1887, to
the Chinese government in the prevention of smuggling in
opium. The Chinese Customs Station of Kowloon (vide antea)
was established in 1887 to control the trade by junk between
Hongkong and Chinese ports. A garrison of about 4,000
^is maintained in the colony, and the resident civilian
population in 1906 was 319,803, composed of 307,388
Chinese, 6,085 British and other Europeans and Americans,
and 5,902 other foreigners, mainly Asiatics. Of the Chinese
216,240 were males and 91,148 were females.
Kwangchowwan (21° 1' N., 11o" 25' E.) is one of the
four cessions on lease made in the period after the China-
Japan war, the four, with dates of first occupation, being
Kiaochow (Germany, November 14, 1897), Port Arthur
and Talien (Russia, March 27, 1898), Kwangchowwan
(France, April 22, 1898) and Weihaiwei (Great Britain,
May 24, 1898). The Bay of Kwangchow has a good
anchorage, but with a difficult entrance through sand-banks;
and access to Kwangsi by rail will be possible over a not
too difficult country. The French authorities have taken
no steps to develop the legitimate trade of the colony, and,


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 289
apart from the smuggling incidental to a free port, the
chief use of the cession has, so far, been to advance the
French flag so much the farther to the east and the nearer
to the mouth of the Canton river.
Kwangsi
Kwangsi, with an area of 78,000 square miles and a
population of 6,500,000, is in its central and eastern part at a
general altitude of 500 to 800 feet above the sea, and slopes
upward towards the mountains of the north and west, heights
of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. It includes the drainage basin of the
West River, the affluents of which converge, as the fingers
of the hand converge to the wrist, to their outlet at Wuchow,
the waters then flowing for a short distance in one channel
through Kwangtung until, at Samshui, they again diverge
to form the channels of the Canton delta. Proceeding up
the West River, to the west, it is known by that name as
far as Sunchow (Tamchow in local dialect), where it is
bifurcated into the North and South Rivers. The North
River receives several important affluents, but slightly
navigable, and is itself navigable for some distance by boats
of 20 tons capacity. The South River is often also called
the West River (constituting, as it does, the main trade
route) up to a point 30 miles above Nanning, where it is
bifurcated into the Left Branch leading to Lungchow, and
the Right Branch leading to Poseh, whence is a main trade
route into Yunnan, by which the trade with Hongkong
and Canton via Wuchow and via Pakhoi finds its way;
Poseh is accessible to large native craft, of perhaps 30 tons
capacity, navigated through the many rapids with great
skill. The fall of the river from Poseh to Wuchow, about
500 miles, is 800 feet. Entering the system at Wuchow is
the Cassia River, running south from the provincial capital,
Kweilin, from the head waters of which a small canal gives
access to the head waters of the Hsiang River, flowing
through Hunan into the Yangtze. The people are a riotous
lot, considering brigandage and rebellion the natural con-
19


290 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
comitants of a bad harvest; it was in Kwangsi that the
Taiping rebellion t00k its rise, and the latest of the rebel-
lions of China was that of Kwangsi 1902-1905. Its natural
products are not important, with the exception of aniseed,
of which the province has almost a world monopoly; it
comes from two districts, one lying around Poseh, the
other, giving oil of better quality, lying across the Tonkin
frontier between Lungchow and Langson. In minerals
the province offers great, but as yet unproved, possibilities.
A geologist has stated, though not with the sense of re-
sponsibility attaching to a report, that within one square
mile he found by boring coal, iron, copper, and lead, a
richness probably unsurpassed by many individual square
miles in the world. These minerals are all known to exist,
as well as gold, silver, antimony, asbestos, bismuth, etc.
Timber is cut on the mountains of the north-west. In the
province are three treaty ports.
Wuchow (23° 29' N., 111° 20' E.), a city of 65,000 in-
habitants, opened as a treaty port in 1897, is well placed
for its purpose. Its treaty port status enables the trader
to carry his g00ds, import or export, past the numerous and
vexatious likin barriers of Kwangtung; and at Wuchow
he commands the waterways of the province, all of which
converge to that point. The development of the steamer
traffic is shown by the following figures:
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1898 .. 2,976,807 1,244,951 4,221,758
1904 .. 7,806,436 3.277.791 11,084,227
1911 6,849,795 3,807,867 10,657,662
In addition the value of the trade by junk was—
Imports. Exports. Total.
Tls. Tls. Tls.
1911 .. 1,659,880 14,750,024 16,409,904
making the total trade of the port in
1911 amount to 27,067,566


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 2QI
Of the total foreign import by steamer in 1904 entitled to
them, with a value of Tls.7,487,289, no less than 80 per
cent. was sent inland under transit passes, thereby escaping
likin taxation, 13 per cent. within the province, 59 per cent.
into Kweichow, and 8 per cent. into Yunnan. In 1904 the
principal exports were aniseed and aniseed-oil (Tls.410,000),
cattle (11,126 valued at Tls.251,000), poultry (Tls.351.000),
and hides (Tls.591.000).
Lungchow (220 22' N., 1060 45' E.), *' Dragon City,"
is of the type of frontier port which will be described under
Mengtsz. It was opened to foreign trade in 1889 in the
hope that the trade of Western Kwangsi might pass through
it to Tonkin, by the railway which it was the intention of
the French government to promote. The railway, built
in Tonkin, has not been extended beyond the frontier over
the 40 miles of much accidented country which intervene
between it and Lungchow, and the trade which it was to
attract continues to find its way to Canton, by a river
journey of 800 miles. The Customs officials stationed
there find little to do except to admire the picturesque
scenery, the value of the trade in 1905 being—imports
Tls.163,330, exports Tls.67,122, total Tk.230,452. In 1911
the total was Tls.257,196, and in 1918 Tls.99,601. The
principal imports were timber and dye-yams, and the princi-
pal export, other than opium, was American kerosene oil
which had come up the river from Canton.
Nanking (220 48' N., 1080 15' E.), a city of about
100,000 inhabitants, situated about 30 miles below the
junction of the Right and Left Branches of themain (southern)
stream of the West River, is the commercial centre for
south-western Kwangsi, and a forwarding depot for the
West River route to Yunnan. That portion of the Yunnan
and Kwangsi traffic which passes through Pakhoi con-
verges on this point. The opening of Nanning to foreign
trade has been under consideration for some time, and it
was opened voluntarily by China, on January 1,1907. The
Municipal Government will, it is announced, be of the type


292 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
adopted at Yochow. In 1911 the trade was valued at—
imports Tls.2,124,928, exports Tls.2,575,589, total Tls.
4,700,517; in 1918 the total was Tls.6,930,736.
Yunnan
Yunnan, " South of the Clouds," is an elevated plateau
of bright sunshine, lying south of cloud-covered and foggy
Szechwan. It was the last of the Eighteen Provinces to
be assimilated by the Empire, its direct government by
China dating only from the time of Kublai Khan (A.d.1260),
through whose conquest Yunnan was annexed and his
suzerainty over Burma, Annam, and Cambodia reaffirmed.
The area is put at about 145,000 square miles, and the
population at 8,500,000. The Panthay rebellion in 1867,
occasioned by an attempt on the part of the Mohammedan
population to set up a government of their own, was sup-
pressed with great difficulty and with ruthless slaughter;
and this brought in its train the bubonic plague, which
was for many years endemic in Yunnan (at Mengtsz, with
a resident population of 12,000, nearly 1,000 deaths are
said to have occurred in each of the years 1892 to 1896),
was first seen by the European surgeons at Pakhoi in 1882,
and reached Hongkong and the outer world in 1894. These
causes for a reduction in the population, combined with
the ungrateful nature of the soil, explain the small density
of population for the province. Yunnan is decidedly moun-
tainous. The western part is covered with mountain chains
rising to heights through which the passes are over 8,000 feet
in altitude, with steep slopes running north and south, the
valleys containing rivers with great volumes of water,
formed by the rains and melted snows of Himalayan ranges,
rushing down through rocky beds which themselves are
several thousand feet above the level of the sea. The
greater part of the eastern portion has been described
as " an elevated broken plateau, having an average height
of 5,000 feet " ; but this " plateau" is so broken up that
the plains cannot be discerned, and the mountains are the


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 293
most distinguishing feature. The waterways are unavail-
able for transport within the province, acting with their
deep valleys rather as barriers to trade; and the paucity
of the population forbids the use of human porters, making
the pack-mule and horse, supplemented on emergency by
pack-cattle, the only agency of transportation. The water
outlets from the province begin only on its borders, and
those available for the major operations of trade are three:
the Red River from the southern border into Tonkin, sup-
plemented by the railway to Yunnanfu,the provincial capital;
the West River from the eastern border, leading to Canton
and Hongkong; and the Yangtze from the northern border,
leading down to Hankow and Shanghai. Of the agricultural
products of the province, the only one deserving attention is
opium, which is considered in the chapter on that drug, and
which is the principal means by which Yunnan pays for the
imports which it consumes. The chief wealth of the pro-
vince is in its minerals, of which there are known to exist
cinnabar, coal, copper, gold, iron, lead, orpiment, salt,
silver, tin, and zinc. The mining industry was severely
crippled by the Panthay rebellion, but prior to that date,
though iron ore is the most abundant, copper was mined
on a much larger scale in order to provide for the require-
ments of the mints of the Empire, which formerly were
almost entirely dependent upon the Yunnan mines for
their needs, which may be put at about 6,000 tons annually.
Argentiferous lead ranks next in importance, of which over
twenty mines were known. Tin comes from Kochiu, about
20 miles from Mengtsz, from which port 4,500 tons
were exported in 1905. Coal, though known to exist, has
not been mined to any considerable extent. The salt
produced in the province supplies its own population.
Along the southern and western frontier of the province are
three treaty ports.
Mengtsz (230 24' N., 1030 22' E.), population 12,000, may
be taken to illustrate the frontier port, and is the only one
of the four now open which has developed a trade worthy


294 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of consideration. Situated at an altitude of 4,500 feet, it
is 40 miles distant from its junk port, Manhao (altitude
900 feet) on the Red River, which again is six days' junk
journey above Hokow; this last place on the Yunnan side,
opposite to Laokay on the Tonkin side of the frontier, was
in 1895 made the first sub-port of entry for the Mengtsz
district. Before the building of railways, the course for
imports from Haiphong during the summer floods was by
steamer to Laokay, and during the winter by steamer to
Yenbay, thence by native craft up the rapids to Laokay;
thence by native craft to Manhao; thence by pack-animal
to Mengtsz, and so on for distribution through the
province, each pack-animal taking an average load of
160 lb. Mengtsz was opened as a treaty port in 1889,
with the special stipulation, not applying to coast and
riverine ports, that imports should pay only seven-tenths
and exports only six-tenths of the tariff duty; moreover,
when the revised Import Tariff was put in force in 1902,
it was held that the old tariff, with its lower duties, was
still to be applied to the frontier ports. Transit dues,
being half the tariff duty, are, however, based on the un-
diminished rate, and it is chiefly to avoid the Chinese
inland taxation that the trade of Mengtsz, in particular,
has been developed; of the imports in 1904 nearly 74
per cent. continued their journey under transit pass, one-
sixth of this transit trade adopting this roundabout way
for Kweichow. The opening of Wuchow (1897) produced no
effect on the trade of Mengtsz, as shown by the following
figures, the percentage of imports going inland under transit
pass being given in parentheses after the import values:
1894 ..
1899 ..
1904 ..
1911
1918 ..
Imports.
Tls.
1,241,879 (92)
3,373,641 (85)
6,063,777 (74)
4,644,758 (77)
9,474,225 (70)
Exports.
Tls.
943,321
1,883,297
4,683,522
6,750,304
11,398,818
Total.
Tls.
2,185,200
5,256,938
10,747,299
11,395,062
20,873,043


THE PROVINCES AND THE TREATY PORTS 295
The principal import in 1904 was cotton yarn (Tls.3,732,00o),
and the principal exports were opium (Tls.1,332,000) and
tin (Tls.3,187,000). Of the imports 86 per cent. were
declared from Hongkong in bond through Tonkin, and 14
per cent. from Tonkin; of the exports 70 per cent. were
declared for Hongkong, and 30 per cent. (including opium
Tls.1,332,000 out of Tls.1,404,000) for Tonkin.
Szemao (220 47' N., 1010 2' E.), also called Esmok, with
a population of 15,000, at an altitude of 4,700 feet, is situated
in the south-west corner of Yunnan at a distance of eighteen
days' pack-animal journey from Mengtsz and from Yunnanfu
six days from the French Laos frontier, and twelve days
from the British Shan frontier. The transport is solely
by pack-animals. The port was opened in 1896, and the
value of its trade in 1904 was—imports Tls.221,753, exports
Tls.45,230, total Tls.266,983. The principal import was
cotton, and there were no exports distinguished above
others. In 1911 the total was Tls.235,208.
Tengyueh (240 45' N., 980 15' E.), with a population of
10,000, lies at an altitude of 5,500 feet. Situated on the
western border of Yunnan, it is seven days' pack-animal
journey from Bhamo in Burma, and twenty-four days'
from Yunnanfu, by a road crossing a succession of mountain
passes rising at times to 8,000 feet, and dipping into valleys
some as low as 2,500 feet above the sea. The opening of
Tengyueh, attempted in 1900, was accomplished in 1902,
and in 1904 its trade was—imports Tls. 1,747,820, exports
TIs.337,684, total Tls.2,085,504. In 1911 the total was
Tls.1,684,213, and in 1918 Tls.3,952,883. The principal
imports in 1904 were cotton fabrics (Tls.393,000), cotton yarn
(Tls.849,000), and raw cotton (Tls.184,000); the principal
export was yellow silk (Tls.224,000). Of the imports 74
per cent. in 1904 and 69 per cent. in 1911 went inland under
transit pass, three-fourths to Yunnan points, and one-fourth
across the whole width of Yunnan in Szechwan and Kwei-
chow.


296 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Tibet
Tibet contains one treaty port, Yatung (280 N., 890 E.),
with no inhabitants and collecting no revenue. The value
of the trade passing there in 1903 (before trade was inter-
rupted by the advance of the British Mission of 1904)
was—imports Tls.343,020, exports Tls.343,662, total Tls.
686,682.


",
i
i
I


22
9


298 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
mately losing his life. Other ships arrived and initiated
trade at Ningpo (where a regular " factory," or trading-
post, was established), Foochow, and Amoy, while three
posts were established near Canton, one being at Macao.
The general conduct of the Portuguese was in keeping
with the attitude maintained at that time by all Christian
nations toward the heathen, probably intensified by the
difficulty of getting the better of Chinese traders in a
bargain, and the Imperial order went out to slay them.
This was done effectively in the north, 800 losing their
lives at Ningpo, and the Portuguese concentrated at Macao,
where they were allowed to settle in 1557 on payment
of Tls.500 annually as rent; in 1573 the Chinese shut in
the settlement by a wall, and in 1587 established a civil
magistracy to rule the Chinese inhabitants and collect all
dues of the government: both endured until 1848. Several
Portuguese embassies went, or attempted to go, to Peking:
the first, accompanying de Andrade in 1517, was stopped
at Canton; the second, in 1552, was stopped by the Portu-
guese Governor at Malacca; a third in 1667 reached Peking,
but accomplished nothing; a fourth in 1727 was graciously
received at Court, but secured no tangible advantages;
and the same result attended a fifth in 1753. After the
assertion of the independence of Macao in 1848, political
relations became strained, and with one exception (Mexico),
Portugal was the last of the Western Powers to secure (in
1887) a treaty of amity and commerce with the Imperial
Government.
The Spanish were the next to enter into the foreign
trade of China. They had entered the East from the West
through the Philippines in 1543, by reason of the decision
of the Borgian court of delimitation; and their first visit
to China was in 1575, when they were well received at
Canton. A diplomatic mission started for Peking in 1580,
but was detained at Canton and sent back to Manila; this
was the last embassy until 1847, an<i the first treaty was
made in 1864. The development of the Spanish trade with


FOREIGN TRADE
299
China was left to the Chinese trading between Manila and
Fukien ports (Amoy, Chinchew, etc.), and the Chinese
population of Manila increased so fast, became so influential,
and showed so much independence, that in 1602 the
Spaniards instituted a general massacre, and killed most
of the 20,000 Chinese immigrants. Thus, up to the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century, the Chinese could only
judge that European traders based their trade on cannon
and the sword.
The Dutch first arrived in 1604, and next in 1622, when
a fleet of seventeen vessels appeared off Macao. Portugal
was then a part of the Spanish dominion, and Macao was
fair spoil of war and was attacked; the Dutch were, however,
driven off and proceeded to the Pescadores, from which they
were driven by the Chinese, partly by force of arms, partly
by negotiation ; they then settled in Formosa, over which at
that time China had no right of government. Here they
built two massive brick blockhouses (tradition says they
brought the bricks from Holland!) with walls six to eight
feet thick and thirty feet high, one in 1624, Fort Zealandia, at
Taiwanfu in the south, one at Tamsui in the north. Their
first embassy to Peking was in 1655, where it was received
and had the distinction of being, except its own successor, the
only European embassy, from first to last, to perform the
kotow. In 1662, after a siege in Fort Zealandia of nine
months, the Dutch were driven from Formosa by Koxinga,
an independent partisan. In 1663 they occupied Amoy, and
in 1664 sent a trading expedition to F00chow; but after
that were content to trade at Canton on the same f00ting as
others. A special embassy went to Peking in 1665, and
their last was in 1795. Their treaty, on the same terms
as those of other nations, was made in 1863.
The English made several attempts to reach China
after the date, 1596, when Elizabeth wrote a letter to the
Emperor, which was not delivered; but the first to arrive
in China was Weddell, who reached Macao in June 1637.
The policy of every nation in that day was to restrict the


300 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
trade of others, in the belief that trade was a stagnant
reservoir, the abstraction of a portion of the contents of
which by others would leave so much the less for them-
selves; and the Portuguese interposed obstacles and mis-
represented matters to the Chinese authorities in such a
way, that Weddell's fleet was fired on from the Bogue Forts.
A good answer was made, and in the end Weddell was
allowed to obtain a cargo. The next attempt was in 1664,
when one ship was sent to Macao, but returned without
a cargo. Trade was opened with Formosa, not then under
the Imperial authority, and in 1677 one small ship was
sent to Amoy. In 1678 the ships took " trading goods"
valued at £4,000 and £6,000 in specie, and brought back
silks, rhubarb, and spelter. The Amoy post was abandoned
in 1681 and re-established for a short time in 1685. The
English were unable to obtain a footing at Canton before
1684, and even then could do little trade owing to the
opposition of the Portuguese, an important item in the
budget of the colony of Macao consisting of presents to
the Chinese officials, given to secure a monopoly. The
trade prospered, however, little by little, until in 1701 the
"investment" for Canton amounted to £40,800, while
that for Amoy was £34,400. In 1701 an unprofitable
attempt was made to trade at Ningpo. At Canton in 1702
a beginning was made of what afterward developed into the
"Hong" or " Factory" system. The English trade with
China was in the hands of the East India Company until
the abolition of its monopoly in 1834, all other English
merchants trading under the Company's license. The first
British embassy to Peking was that of Lord Macartney in
1793, which was well and honourably received, but produced
no practical result; and the second was that of Lord
Amherst in 1816, who did not secure an audience, owing
to regrettable misunderstanding. The third was that of
Lord Napier in 1834, whose necessary assertion of the
sovereignty and dignity of his country led, in the
natural sequence of events, to the first war between


FOREIGN TRADE
301
China and a Western Power, and to the first British treaty
of 1842.
The Russians approached China first by land, their
first, unsuccessful, embassy reaching Peking in 1567 ; others,
also unsuccessful, reaching Peking in 1619 and 1653. Their
earliest trading caravans reached Peking in 1658, 1672, and
1677. The first treaty was signed in 1689, partly to regu-
late land trade, but chiefly to recover from Russia ground
she had occupied in farther Manchuria. Other diplomatic
missions followed in 1692, 1719, 1727, 1755, and others up
to the mission which signed the treaty of 1858. In 1806
the Russians sent two ships to open up the sea trade with
Canton; they obtained cargoes, but the only result was
that the Chinese prohibited all trade to nations not already
established in the Canton factories.
The French first made touch with China, other than by
missionary enterprise, by a letter written by Louis XIV.
to Kanghi in 1688. The first commercial attempt was in
1728, but it was followed up only by private enterprise.
The French flag was again hoisted at Canton in 1802, but
was hauled down on the resumption of hostilities with the
English, and was not again raised until 1829. Their first
diplomatic mission was in 1844, and by it the first treaty
was signed.
The Americans first made direct entry into the China
trade in 1784, their previous connection with it having been
solely through the East India Company, which was espe-
cially insistent that they should buy its tea. Though now
an independent nation, they crept in under the wing of the
English, but with the friendly support of the French, and
joined in the " factory " life of the day. The only political
event especially concerning them was the suspension of
American trading in 1821 owing to what the Americans
believed was the accidental killing of a Chinese by an
American sailor; when the American was given up and had
been strangled, trade was resumed. The first American
embassy was in 1844, when the first treaty was signed.


302 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
By this time the Americans had attained a position in the
trade of Canton second only to the English, a development
fostered by their position as neutrals during the Napoleonic
wars and as free-traders in a world of monopoly, but furthered
by the Yankee trading instinct.
Other nations had come at various dates to share in
the China trade, and there had been established among
the factories at Canton the Swedish, Danish, and Imperial;
the memory of the Danes is still preserved in Dane Island
at Whampoa, and the Imperial factory provided chiefly
for what is now Belgian trade and, possibly, for that of
the Hanseatic towns. Others, without separate factories,
came also under British protection from India, as if in antici-
pation of their future absorption. The Portuguese remained
solely at Macao, but otherwise Canton was a microcosm
with (in the order from east to west) its Dutch, East India
Company's, general English, Swedish, Imperial, American,
French, Spanish, and Danish factories, with four others
let out in apartments.
Factory and Hong System
In the old Canton regime, the " factory" (which must
be underst00d in the old sense of the residence or station
of the "factor" or agent of the home company) repre-
sented the purely foreign side, being the counting-house,
warehouse, treasury, and residence of the foreign trader
during such time of the year as he was allowed to remain
at Canton. The Hong, or Co-Hong, or Gild was the sole
medium through which the foreign trader could enter into
trade relations with the Chinese Empire. The first steps
in this direction were taken in 1702, when one man was
appointed to be the sole broker through whom all foreigners
should buy and sell. In 1720 the Co-Hong was established
as a body corporate, and in 1745 their position was re-
affirmed, they were given an absolute monopoly of all
dealings with foreigners, and were held responsible for their


304 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
to Whampoa and must not engage in clandestine trade
elsewhere.
These and others of the older regulations remained in
full force up to the very last of the factory days. In 1830,
for example, no less than three ladies, wives of some of
the staff of the E.I.C. factory, ventured to come from
Macao to Canton, where their arrival caused great com-
motion; they left after a few days, but not until the
officials threatened to stop all trade! By this system
the foreign trader, living ordinarily at Macao, came to
Canton to attend to the business of his ship, and while
there lived in his factory; when his ship's business was
finished, he was supposed to return to Macao, or to any
other place in the outside world, obtaining for his exit, but
not for his entrance, a permit (or rather four documents:
1st, a guarantee by several of the Hong merchants ; 2nd, the
Hoppo's laissez passer ; 3rd, a formal pass to be countersigned
by each fort and taxing station en route; 4th, a permit for
the effects and property taken along), for which he paid a
fee which, on occasion, would rise as high as Tls.300 (£100).
This was the theory; in practice the ships arrived in fleets,
or at fixed periods, aiming at reaching Canton as soon after
the north-east monsoon had set in as possible (October),
and at leaving before the south-west monsoon had
developed force (say March) to prevent a good passage
down the China Sea; and the foreigners usually came and
went in a body. During the summer one or two members
would be left in Canton, not, ostensibly, to protect the
factory, which was under the absolutely trustworthy
protection of the Co-Hong, or rather of that member
specifically assigned to the factory, but on the pretext,
always accepted for an annually recurring consideration,
that an out-of-season ship was, or might be, expected,
or that their import cargoes had not been sold. When
a ship arrived, its first duty was to obtain a licensed pilot
at Macao, and a ship's comprador first at Macao, later at
Whampoa, the anchorage, ten miles below Canton: these.


FOREIGN TRADE
305
especially the latter, monopolised all dealings with the ship,
as ship, fixing their own prices. On arrival at the Bogue
(Boca Tigris, H00munchai, Tiger's Gullet), the one narrow
entrance for laden ships, a permit to enter had to be taken
out, for which fees had to be paid. An authentic account *
of the fees paid for a ship entering in 1830 shows the ex-
treme elasticity of the official tariff, over and above the
gratifications paid to numerous subordinates to facilitate
the sm00th running of the machinery.
Tls.
Tonnage dues calculated according to measure-
ment of length and breadth .. .. 842' 285
Loss in converting into bullion 75 806
Shroffage 15-161
Official gratuity 810 691
Hoppo's " fee for opening the barrier" .. 480'420
Transport to Peking and weighing in Govern-
ment scales .. .. .. .. .. 150- 145
To the Superintendent of the Treasury .. 116 424
Add 1-fe per cent. converting into bullion .. 1212
2,492212
Difference in weights between Canton and
Peking, 7 per cent.f 174 455
Total .. .. Tls.2,666667
equivalent at the ordinary exchange of the day to about
£900, but evidently not including " all the old charges of
measurement, entrance, and port-clearance fees, daily and
monthly fees, etc.," which, according to the special Regula-
tion of July 1843, "are to be abolished." Under present
regulations, which have been in force since 1858, the total
* "The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton," by W. C. Hunter,
f The actual difference in weights is under 1 per cent., but the
other way around, the Canton scale being the heavier.
20


306 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
sum payable on the above account for this ship of 420 tons
is Tls.168, equivalent at to-day's exchange to £25. When
the ship arrived at Whampoa, she continued to be a source
of daily profit to the ship's comprador, to the officials
from daily and monthly fees, from payments to subordinates,
and from some uncertain gratuities to expedite her de-
parture. Her agent in Canton took her manifest, giving
full particulars of the cargo, and handed it to that member
of the Co-Hong who was responsible, and the Co-Hong
took all the necessary steps and paid all the necessary
sums to have the cargo discharged into privileged (monopoly)
lighters and brought to the factory. The specie, which
formed a great part of the inward lading, was then de-
posited in the treasury of the factory, and the cargo might
be sold to the factory's member of the Co-Hong and to no
one else. Outside these limitations there was no com-
pulsion; the importer could hold for a better market,
or he could send his goods back whence they came (thereby
materially reducing the space available for tea), but he
need not sell unless he wished. For export cargo the main
staple was tea, which was almost invariably contracted
for a year ahead; here again the foreign trader had his
option; he could fix both quantity and price at time of
contracting, or he could fix the quantity only, leaving the
price to be settled according to the rates ruling for quality
on the opening of next season's tea market. Shipments of
silk could not exceed a certain limit (140 piculs = 167 cwt.)
for any one ship—except on paying for the privilege,
not according to a tariff, but enough to secure the permit.
"Chow-chow" cargo (as it was then termed, the " muck
and truck" of to-day's jargon, "sundries" other than
tea and silk) could be shipped apparently without special
limit, but a special permit—paid for—was required for
shipments of bullion, the export of which was actually
prohibited. When the export cargo, taken down in privi-
leged lighters, was duly laden on board, the Co-Hong
obtained the "Grand Chop" or clearance permit—paid


FOREIGN TRADE
307
for; provided with which the ship could proceed to sea.
This was a system which worked without friction. Every
one was pleased: the foreign merchant enjoyed his practical
monopoly, and had nothing of the extortion thrust under
his eyes, while the annoyances of his daily life were as
nothing to the prospects of rapid fortune; the Co-Hong
paid, one way and another, its millions, but could recoup
itself many times; and the officials were quite contented.
The best commentary on its commercial aspect is the
admitted fact that there grew up side by side, during a
century of joint working, a body of Chinese and of foreign
merchants than whom there has never, at any time or at
any place, been a more honourable; with never a written
contract, with many an occasion of help in time of difficulty,
and with much sympathy and friendliness from one to the
other. When the East India Company was thrust from
its high estate in 1834 and the British government sent
a Royal Envoy to assume, for the first time, the control
of trade, then the full light of day was thrown on the
system, and it was seen to be, from its governmental side,
a system not of taxation but of milking. From first to
last the foreign trade was milked. From the time a ship
entered port until she left, she and her equipment and her
cargo and her agents were solely in the hands of men who
were under the authority and direct control of the Co-
Hong or the officials. Disregarding the smaller fry—
the licensed and monopolist pilots, ship chandlers, steve-
dores, lighterers, brokers, shroffs, linguists, guides—all
of whom dipped their hands into the pot, we need only
consider the relations between those most friendly of
rivals, the foreign traders and the Co-Hong merchants. The
foreigner was surrounded by an impenetrable veil; he had
no access to markets, he could not even walk down a street
of shops, he could send no independent and trustworthy
agent out to inquire prices, but must in all cases accept
without criticism the prices offered by his broker, a member
of the Co-Hong. This applied equally to imports and to


FOREIGN TRADE
309
Chinese were stubborn; and a further element was thrown
into the crucible by the suddenly revived but undoubtedly
honest prohibition sentiment of the Imperial Court towards
opium. The contest lasted for twenty-six years, from 1834
to 1860, and had behind it four main elements of strife—
1st, The claim for equality of treatment as between
nations: this was settled by the British treaty of 1842,
and finally settled in 1860.
2nd, The opium question: this, in their treaty of 1842,
imposed at the cannon's mouth, the British left alone, and
it was finally settled incidentally by the inclusion of opium
in the tariffs annexed simultaneously to all the treaties
of 1858.
3rd, The monopoly of the Co-Hong and the irregular
incidence of taxation: this was settled in 1842.
4th, Security to foreigners for life, limb, and property
from the principles of Chinese law and their inequitable
application: this the British treaty of 1842 left unsettled,
and it was first introduced into the British supplementary
treaty of H00munchai (1843) and the American treaty of
1844.
The position was now reversed, and from 1860,
partly by the action of Great Britain and later of Great
Britain and France, partly through the weakness caused
to China by rebellion and disorder, the foreign Powers have
been masters of the situation, and foreign trade has been
conducted on conditions laid down by them and not by
China.
The component elements of the old trade are not well
known, and will some day be elucidated by a study of the
East India Company's archives for the period. All that is
known is that China wanted very li,ttle that the West could
supply. Cotton manufactures in 1905 constituted 44 per
cent. of the value (excluding opium) of all foreign imports;
but in this industry the' West could compete with cheap
Asiatic labour only after the development springing from the
inventions of Richard Arkwrjght and Eli Whitney, and


316 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the move-
ment of cotton cloth was from China to the West, in the
shape of nankeens to provide small-clothes for our grand-
fathers. W00llens were wanted, but only in small quantities,
the Chinese preferring their own silks, and even now the
import of w00llens does not exceed 1 per cent. of the
total import trade. Quicksilver and lead were wanted,
but in no great quantities; and the g00ds introduced con-
sisted to a great extent of those articles which were objects
of curiosity to the Chinese, corresponding to the lacquered
boxes and carved ivories, the painted fans and quaint
Buddhas, which went to the West in exchange. Apart
from opium, to be considered in another chapter, and raw
cotton, imported into a cotton-producing country, the trade
was on a cash basis. It was before the day of extended
bank facilities, by which an excess of exports from one
country is paid for by the imports into another country,
and at Canton there were no banks, each factory and each
merchant having a treasury which must always be kept
stocked with specie, an individual factory having frequently
over a million dollars on hand; only the East India Company
worked its India and its China trade one into the other,
and drew or gave bills on Bombay or Calcutta, receiving
or shipping treasure only when funds were not sufficient
to cover its bills. To some extent the Dutch India Com-
pany could do the same, but generally the movement of
merchandise from the Dutch Indies was outward, as it was
from China. This course was not open to others, and the
lading of a ship of 498 tons which left New York for Canton
in 1824 may probably be taken as more or less typical;
it consisted of furs (coal to Newcastle !), bar and scrap
iron (probably as ballast), lead (required for packing tea,
but also mined in China), quicksilver (in demand, import
779,600 lbs. in 1868 and 156,000 lbs. in 1905), and 350,000
Spanish dollars in kegs. That veracious historian, J.
Fenimore C00per,* writing in 1847 of a trade of which
* "The Crater."


FOREIGN TRADE 311
he had some knowledge, describes two voyages of the
g00d ship Rancocus in 1796 and 1798. In the first she
sailed from Philadelphia to Europe, and there engaged in
trade, profitable to neutrals, " until a certain sum in Spanish
dollars (specie was scarce in America at that time) could be
collected, when she was to . . . make the best of her way
to Canton," and load tea. In the second she sailed for
the South Pacific islands with "trade g00ds" and axes to
pick up a cargo of sandalw00d (with some misgivings in
the minds of her owners as to its employment for idolatrous
purposes), and, after an interrupted voyage, arrived in
Canton, sold her sandalw00d at g00d prices, bought tea,
and had some thousands of dollars surplus, also spent in
Canton, but for another purpose. In the year 1831, so
Hunter informs us, three ships, arriving from New York,
brought with them $1,100,000 in coin. Even as late as
1859, a year m which the imports and exports of merchandise
at Shanghai about balanced, the import of treasure at that
port through foreign channels was Tls.10,483,550 and the
export Tls.4,246,067; and in 1860, with exports exceeding
imports in value, the movement of treasure at Shanghai
was Tls.15,201,277 inwards and Tls.1,742,510 outwards.
After that date banking facilities were more fully developed
in the East, and in 1905 was seen the spectacle of a
Chinese import trade (Hs.447,000,000) valued at nearly
double the value of the export trade (Tls.228,000,000)
and financed with only a comparatively trifling movement
of treasure, about ten million taels on balance for the year,
and that inwards, in the same direction as the merchandise.
The truth is that China has for centuries levied tribute,
commercially, on the outside world in a way which will be
referred to later.
The new trade of China, based on conditions laid down
by the foreign Powers, has been conducted since 1860 on
lines similar in many ways to those followed in other parts
of the world, and practically identical up to the moment
when foreign imports are sold to the Chinese distributor,


312 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
and from the moment when Chinese produce is bought for
shipment; but one fact must be borne in mind, that Customs
duty is levied in China on exports as well as on imports,
both being assessed at rates based on a nominal five per cent,
levy. The development of trade in the past forty-five
years cannot be fully gauged by a mere statement of the
total value inwards and outwards, since a much more
important factor is the increase in the number of articles
demanded from the West and of those supplied for export.
The Chinese Customs statistics, issued from 1860, assumed
their present shape in 1867, and that year is taken for
comparison with 1905 in order to show the progress made
in the exchange of commodities during thirty-nine years of
the new dispensation.
Shipping
During the sixteenth century the only ships trading
to China were the Portuguese. During the seventeenth
century Portuguese ships traded to Canton, Dutch to
Formosa and Amoy, and English to Amoy and, from 1684,
to Canton. In the eighteenth century trade was rigidly
restricted to Canton, and at this port the flags of the principal
maritime commercial nations were shown in greater or less
numbers, including, from 1784, the American. In the first
part of the nineteenth century, in the days of the "old
trade," restricted as before to Canton, the principal part
of the carrying trade fell to the British flag, and, next to
that, to the American. The fifth and sixth decades of the
century were a period of scramble, and since that time the
development of the carrying trade under the principal flags
is shown in the table on opposite page.
Imports
Imports generally (net, after deduction of re-exports
to foreign countries) were valued in 1867 at 11s.69,329,741
(£23,109,914) and in 1905 at Tls.447,100,791 (£67,065,119).


FOREIGN TRADE
313
1864.
1874.
1884.
1894.
1O03-*
1911.
Tons.
2,862,214
2,609,390
93,099
580,370
756
38,195
396,673
64,588
Tons.
Tons.
Tons.
Tons.
28,122,987
Tons.
34,712,440
712,161
3.154,157
6,849,069
19,172,727
1,246,304
2,043,373
17.881,543
British
American ..
French
German
Japanese
Norwegian ..
Other Foreign
Chinese t ■ .
4.738,793
3,184,360
12,152,949
2,140,741
20,496.347
129,127
348,291
1.983.605
379.044
288,051
458,290
5.539.246
559,686
1,178,200
7,310,427
7,965.358
1,136,056
1,106,466
9,911,209
137.253
530,377
480
22,507
197.784
494.237
93.963
939.765
215.105
Total ..
6,635,483
9,305,801 [18,806,788
10,455
460,197
2,993.613
29,622,001
57,290,389
85,771.973
Opium was imported in 1867 to the amount of 60,948
piculs, of which 26,297 piculs was Bengal (government
monopoly) opium, and 34,651 piculs from Malwa (in-
dependent Indian states) and Persia; the value was
Tls.31,994,576, being 46 per cent. of the value of all foreign
imports in that year. In 1905 the import of foreign opium
was 51,890 piculs, of which 34,235 piculs were Bengal and
17,655 Malwa and Persian; the value was Tls.34,070,021,
being y$ per cent. of all foreign imports.
Cotton Manufactures'^ 1867were valuedat Tls.14,617,268,
being 21 per cent. of the total, and in 1905 at Tls.181,452,953,
being 40 per cent. of the total; the imports of 1905 were
above the normal, but the increase was maintained in 1906.
Of plain fabrics (grey and white shirtings, sheetings, drills,
jeans, and T-cloths) the import in 1867 was 3,738,965
pieces, about 118,875,000 square yards, of which 130,000
pieces came from the United States and the rest mainly
from England; the value of these plain fabrics was Tls.
10,537,427, which was 72 per cent. of all cotton imports.
Of these same plain fabrics the importation in 1905 was
28,702,693 pieces, about 1,167,600,000 square yards, of
which the country of origin was as follows:
* Japanese carrying trade in 1904 affected by Russo-Japanese
War, 1904-1905.
j Steamers and sailing vessels engaging in trade under the regu-
lations of the Inspectorate General of Customs,


FOREIGN TRADE
315
(£16) a picul; and the total value, Tls.1,603,807, was
11 per cent. of all cotton products. In 1905 the cotton
yarn imported was 2,577,748 piculs, of which 22,075 piculs
were English spinning, 1,867,309 Indian, 684,671 Japanese,
and 3,693 from all other sources; this import was mainly
of the coarser counts (12's to 24's), with an average value
of Tls.26 (£3 18s.) a picul, and the total value, Tls.66,892,485,
was 36 per cent. of all cotton imports: in 1903 and 1904
the percentage of yarn to the total had been 52 and 48
respectively. If we add Tls.20,000,000, the value of the
750,000 piculs of yarn machine-spun annually in the fac-
tories of Shanghai and other ports, it may be declared that
normally and on the average a full half of all foreign cotton
products is now in the shape of the semi-finished product
yarn. This yarn is imported to give a strong warp, on
which the people in their homes weave a coarse durable
fabric, filling in with a hand-spun weft of Chinese cotton;
it penetrates to every corner of the Empire, and in every
village street may be seen the long white stretches arranged
by the women in preparation for their labour at the l00m.
In Western countries the cheapness of the machine-woven
cotton fabric has driven out the home-spun of our grand-
mothers, whose descendants may now more profitably
employ their time and energy in other occupations; in
China the machine has only succeeded in partially sup-
planting the spinning-wheel, but the hand-l00m is still
unconquered.
Woollens were imported in 1867of avalue of Tls.7,391,236,
constituting 10 per cent. of all foreign imports. In 1905
the value was Tls.4,414,713, being less than 1 per cent.
of all imports. Those Chinese who can afford w00llens
prefer silks and furs, and the wearers of sheep-skins and
cotton-wadded garments cannot afford w00llens; while
the demands of fashion are met by cotton imitations.
Metals were valued in 1867 at Tls.1,630,351, a little
over 2 per cent. of all imports, and in 1905 at Tls.46,318,231,
being 10 per cent. of the whole; but this requires some


316 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION 0F CHINA
explanation. The import of copper in 1867 was 11,150
piculs, valued at Tls.198.017, and in 1905 was 985,287
piculs, valued at Tls.31,762,337: almost the entire import
in the latter year was for the mints of China, which were
then engaged in wild orgies of issues of copper token
coinage. Lead (57,780 and 143,652 piculs) is chiefly wanted
for packing tea, and tin (31,758 and 54,193 piculs) chiefly
for making tin-foil and those paper simulacra of silver
bullion which are offered so profusely in religious worship,
specially at the ancestral tombs. Tinned plates in 1867
amounted to 1,744 piculs, and in 1905 to 182,188 piculs,
in addition to a considerable quantity of second-hand plate
coming as lining to cases containing piece-goods, kerosene
oil, and other commodities, every foot of which is utilised
in this land of poverty and thrift, and the quantity of
which is estimated at not less than 500,000 piculs a year.
The consumption of iron and steel is in all countries the
index of industrial progress; the import into China in 1867
was 117,381 piculs (7,000 tons); in 1905 this had increased
to 2,713,113 piculs (161,500 tons). This is satisfactory, but
another indication of the poverty and thrift of the people
is found in the fact that of the import of 1905 close on a half
(1,323,593 piculs) consisted of old iron, plate cuttings, etc.,
thediscardsof Western markets, coming mainly from England.
Sundries, i.e. all goods other than opium, cottons,
woollens, and metals, were valued in 1867 at Tls.13,636,376,
just under 20 per cent. of the whole; in 1905 their value
was Tls. 186,338,096, just over 40 per cent. of the whole.
Nothing but a brief summary of the more important articles
can be attempted. Fish and products of the sea in general
imported from foreign ports in 1867 were valued at
Tls.1,358,716, and in 1905 at Tls.11,820,686. Cigarettes were
unknown in 1867, and in 1905 their value was Tls.4,427,171,
imported half from the United States, a fourth from
England, and a fourth from Japan. In 1867 the import
of coal was 113,430 tons; in 1905 China produced some
400,000 tons, coming under Customs cognisance, and


FOREIGN TRADE
317
imported a further quantity of 1,314,032 tons. Aniline
dyes were not an article of commerce in 1867; in 1905 the
value was Tls.2,626,545 for aniline dyes in general, not
including Tls, 1,726,950 for synthetic indigo to displace
the natural product of the country. The taste for foreign
luxuries has been introduced by returned emigrants, and
flour, unknown in 1867, was imported in 1905 to the extent
of 2,635,000 bags of 50 lbs. Window glass and glassware were
valued in 1867 at Tls.25,182, and in 1905 at Tls.1,554,832.
Matches in 1867 figured for 79,236 gross of boxes, valued
at one tael a gross; in 1905 the import was 26,057,221
gross, valued at Tls.0215 a gross, nearly ten boxes for
each one of the 400,000,000 of men, women, and children
in the Empire. Kerosene oil was not an article of general
commerce in 1867, the import amounting only to 29,842
gallons for the foreign community; the trade began to
expand in 1878, when the import was 4,161,100 gallons,
entirely American; Russian oil was introduced in 1889,
Sumatran in 1894, and Borneo oil in 1901; in 1905 the
total import was 156,948,040 gallons, of which 52 per cent,
was American, 8 per cent. Russian, 32 per cent. Sumatran,
and 7 per cent. from Borneo. Rice is always wanted for
the people of China, but of the 713,494 piculs imported in
1867 a large part went to Ningpo, while the 2,227,916 piculs
in 1905 were mainly for Kwangtung. Of sugar the import
in 1867 was 186,176 piculs, entirely Chinese sugar re-
imported from Hongkong; in 1905 the import was 4,644,315
piculs, of which no more than 365,000 piculs could have
been Chinese sugar re-imported, the greater part being
Java sugar, with some quantity from the Philippines,
shipped to Hongkong and imported thence either in its
original state or, to the extent of 1,322,000 piculs, refined.
Timber, hard and soft, was imported in 1867 to the value
of Tls.205,168, and in 1905 of Tls.3,121,841; in the latter
year the quantity of soft-w00d planks was 90,432,396 super-
ficial feet, of which 61 per cent. came from the United
States and 38 per cent. from Japan.


318 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Raw Cotton occupies a peculiar position in China, being
both exported and imported. In 1867 the export (from
Shanghai) was 29,391 piculs, and the import from India
(chiefly into Canton) was 336,072 piculs, its value con-
stituting a third of the foreign "sundries" imported.
In 1904 the export was 1,228,588 piculs, and the import
60,057 piculs. China is a great cotton-growing country,
and the proportions for 1905 (export 789,273 piculs, import
90,581 piculs) represent the normal movement.
Exports
Exported g00ds were valued in 1867 at Tls.57,895,713
(£19,298,571), and in 1905 at Tls.227,888,197 (£34.183,230),
a much smaller development than is shown in the case of
imports. The export trade of China is in three broad
divisions—silk, tea, and "sundries," the last being the
official designation of what was called by merchants in the
old trade " chow-chow," and to-day is called "muck and
truck." In 1867, of the whole export trade, silk and its
products accounted for 34 per cent., tea for 59 per cent.,
and sundries for 7 per cent.; in 1905 the proportions were
—silk 31 per cent., tea 11 per cent., and sundries 58 per cent.
Tea * constituted the main staple of the old trade of
China. As has been stated, the fragrant leaf formed the
main part of the outward lading of ships, vessels which
could take a thousand tons or more of tea being restricted,
in theory and by law, to 140 piculs, less than ten tons in
weight, of the other staple export, silk. This preponderance
* The English and Dutch obtained their first tea at Amoy, and
consequently called the leaf tea (rhyming with obey), the nam? in
the Amoy dialect; French, Germans, Americans, and others first
obtained the leaf, and with it the name, through England or Holland.
The Portuguese and Spanish obtained it from Canton, and conse-
quently called it by the Cantonese name cha. The Russians, ob-
taining it by the northern frontier, called it tchai, from the northern
Chinese name cha-yeh, "tea-leaf."


FOREIGN TRADE
319
continued in the new regime, and, as we have seen, in 1867
tea contributed three-fifths of the value of all exports. In
the two seasons 1848-1849 and 1849-1850 the average of
shipments of tea to England was 335,920 piculs, of which
249,660 piculs were shipped from Canton and 87,260 piculs
from Shanghai; and shipments to the United States
averaged 26,600 piculs, from Shanghai. Tea shipments from
China increased in actual volume until the culminating
year, 1886, when, with a quantity the highest on record,
the value contributed but 43 per cent. of all exports ; there-
after both quantity and price fell off, until in 1905 tea
gave little over a tenth of the value of all exports. With
a reduction in quantity there has been a still greater decline
in value, notwithstanding the reduced exchange value of
the unit, the tael of silver; and, with a restricted market
for tea of the finer qualities, there is a distinct falling off
in the proportion of tea leaf to brick tea, made of refuse
leaf, dust, and stalks, as shown in the following table:
Tea Lgaf.
Br'ck
Tea.
Quantity.
Value.
Quantity.
Value.
Piculs.
1,248,256
1,846,989
TU.
Piculs.
Tls.
1867
1886
1905
33,838,423
31,246,063
21,013,687
65.3"
370,212
530,125
717,665
839.173
2.258.757
4.431.965
This change is the more significant when it is remembered
that tea leaf goes to Europe and America to be infused and
provide the beverage we know, while the brick tea is for
the inhabitants of Siberia and Central Asia, who make of
it a soup. The decline in the China tea trade has come
from the competition with India, which learned its lesson
from China and has improved upon the instruction given.
The first experiments were made in India in 1838, in which
year 500 lbs. were shipped to England; it t00k over twenty
years for shipments to reach a million pounds, but then
the trade advanced by leaps and bounds. In 1867, when


320 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
China shipments were one and a quarter million piculs, the
export from India was 40,000 piculs; in 1886, shipments
of all kinds from China were 2,217,201 piculs, and from
India 565,690 piculs. Ceylon came into the market in
1883, and under the influence of heavy shipments from
Ceylon and from India, the English market was gradually
lost to China tea, until in 1905 the quantities withdrawn
from bond for consumption within the United Kingdom
were as follows:
China
India
Ceylon ..
Other countries
6,658,966 lbs. =
150,530,446 „ =
89,385,901 „ =
12,513,284 „ ts
49,142 piculs
1,128,978 „
670,394 „
93.850 „
Fifty years ago China supplied practically all the tea infused
in the United Kingdom, and to-day she supplies just one-
fortieth. The United States is not one of the great tea-
drinking nations, its per capita consumption being about
one-fifth that of the British, and since the opening of Japan
the American tea-drinkers have taken rather to tea from
that country; in 1867 shipments to the United States from
China amounted to 194,153 piculs, being 65 per cent. of
the American import of that year. In 1905 the correspond-
ing quantity was 182,123 piculs, which was 23^ per cent.
of the American consumption. Russia has always been
an important customer for Chinese tea. Sea-borne tea for
Russia in early years cannot be distinguished, since so
much was bought on the London market. Direct shipments
declared for Russia have been as follows: in 1867, leaf,
13,251 piculs, brick, 53,123 piculs ; in 1886, leaf, 239,086
piculs, brick, 360,091 piculs; in 1903 (before the dislocation
of trade occasioned by the Russo-Japanese war), leaf,
401,087 piculs, brick, 618,458 piculs, the total being 60 per
cent. of all exports of tea from China during the year. The
English market and that of Australia, with the largest per
capita consumption in the world, have been lost to China,


FOREIGN TRADE
321
chiefly for the reason that the Indian and Ceylon teas give
a strong infusion, and are as strong in that second drawing
which is so dear to the housekeeper's heart. The English
taste has become so thoroughly perverted and insensible
of the delicacy and cleanness of flavour characteristic of
China tea, that the market can never be recovered even
by reduced price; and in the contest, China is handicapped
by several factors. Indian tea is prepared and fired by
mechanical appliances, the use of which is possible only
where, as in India, large plantations, of a thousand or more
acres, are under one management; in China all is done by
hand, and no change can be made in a country where the
individual cultivator has only a small patch of a very few
acres, ten acres being a large plantation. In twenty years
of a declining market the tea shrubs have been left un-
pruned and uncultivated, and it is doubtful if they can ever
recover their old-time condition. Finally, the Chinese
fiscal system is to tax everything in sight. In India there
is no tax on the production or export of tea; in China
not only was there for forty-five years an export duty of
Tls.250 a picul, reduced only in 1903 to Tls.125 (equivalent
at present exchange to \d. per lb.), but on the way from
the producing district to the shipping port there is levied
a series of taxes, amounting on the average to more than
Tls.2 50 a picul for official tax, with something to be added
for irregular levy and delay and loss of interest. No in-
dustry thus burdened could compete with a rival free of all
burden.
y Silk is the product for which China has been noted for
two thousand years, and it is now the product which in-
dividually contributes the greatest proportion of the value
of the export trade. By the nineteenth century the supplies
obtained from China had developed to a considerable
quantity, the average annual shipments to England in the
last five years of the East India Company's monopoly,
1828-1833, being 5,393 bales (4,314 piculs). During the next
four years of open trade, 1833-1837, shipments increased
21


322 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
to an annual average of 12,497 bales (9,998 piculs). Then
followed a period of war and interrupted trade, and in the
five years 1839-1844 the annual shipments fell to 2,080
bales (1,664 piculs). Upon the restoration of peace and
the opening of the five treaty ports, the annual export
to England rose again in the five years 1845-1850 to 18,654
bales (14,923 piculs). In 1860 Japanese silk found its outlet
through Shanghai to the amount of 6,248 piculs. Apart
from this the export of white and yellow raw silk from
Canton and Shanghai respectively has been as follows:
i860
1867
1886
1905
Canton. Shangha1. Total, all Ports.
Piculs. Piculs. Piculs.
5,571 61,552 67,123
9.259 30,358 39-°27
19,406 44,967 64,488
34,231 44,303 80,335
In addition, wild silk, the product of silkworms feeding on
the oak, was exported as follows: 5,127 piculs in 1860,
5,363 piculs in 1867, 12,555 piculs in 1886, and 25,584
piculs in 1905. The value of the export of each category
of silk products—coc00ns, raw silk (white, yellow, and wild),
waste silk, and woven silk g00ds—has been as follows:
Cocoons. Raw Silk. Waste Silk. Woven Silk.
1860 .. 53,845 23,804,284 16,807 2,166,481
1867 .. 39,598 16,372,518 113,924 2,234,887
1886 .. 350,482 19,210,052 2,271,996 6,753,939
1905 .. 1,344,286 53,425.473 4,844,343 9,938,750
In 1905 the raw white originated almost entirely in Shanghai
and Canton; yellow silk came chiefly from Szechwan, a
smaller quantity being also produced in Shantung; wild
silk came chiefly from Manchuria, with secondary sources
of supply in Szechwan and Kwangtung; waste silk came
from many quarters; and woven silks were produced
chiefly in the vicinity of Nanking, S00chow, Hangchow,


FOREIGN TRADE
323
Shanghai, and Canton, and, in the shape of pongees woven
from wild silk, at Chef00. Of all these products raw white
silk is the most important, and this is mainly produced
within a radius of 150 miles around Shanghai, and in a
smaller district around Canton; of the two the Shanghai
silk is of the finer quality. In this district the silkworm,'
is by nature the best in the world, producing naturally from
the best mulberry the largest quantity of the finest silk;
and formerly, in silk as in tea, China set the standard for
the world. In the course of years the silkworm all over
the world was attacked by disease. In Europe, and later
in Japan, scientific remedial measures were evolved by
patient study, with the result that the disease can make
no headway there, and with the further result that their
silk is much improved in quality. China had for centuries
adopted a method of eliminating the weaklings from the
eggs by exposure to frost and snow, a method more effective
than any adopted in Europe, and fully effective so long
as no disease attacked the eggs or the worms; but her
failure to adopt the scientific remedy of microscopic ex-
amination is by degrees putting her behind in the race. Of
1,000 eggs passed as healthy by this test it may be said
that 700 will survive through all the stages of moulting
and development, and will spin strong full-sized coc00ns,
of which it will take 3 to 4 lbs. to reel 1 lb. of silk; of 1,000
eggs passed by the test of frost alone, 700 may hatch out,
and of these 700, fully 400 will die during the successive
moults, having meantime eaten leaf to waste, and the
surviving 300 will spin weak under-sized coc00ns, of which
it will take 6 to 7 lbs. to reel 1 lb. of silk. The proportion
between the producing capacity of the Italian and the
Chinese silkworm may be put at 100 to 25, apart from the
waste of leaf. Once upon a time China was the sole source
of supply of silk for the West, and within a half-century she
supplied a full half; on the basis of the average output of
the three years 1902-1904, and not including the home weav-
ing of China and Japan, the West was supplied with silk, 27


324 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
per cent. from China, 28 per cent. from Japan, 25 per cent
from Italy, and 20 per cent. from all other countries; and
China's proportion in 1905 was reduced to less than 25
per cent. Owing to the improved methods introduced in
Japan that country has now become China's most important
competitor, and the export of raw white silk from the two
countries has been as follows, 1899 having been the year
in which China's export reached its highest figure:
Can it be that silk, which furnishes a third of China's ex-
ports, is going the way of her tea?
Sundries furnish the evident line of advance for China
in providing commodities for shipment abroad, their value
having risen from Tls.4,487,414, being 7 per cent. of the total
of all exports, in 1867, to Tls.132,008,712, or 58 per cent.
of the whole, in 1905. In the earlier year the only notice-
able items were cassia (Tls.325,686), cotton (115.458,424),
mats and matting (Tls.384,542), and sugar (Tls.462,157).
Those commodities which were of importance in 1905 are
considered below.
Beans are used to make an oil for cooking and, prior to
the introduction of kerosene, for illuminating purposes; the
bye-product of this process, bean-cake, is used to fertilise
the fields chiefly of Kwangtung and Japan. The foreign
export of beans is first recorded in 1870 with shipment of
578,209 piculs, and of bean-cake in 1890 with 96,297 piculs;
in 1905 the export of beans was 2,665,523 piculs, of which
80 per cent. went to Japan, and of bean-cake 2,897,948,
entirely for Japan; in addition, over two million piculs of
beans and two and a half million piculs of bean-cake were
imported into Kwangtung ports. The chief source of
production is Manchuria, next to that Shantung, Hupeb, and
China
Japan
1899.
Piculs.
109,279
1904.
Piculs.
8l,5"
96,586
1905.
Piculs.
69,617
72,419
59.069


FOREIGN TRADE
325
the lower Yangtze; and from those provinces a large
export to Europe has been developed.
Bristles must always be an important export from a
land in which the pig provides the principal meat for the
table. Their export is first recorded in 1894, with
18,378 piculs, increased in 1905 to 39,588 piculs. They
come chiefly from Tientsin, Chungking, Hankow, and
Canton.
Cotton has been referred to before. In 1864, owing to
the American Civil War, shipments to Europe were made
amounting to 391,287 piculs, while the import was 4,528
piculs; in 1867 the export was 29,391 piculs, and the
import (from India into the southern ports) 336,072 piculs;
in 1902 the export was 774,536 piculs, and the import
251,219 piculs, introduced from India into the chief cotton-
producing centre in order to regulate prices; in 1904, with
high prices ruling in the Western markets, exports rose to
1,228,588 piculs, and imports fell to 65,129 piculs; in 1905
exports were 789,273 piculs, and imports 94,243 piculs.
The cotton is produced in the entire Yangtze basin from
Hupeh to Chekiang, Shanghai being the chief centre; and
fully 90 per cent. of all shipments go to Japan.
Fire-crackers and fireworks, almost entirely to help
young America in celebrating the Glorious Fourth, were
exported to the extent of 16,186 piculs in 1867, and 128,245
piculs in 1905; nearly the whole export came from
Canton.
Fibres, hemp, jute, and ramie, are first recorded as an
export in 1879 with 10,456 piculs; the export in 1905 was
262,443 piculs, coming chiefly from Hupeh and Kiangsi, and
going chiefly to Japan.
Hides were exported in 1867 to the extent of 146 piculs,
and of 279,976 piculs in 1904, which was about normal;
the export in 1905 was only 189,446 piculs. About half
came from Hupeh, and next in importance were Szechwan
and Kwangsi: their destination was fairly divided between
the principal countries of Europe.


;26 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Matting, entirely the product of the Canton district,
and almost entirely destined for the United States, was
shipped in 1867 to the extent of 89,908 rolls of 40 yards;
in 1905 the export was 438,009 rolls.
Minerals make but a p00r showing. With all her vast
mineral wealth China provides but a small surplus for ship-
ment abroad. China is a coal country, and the total
foreign export in 1905 (11,534 tons) was less than 1 per cent,
of the quantity imported; it has large fields of iron ore,
and the export in 1905 (24,600 tons) was less than a sixth
of the import; it is a copper country, and, with no export
in 1905, it drew from abroad 57,000 tons to supply the
demands of the mints; it is a tin country, and in 1905
imported 54,193 piculs, while its export, entirely from
Yunnan to Hongkong, was 75,302 piculs, this being the first
year in which the export exceeded the import. Antimony
is the only other mineral deserving notice; the export of
ore, regulus and refined, coming from Hunan, in 1905 was
94,327 piculs.
Provisions were shipped in 1905, chiefly for consumption
at Hongkong, to a value of Tls.7,239,410, including cattle,
sheep, pigs, and goats, valued at Tls.3,210,100, and eggs
valued at Tls.1,554,607.
Oil seeds (cotton, rape, and sesamum) have only recently
entered into the foreign trade. In 1888 the export of
rape-seed was 873 piculs, and of sesamum-seed 3,027 piculs;
in 1898 the export was—rape-seed 212 piculs, sesamum-
seed 47,388 piculs, and cotton-seed 566,105 piculs; in 1905,
rape-seed 19,751 piculs (from Hupeh and Anhwei),
sesamum-seed 575,721 piculs (from Hupeh and Kiangsu),
and cotton-seed 659,705 piculs. The rape-seed and cotton-
seed go entirely to Japan, the sesamum-seed chiefly to
Germany and Japan.
Skins, consisting mainly of goat, kid, and lamb, coming
from the Mongolian plateau, chiefly through Tientsin, to
a secondary degree through Hankow, form an increasing
industry. The export in 1867 was valued at Tls.5,501


FOREIGN TRADE
327
in 1887 at Tls.652,174, in 1897 at Tls.3,083,517, and in
1905 at Tls.9,684,286. Of the export of 1905 the United
States t00k 42 per cent., Great Britain 30 per cent., with
Japan, Italy, and Germany next.
Straw braid is one of the few home industries introduced
expressly for the foreign trade. The seat of the industry is
in the plain bordering the Yellow River in western Shantung
and southern Chihli, producing a wheat with long straw.
The export was 1,361 piculs in 1867; 25,930 piculs in 1877;
82,413 piculs in 1886; 100,184 piculs in 1896; and 110,222
piculs in 1905. The principal demand is for Great Britain,
which in 1905 t00k 44 per cent., with France, the United
States, and Germany next.
Wool comes mainly from Kansu and Mongolia through
Tientsin, and to some extent from Tibet through Chungking,
and, notwithstanding the long caravan journeys, finds an
increasing market. The export in 1867 was 1,097 piculs;
in 1887 this had increased to 56,261 piculs, and in 1897 to
232,343 piculs. In 1905 the export was 281,294 piculs,
viz. 35,331 piculs of camels' w00l (entirely for England)
and 245,963 piculs of sheep's w00l (mainly to the United
States).
Balance of Trade
An essential part of any study of the foreign trade of
China is the consideration of the means by which the balance
of indebtedness between China and the outer world is struck.
Up to 1895 the Empire had practically no foreign debt. As
the result of the war with Japan which ended in that year a
foreign debt of over £50,000,000 was incurred; and the
indemnities to be paid to foreign Powers in settlement of
the military operations necessitated by the Boxer move-
ment of 1900 added to the foreign obligations a further
sum of £67,500,000; the annual charge for obligations
incurred since 1895 is, according to the exchange, between
Tls.42,000,000 and Tls.45,000,000. The natural commercial


328 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
effect on the trade of the country would be to increase the
quantity of commodities required to be exported to maintain
commercial equilibrium; but, in fact, the tendency has been
in the direction of an increase of imports. Considering mer-
chandise only, passing through the various Custom Houses,
imports exceeded exports in 1901 by 27 per cent., in 1902
by 28 per cent., and in 1903 by 31 per cent.; in 1904 the
excess increased to 43 per cent., and in 1905 to no less
than 97 per cent., but in these two years the greatly increased
import trade, apart from any question of increased absorp-
tive power by the people, was largely financed by remittances
to maintain the Russian and Japanese armies in the field,
rendering the conditions of trade abnormal. The year
1903 must then be taken as the last normal year. Outside
the maritime Customs, statistics are unknown in China,
and all that can be done in seeking information is to adopt
a reasonable working hypothesis, and on it to base a con-
jecture. With this serious limitation, an attempt * has
been made to investigate the different liabilities and assets
of international indebtedness as for 1903.
Liabilities.—The first is the visible liability of mer-
chandise imported, valued at Tls.310,453,428, to which
must be added bullion and coin imported, Tls.37,000,000;
in the last is included an estimated sum of Tls.10,000,000
brought back in cash in the pockets of returning emigrants,
but the treasure movement is obscured by the fact that
China must return as foreign all movement to and from
Hongkong, the financial centre for South China. Then
we have Tls.44,210,000, the annual charge for loans and
indemnities for 1903 at the exchange of that year. For
invisible liabilities it is estimated that Tls.4,320,000 were
spent for the maintenance of Chinese legations, consulates,
and students abroad; and that the net profits of foreign
residents, merchants, and others, and of foreign shipping
and insurance companies amounted to Tls.22,750,000. A
* "An Inquiry into the Commercial Liabilities and Assets of
China in International Trade," by H. B. Morse.


FOREIGN TRADE
329
further sum of Tls.5,000,000 is added as the possible value
of war material not included in merchandise. The total so
estimated is Tls.423,733,428.
Assets.—The merchandise exported was Tls.236,205,162,
and bullion and coin Tls.33,046,000, including 'as before
shipments to Hongkong. Then there is an item of un-
recorded trade across the land frontier, which, on the
authority of the Russian statistics of trade with China,
must be put at over Tls.20,000,000 excess of exports.
The money and material provided from abroad for the
development of railways and mines, a future but not a
present liability of China, is estimated at Tls.27,000,000.
The sums required to be remitted for the maintenance of
foreign legations and consulates, foreign garrisons and
navies, for the maintenance and repairs of foreign shipping,
for the upkeep of foreign missions, hospitals, and schools,
and for the expenditure by foreign travellers, were con-
sidered in the light of all the information obtainable, and
were estimated at Tls.51,500,000. Finally, there remains
China's most important invisible asset, her export of brawn
and brains in the emigration of a portion of her redundant
population, whether as traders or as labourers, remitting
to their homes the fruit of their labour in an annual sum
which, on the lowest possible estimate, is Tls.73,000,000.
The total assets so estimated amount to Tls.440,741,162.


■
CHAPTER X
INTERNAL TRADE
China is a continent, mountains and deserts replacing on
the west the seas which circumscribe it on the east and
south; and no study of its trade conditions would be
complete which was restricted to its maritime traffic. Prior
to the application in Europe of the magnetic needle to the
mariner's compass in the twelfth century, the only traders by
sea to the land of Sinim were the venturous Arabs; but
centuries before that date the Serica vestis had reached
the West by land transport over the mountains, plateaux,
and deserts of Central Asia, through the hundred degrees of
longitude which separated the silkworm from the European
wearer of its product. These routes were mainly in the
north. From the north-east the routes taken in the
seventeenth century, and those taken to-day by the Russian
tea caravans, outflanked the deserts and struck well north
until they emerged in what is now Siberia. The main
trade routes, however, struck north-west through the
province of Kansu, following those lines which appeared on
the school maps of the middle of the nineteenth century
with the mysterious designations Tien Shan Pei Lu and
Tien Shan Nan Lu, which, being interpreted, mean the
Routes North and South, respectively, of the Mountains of
Heaven. This is no longer a through trade route. Another
such route is that taken to-day in supplying tea and salt
to Tibet from Szechwan by Tatsienlu, with an alternative
route by Sungpan; and another is the now unimportant
route from Yunnan by Szemao into Burma.
330


INTERNAL TRADE
331
The same enterprise which built up a foreign trade by
land, was applied also to the development of internal trade
between provinces of the size of kingdoms, passing by routes
many hundreds of miles in length. At times of falling
dynasties this traffic would become insecure; but as each
succeeding dynasty became established in power the ways
were opened, and a pax Romana allowed the free inter-
change of commodities between the different parts of the
Empire. In the competition between the coasting trade by
sea and the internal trade, the latter had many advantages,
more than compensating for the economic gain from water
transport in large bulk. On the internal route there were
no "Rhine Barons" or others to levy illegal toll, while
the danger from bandits was more than counterbalanced
by the risk of piracy on the sea; until less than fifty years
ago there was no likin or other tax on transit in general;
and, while generally water transport could be utilised
through the whole or the greater part of the distance on
most of the routes, the cheapness of human labour minimised
the cost of transport by land. By sea, the clumsy junks
were at the mercy of-the mons00n, making g00d speed to
the north during the summer, and to the south in autumn
and winter, but unable to make commercially profitable
voyages against the prevailing winds; while the Custom
Houses were established at the seaports alone, and, more-
over, taxed all movement, to home as well as to foreign
ports, and repeated the tax whenever g00ds came again
under their cognisance, as if all previous levy had been
made by alien, as it was by independent authority.
There are no records of this internal trade, and its
component parts can be studied only by the light of the
coasting trade by steamer which to-day has taken its place
on many routes. The routes themselves are innumerable,
but a selection will be made for description of a few of the
most important, viz.:


332 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
1. The West River route, west from Canton.
2. The Cheling Pass route, north-west from Canton.
3. The Meiling Pass route, north from Canton.
4. The Min River route, north-west from Foochow.
5. The Lower Yangtze route, as far west as Hupeh
and Hunan.
6. The Upper Yangtze route, from Ichang into Szechwan.
7. The Kweichow route.
8. The Han River route, from Hankow into Shensi.
9. The Grand Canal, from Hangchow to Tientsin.
10. The Shansi route.
11. The Kiakhta route.
12. The Manchurian route.
1. The West River route from Canton commands the
whole of the trade of Kwangsi, and penetrates into Yunnan
and Kweichow. At Wuchow the Cassia River provides
a water-way, interrupted by rapids but navigable by small
boats, to the provincial capital, Kweilin. Farther up,
at Tamchow, the route again divides, the river coming
in from the north-west providing a route, interrupted by
rapids and shallows, but navigable by boats of 15 tons dead-
weight capacity, and penetrating to the north-western
part of Kwangsi and, via Liuchow and Kingyuan, into
Kweichow. The southern of the two branches at Tamchow
continues the name of West River until, some 30 miles
above Nanning, it divides into the Left Branch continuing
west to Lungchow, and the Right Branch leading north-
west to Poseh: to these points boats of 25 tons dead-
weight capacity can safely pass the rapids. From Poseh runs
the main trade route for traffic by pack-animal into western
and central Yunnan. There are no statistics of the Chinese
produce brought down and sent inland, and the only gauge
of the volume of traffic on this route is in the quantity of
foreign goods sent inland under transit pass, which, from
Canton and Wuchow in 1905, was as follows:








INTERNAL TRADE
333
No. of Passes. Value of Goods.
Tls.
To Kwangsi ..
„ Kweichow
,, Yunnan ..
22,275 860,803
83,228 4,856,903
5,114 340,086
Before the development of traffic by Mengtsz the Yunnan
trade by the West River route was very much greater than
at the present time. From Yunnan and Kweichow comes
opium, and the tin of Yunnan, which now finds its outlet
by Mengtsz, formerly followed this route. Great rafts of
timber are floated down from the mountains of north-
western Kwangsi.
2. The Cheling Pass route follows the North River up
from Canton, and a branch which falls into it from the
north-west at Shaochow; thence by porters over the pass
to the water-ways of Hunan. This pass, of less than 1,500
feet altitude, offers but slight impediment to the sturdy
coolies of South China; but the surveys of the American
engineers, prospecting for the line of the Hankow-Canton
railway, have revealed the fact that the true pass is not on
the line of the old highway, and that for many centuries
millions of tons of merchandise passing over this route have
been laboriously carried on men's shoulders to a height
150 feet higher than nature demanded. The water-ways of
Hunan are reached at Chenchow, on an affluent of the
Siang River, and thence traffic passes by small boats down
into the Siang. At Siangtan, once a place of great import-
ance with a population estimated at 700,000, transhipment
was ordinarily effected into the larger deep-draft junks
plying down the Siang and into the Yangtze. Descending
the Siang, the traffic then reached the Tungting Lake, a
lake in summer with vast uncharted shoals, but in winter a
congeries of wide and shallow channels meandering between
broad islands of alluvial deposit, and neither in summer
nor in winter available for commercial use. The main
stream of traffic skirted the eastern side of the lake and,


334 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
entering the Yangtze at Yochow, descended that stream 125
miles north-east to Hankow. The lesser part of the traffic
passed through the cr00ked channels of the alluvial delta
of the Siang and the Yuan, forming the south shore of the
lake, and then, skirting the western shore, passed into
the Yangtze near Shasi by the canals which were the work
of the Great Yii in times long gone by; thence the Yangtze
furnished a route west into Szechwan. By the Cheling Pass
route came the teas of Hunan and Hupeh for shipment
abroad from Canton in the old factory days, and a con-
servative trade calls those teas to-day, in the land of their
origin, by the old-time Cantonese names Oonam and Oopack
(Hunan and Hupeh). By this route, t00, passed an enormous
traffic, of which to-day the only remnant is the amount
required for local trade by the way. Not a single package
is now carried through between Canton and Hankow, for,
even in this land of cheap transport, the cheapness and
security offered by steam carriage have prevailed, and this
trade now passes around, via Shanghai, by the sea and the
Yangtze. The railway taking the Cheling Pass route from
Canton by Hankow to Peking will adhere closely to the air
line between the two termini.
3. The Meiling Pass route follows the North River up
from Canton, and at Shaochow goes north-east to the
Meiling (Plum Ridge) Pass. This ridge has an elevation
of 2,000 feet, and the route is through a notch, at an
altitude of only 1,000 feet, over which a land portage of
24 miles carries the trader to the waters of the Kan River.
This river has the ordinary winter shallows of a stream
running through a deforested country, but has few dangerous
rapids; and it leads through the channels of the shallow
Poyang Lake into the Yangtze near Kiukiang. By this
route passed, in the old factory days, the teas of Kiangsi and
Anhwei; and by this route passed then, and passes now,
the porcelain of Kingtehchen. The porcelain of to-day,
however, consists of plain ware sent to Canton to be painted
with the florid and multicoloured designs peculiar to that


INTERNAL TRADE
337
feet per second as an average for the whole year round;
and this volume of water, in passing through the Ichang
Gorge, flows through a channel contracted to a width
nowhere exceeding 250 yards and in places diminished to
100 yards, hemmed in by precipitous cliffs on either hand;
in the Fengsiang (Wind-box) Gorge, 100 miles farther up
stream, the channel is even more restricted and the cliffs
more precipitous. The average speed of the current
throughout the year is not less than five knots an hour,
and at times, especially during the summer fl00ds, and in
places, this speed rises to twelve knots and even more.
The swift current drives the boatmen to tracking on their
upward journey, and the trackers find but scanty f00thold
on the steep hill-sides, and in many places are driven to
follow paths which are little more than goat tracks, traced
on the sides of the cliffs, up to a hundred feet or more above
the level of the water. This is the least of their difficulties.
From the upper end of the Ichang Gorge to Fengtu, a distance
of 300 miles, the river is strewn with rapids, full forty being
considered worthy of enumeration in that distance, not
including mere whirlp00ls and races. Of the difficulties
apart from the rapids the following episode, occurring before
the lowest rapid was reached, furnishes an illustration:
"October 6th. The boats under way 6 a.m.,
tracking up the right bank. At 8.30 a.m. the track-
ing-line of No. 1 boat broke, and in less than fifteen
minutes we had drifted back nearly to last night's
anchorage." *
The tracking-lines are made of long strips of bamb00
plaited together into a cable as thick as a man's arm. Of
the ascent of the rapids Mr. Hobson says—
"More dangerous navigation it is impossible to
conceive; double tracking-lines having been paid
out, extra breastlines provided, and extra trackers
engaged, we started from under the lee of the rocks,
outside which the mighty torrent poured. Inch by
* " Ichang to Chungking," 1890, by H, E. Hobson.
22


338 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
inch only did the boats advance, until by nightfall
we reached the shelter of a small bay beyond."
At several rapids he records that the trackers of three boats
were put on to haul one. From Mr. Little's account * we
gather some illuminating sentences describing the difficulty.
"We had a tough job to get round the point which
forms the western limit of the gorge, the boatmen
clinging on to the crevices in the rock, with long
bamb00s armed with small steel h00ks. . . . Half
of our crew then drag the boat by main force around
the point, those remaining on board fending her off
the rocks, the water meanwhile boiling and foaming
under the bows and threatening to swamp her. . . .
The h00kers have to be mighty careful never to lose
their hold, as that involves drifting back into the
current . . . losing in a minute or two the fruits of
hours of work. . . . The boat heeled over, threatening
to capsize on the instant; fortunately our trackers
promptly cast off the tow-line in the nick of time,
and we incurred no other danger than being swept
violently down-stream in the eight-knot current."
The stream thus characterised furnishes the only water
outlet for the trade of one of the richest provinces of China,
the alternative routes being mountain roads over a much
accidented country intersected by deep ravines, feasible
only for light packages carried on men's shoulders. By
this route the traffic is carried in junks of varying size. The
largest are of a dead-weight carrying capacity of 60 to 70
tons, with a regular crew of 24 and a force of 85 trackers
(re-enforced at the worst rapids), engaged for the upward
voyage; junks of medium size carry 30 to 40 tons, with a
crew of 18, and 45 trackers; small junks carry 14 to 20
tons, with a crew of 10 and 20 trackers. The upward
journey takes about four weeks at the most favourable
season, while in the summer, against the full strength of
the Yangtze in fl00d, the voyage may be extended to three
* "Through the Yangtze Gorges," by Archibald J. Little.


INTERNAL TIt ADS
339
or even four months: under the most favourable con-
ditions the average rate of progress does not exceed 15
miles a day, and it may fall as low as 3 miles a day through
the whole of the course of 420 miles from Ichang to Chung-
king. It is on the upward journey that most of the accidents
occur, and a full tenth of the junks arriving at Chungking
arrive with their cargo more or less damaged by water,
while total loss is not uncommon. Down stream sails
are furled and masts struck, and the junks, driven by oars
to give sufficient speed for steerage way, are taken down
in charge of the skilled pilots working the route, and seldom
meet with accident: the downward journey may take
from three or four days to a week. By this route merchants
may elect to pass their g00ds through the maritime Customs
or to pay likin on the way, each offering certain advantages
for Chinese produce upward or downward. In 1905 the
value of the trade passing the maritime Customs was,
upward Tls.16,562,371, downward Tls.11,169,256, total
Tls.27,731,627; a fair allowance for the g00ds passing
the likin offices would bring the total value of the water-
borne traffic of Szechwan to Tls.40,000,000.
7. The Kweichow route up the Yuan River from
Changteh and the Tungting Lake, is barred by numerous
rapids and available only for small boats. The downward
traffic consists of timber, opium, and mining products;
the officially declared value of the timber is Tls.6,000,000
a year, from which, in China, a true value of Tls.1o.00o.o00
and more may be inferred. The upward traffic is not
great. The only index to its volume is the value of the
foreign g00ds sent under transit pass from Hankow into
Kweichow, valued in 1904 at Tls.1,207,695, and in 1905
at Tls.835,277; by other routes in 1905 Kweichow re-
ceived foreign g00ds under transit pass to the value of
Tls.4,856,903 by the West River, Tls.598,432 from Mengtsz,
and Tls.30,636 from Tengyueh by land route crossing the
whole width of Yunnan.
8. The Han River route from Hankow into Shensi


340 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
presents few difficulties to navigation, beyond the gradually
diminishing depth of water, as far up as Sichwanting in the
south-west corner of Honan, and for small boats as far as
Shangnan in Shensi, a distance of 1,730 li (nominally 575
miles) from Hankow. From that point, land transport
for 320 li (nominally 100 miles) over the rugged Tsingling
mountains, carries goods to Sianfu, the capital of Shensi.
Beyond Sianfu land transport alone is available to other
parts of the province, and on to Kansu, Mongolia, and
Siberia. Tea, less in amount than by Tientsin and Kiakhta
but still in considerable quantity, goes by this route over-
land to Russia; the quantity fluctuates, and has been
small in the past few years, but in 1896 was valued at
Tls.1,617,401, and in 1900 at Tls.1,032,471; in the former
year the greater part was tea leaf, 78,297 piculs, and in
the latter year brick tea, 70,905 piculs. The foreign
goods going from Hankow under transit pass in 1905 into
Shensi were valued at Tls.825,540, and into Kansu at
Tls.26,319.
9. The Grand Canal furnishes an inland water route
from Hangchow to Tientsin, a distance of 900 miles, cutting
through the flat alluvial plains and intersecting the provinces
of Chekiang, Kiangsu, Shantung, and Chihli. The oldest
section, from the Yangtze to the Hwai, was opened for
traffic B.C. 486, and is therefore 2,400 years old. The next
section to be made was that from the Yangtze at Chinkiang
to Hangchow, which was constructed between a.d. 605
and 617, and this section was much improved by the
Southern Sung Emperors, who had their capital at Hang-
chow. Kublai Khan (a.d. 1260-1295), besides beginning
(but not completing) the canal from Kiaochow intended
to cut off the mountain mass of Shantung, improved,
deepened, straightened, widened, and extended the Grand
Canal under the supervision of the famous mathematician
Kwo Show-king as engineer; by him, the capital having
for the first time been established at Peking, the water-way
was extended to the north from the then course of the



Pagoda at Wusih on Grand Canal. Monumental Arch at Wusih on
Grand Canal.











INTERNAL TRADE
541
Yellow River, where it was joined by the Grand Canal at
Tsingkiangpu, over the summit level skirting the higher
land of Shantung, until it joined the Wei River, which,
improved, became then the Grand Canal to Tientsin.
Succeeding Emperors of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties,
until within the past fifty years of material national de-
cadence, have spared no effort to maintain the canal as a
navigable water-way; even when, in 1853, the Yellow River
took its last plunge to the north-east and cut the canal
farther to the north, the crisis was met and the intersection
of the two streams duly provided for. Starting from
Hangchow the canal goes by Hashing to Soochow, a distance
of 100 miles, and thence by Wusih and Changchow through
long straight stretches to Chinkiang, another 100 miles. It
is here unlike our preconceived ideas of a canal—a current-
less water-way barely wide enough to allow two streams of
boats to pass each other—and has often a width of over a
hundred feet between its sides, faced in many parts of its
course with cut stone bunding. Many of its picturesque
accessories were destroyed by the Vandals of China, the
Taiping rebels, but much still remains to attest its past
magnificence; here and there are fine stone bridges spanning
the main canal, some with their three arches, graceful to
an extreme, others with a single arch, lofty and imposing,
and well adapted for a country with no wheeled traffic;
along the banks are numerous specimens of single-span
hump-backed bridges by which the tow-path is carried over
side canals connecting with the system of canals which
intersect the country for many miles; and from the canal
are to be seen on both sides many memorial arches of
stone and lofty tapering pagodas. In these 200 miles
there is no difference of level, and therefore no locks; and
after all these years of neglect there is everywhere a safe
depth of 5 feet of water at the lowest stage, the depth at
the Hangchow end being ordinarily 7 feet at low-water
stage, rising after prolonged rains to 11 and at times to
13 and more feet; only at Tanyang, some 20 miles south


342 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
from Chinkiang, the depth is frequently t00 little for the
larger boats during the season of low water. In this section
boats up to forty tons dead-weight capacity ply regularly.
At Chinkiang the traffic crosses the Yangtze and enters the
oldest section of the canal, which, passing Yangchow, goes
to Tsingkiangpu, 130 miles from Chinkiang; in this section
there is a constant depth of water sufficient for boats of
30 to 40 tons capacity. Of this part of the country it is
that Mr. Parker says:
"The Chinese engineers who manipulate the
complicated system of lakes and levels forming
the network about the Grand Canal and Hungtseh
Marsh, are almost as expert in an empirical sense as
the wary Dutchmen who keep an ever-watchful eye
on the Zuider Zee and the intricate system of Nether-
lands dykes. The supply of water and the sacrifice
of land are carefully measured and jealously watched
with a view to keeping open the canal and preventing
disasters of great magnitude."
The next section is the worst: it starts from Tsingkiangpu
and, passing Tsining, debouches on the present course of
the Yellow River near Tungping, full 450 miles from Chin-
kiang. This section was made by improving and connecting
existing rivers, and follows all their original meanderings.
Though the country is flat, there are still some differences
of level—of 20 or 30 feet at most—and these are provided
for, not by locks, which do not exist in China, but by
barrages across the canal, over which the boats, after
discharging their cargo, are hauled by windlasses. The
whole of this part is much neglected and silted up, and is
only available generally for navigation during the summer,
and even then is generally traversed only by the tribute
rice boats which go together in fleets. North of the Yellow
River the newest part of the canal—made by Kublai Khan—
continues until it strikes the Wei River, cut in places to a
depth 60 or 70 feet below the level of the surrounding








INTERNAL TRADE
343
country, and prolongs the route for another 250 miles to
its northern end at Tientsin; water transport continues
for another 120 miles by the winding course of the Peiho
to Tungchow, and thence, for tribute.rice only, for 13 miles
by an artificial canal to the government granaries on the
eastern side of Peking. This is the Grand Canal, from
Hangchow by Chinkiang to Tientsin, and thence to Peking,
a main artery of trade traversing a network of water-ways
which provide means of transport for a country incredibly
rich in material resources. No estimate can be formed
of the number of millions in which the value of the traffic
on its surface must be stated; its chief value to the Empire
lies in the fact that it provides a safe inland route for a
thousand miles from south to north in a country in which,
in the past, time has had no value, and that thereby trade
was enabled to escape the perils of the sea passage. One
small indication of the extent of traffic is found in the value
of the transit pass trade with Shantung passing the Chin-
kiang Customs, traversing a distance along the Grand
Canal of 250 miles, a part of it the worst portion of the
route, to the nearest markets in Shantung, valued in 1904
at Tls.3,646,000, and in 1905 at Tls.3,331,000.
10. The Shansi route is mentioned to illustrate the
mediaeval conditions prevailing in China wherever transport
by water is not available. The province may be described
either as an accidented plateau or an unaccidented moun-
tain region, with a steep escarpment on the east, where it
rises some 4,000 feet from the plain of Chihli. The route
followed by the railway in course of construction from
Chentow, near Chengtingfu, in Chihli, to Taiyuanfu, the
capital of Shansi, affords the direct route from the lowland
into the heart of the province; but this is what may be
termed an express package route, short and direct, but t00
difficult for ordinary purposes of trade. When the great
famine of 1877, which more than decimated the province,
made it necessary to send supplies of f00d to Shansi, this
route was naturally selected to meet the urgency of the


INTERNAL TRADE
345
a thousand miles to the west and north-west. Statistics
give us but a slight indication of the volume of this traffic,
burdened by the cost of land transport over long distances,
but a few items may be noted. In 1905 tea with a net
weight of 357,265 piculs, valued at Tls.2,861,660, crossed
the Mongolian frontier by this route; and in the same
year foreign products were forwarded from Tientsin, under
transit pass, to Shansi valued at Tls.5,664,950, to Shensi
Tls.74,509, to Kansu and Turkestan Tls.679,575, and to
Mongolia Tls.217,300. Certain articles of Chinese produce
shipped from Tientsin can be identified as probably originat-
ing in Mongolia or in Kansu; among these are w00l (of
camel, goat, and sheep), of which the Tientsin export in
1905 was 186,918 piculs valued at Tls.3,326,000, and skins
(goat and sheep), valued at Tls.3,725,000.
12. The Manchurian route is important because of
the construction of the railway from Talien (Dairen or
Dalny) to Harbin, and thence east to Vladivostock and
north-west into Russian territory; and by this railway
in 1903 went 378,739 piculs of Chinese tea. My present
concern is, however, with the internal trade of China. This
route, proceeding east from Peking and north-east from
Tientsin, passes through the narrow defile between the
mountains and the sea at Shanhaikwan, where the Great
Wall ends on the shore, and then goes on to Ningyuan, where
three hundred years ago the Manchu invaders met their
only serious check. By this route came the Manchus, and
by this route have come tribute and ginseng from Korea,
until, in 1894, the tribute ceased. With the development
of steam traffic, trade between Chihli and Manchuria
by this portal fell away, until the exigencies of war shut
out the merchants of Newchwang from their hinterland
and drove its trade temporarily to Tientsin, from which
port the foreign g00ds sent by railway into Manchuria under
transit pass in 1905 were valued at Tls.4,925,000. From
Newchwang the Liao River in summer and the frozen plain
of Manchuria in winter furnish the means of distributing


346 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
a trade which, import and export, was in 1905 valued at
more than Tls.70,000,000.
These are the principal internal trade routes of the
Chinese Empire, thronged with boats or with the carts and
pack-animals engaged in the interchange of commodities
between a race of traders developed through the course
of many centuries. By these routes comes the Chinese
produce intended for export from the shipping ports, and by
these routes foreign products are distributed for consumption
in the marts of the interior; but there are no statistics to
show the volume of the enormous traffic which originates
and ends within the limits of the Empire. Some slight
indication is given by the quantities of a few articles of the
purely domestic trade conveyed by the steamers which,
on some routes, have now displaced, wholly or partially,
the old primitive means of conveyance; and a few brief
notes are given on the more important commodities.
Rice, shipped from producing to non-producing, from
agricultural to industrial districts, has always been an
important item in the domestic trade of China, shipment to
foreign countries being prohibited. From Hunan it is
estimated that an average annual surplus of 1,000,000
piculs is available for shipment to Hankow. Anhwei is
the principal rice-field of the Empire, and from its port,
Wuhu, were shipped 5,621,143 piculs in 1904, and 8,438,093
piculs in 1905. From Chinkiang the export in 1905 was
619,190 piculs, and from Shanghai 1,706,845 piculs. Of
these shipments 2,804,164 piculs were sent to Tientsin,
1,553,894 piculs being tribute rice and the rest in merchants'
hands, and 1,337,479 piculs to Chef00; except some small
shipments to other southern ports, the balance went to
the industrial centres of Kwangtung, in addition to 2,227,916
piculs of foreign rice, to supplement the produce of the
rich rice fields of that province.
Beans were shipped in 1903 (much of the trade was
diverted from Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese war)
to the extent of 3,423,766 piculs from Newchwang, 1,928,543


INTERNAL TRADE
347
piculs from Hankow, 404,063 piculs from Chinkiang, and
enough from other ports to make a total of 6,327,080 piculs;
of this quantity 1,836,707 piculs were shipped to Japan,
some 72,000 piculs to other foreign destinations, and the
balance, except 590,000 piculs for Amoy, went to the
Kwangtung ports, Canton and Swatow. In the same year
Bean-cake was shipped, 4,553,367 piculs from Newchwang,
1,192,948 piculs from Chef00, 583,095 piculs from Hankow,
423,447 piculs from Chinkiang, with total shipments of
7,030,325 piculs; of this quantity 3,400,444 piculs went
to Japan, and the balance, except 731,161 piculs for Amoy,
went to Kwangtung.
Coal shipments in 1905 amounted to 193,759 tons from
Tientsin and Chinwangtao, 16,887 tons from Kiaocbow,
5,793 tons from Chungking, and 72,422 tons from Hankow,
with a total of 290,477 tons. Of this 10,384 tons were
shipped to Hongkong and Indo-China, 120,766 tons to
Shanghai, and the balance to other Chinese ports, chiefly
Chef00, Wuhu, and Chinkiang. In 1909 the output of the
Kaiping mines, for which the shipping port is Chinwangtao,
was 1,226,000 tons.
Cotton hand-woven cloth was shipped by steamer in
1905 to the extent of 229,609 piculs, equivalent to about
100,000,000 square yards, of which 189,649 piculs originated
in Shanghai. This went pretty much to every place where
there are Chinese, the largest proportion to Manchuria, but
32,116 piculs to the Chinese colonies in foreign parts. In
1904 Newchwang imported in addition 82,667 piculs by
junk.
Ground-nuts were shipped to the extent of 183,601 piculs
from Tientsin, 109,042 piculs from Chef00, 79,726 piculs
from Hankow, and 489,353 piculs from Chinkiang, with
total shipments of 978,519 piculs; of this quantity 24,600
piculs went to foreign countries, and 912,555 piculs to
Canton.
Hemp, Jute, and Ramie shipments amounted to 365,988
piculs, of which 153,005 piculs came from Hankow and


CHAPTER XI
OPIUM
Opium presents a thorny subject to handle for any writer.
If he is a partisan of the opium trade, his tendency is strong
to leave the ground with which he may be familiar, that of
commercial dealings and statistics, and to try to demonstrate
the innocuousness of the drug as smoked by the Chinese—
to compare it to the relatively harmless ante-prandial glass
of sherry. If his mission is to denounce the opium traffic,
he invariably seems impelled, by an irresistible inclination,
to leave the high moral ground on which he is unassailable,
and descend into the arena of facts and figures, with which
he is not likely to be so familiar, and among which his pre-
disposition will lead him to pass by or to misinterpret those
which make against his case. The writer who tries to
investigate the facts with no predisposition to either side,
is likely to find himself branded as a trimmer by the one
party and a Laodicean by the other, with no opportunity
to defend himself. This chapter falls into the third category,
and an attempt will be made to present the general facts of
the history of opium in China, in such a way that either
party, by judicious selection of passages, may find arguments
with which to confute its opponents. There will be no
attempt to elucidate the really vital point in the opium
question, the moral aspect pure and simple.
The Poppy *
Previous to the Tang dynasty (a.d. 618) the poppy was
* "The Poppy in China," by J. Edkins.
35o


OPIUM
353
medans, from whom he could learn of Arab arts and in-
dustries. In the "Eastern Treasury of Medicine," a
Korean work of the same period, is given an exact account
of the method of scoring the capsule, gathering the exuded
sap, and drying it in the sun, much as practised to-day;
and there can be little doubt that the preparation of opium
was introduced into China through Arab channels by the
end of the fifteenth century. The "Introduction to
Medicine " of Li Ting, in the middle of the sixteenth century,
gives an exact account of the method of preparing opium,
under the name A-fu-yung. The Arabs, in taking the
Greek name opium (S-niov), transformed it into afyiin.
In China the provinces along the coast have transliterated
the name opium into ya-pien, by which the drug is generally
known; but in the inland province of Yunnan, where the
Mohammedan influence has always been strong, and the
Mohammedan population predominated up to the Panthay
rebellion (1867) and the resultant massacres, opium of
indigenous production is to this day referred to in official
documents, tax receipts, etc., as fu-yung, which, except as
a truncated form of a-fu-yung, is unintelligible in Chinese.
Opium Smoking
It may be said broadly that, while all other opium-
using people take it by the mouth and stomach, the Chinese
alone smoke it.
Opium smoking came in through tobacco smoking.
As we have seen (Chapter IX.*) the Spanish occupied the
Philippines from the west in 1543, and made their first
attempt to trade with China in 1575; thereafter they left
the development of the trade between China and Manila
entirely to the Chinese. Through the Philippines the
American narcotic, tobacco, was introduced at Amoy,
and thence to Formosa, which was in process of colonisation
from Amoy in that period. In the " Notes on the Conduct
23 * Page 298.


354 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of Business " published about 1650, the year 1620 is given
as the date of the introduction, about the time of the
"Counterblaste to Tobacco" of King James the Sixth of
Scotland and First of England. The Chinese Emperors were
animated by the same feelings as King James, and the
last of the Ming Emperors (1628-1644) prohibited tobacco
smoking in his dominions. The first of the Manchu
Emperors, before his occupation at Peking, while he was
Emperor of the Manchus but not of the Chinese, issued in
1641 an edict on archery, in which he says: "To smoke
tobacco is a fault, but not so great a fault as to neglect
practice with the bow. As to the prohibition of tobacco
smoking, it became impossible to maintain it because you
princes and others smoked privately, though not publicly;
but as to the use of the bow, this must not be neglected."
Other prohibitive edicts followed, but were quite as in-
effective; and to-day in China, with few exceptions, every
man, woman, and weaned child is a smoker of tobacco:
the " Society of Total Abstainers " (from wine, tobacco, and
tea) is in times of trouble classed with the secret societies,
for which extermination is the prescribed treatment.
Formosa is a land of jungle and malaria, and where
malaria prevails opium is a natural resource, as exemplified
by the opium pills of the Norfolk fen-men a short century
ago. Of the tropical jungle we have a note of Jacobus
Bontius, a Dutch physician of Java, dated Batavia, 1629,
in which he says that "unless we had opium to use in
these hot countries, in cases of dysentery, cholera, burning
fever, and various bilious affections, we should practise
medicine in vain." In Formosa malaria is deadly to this
day, and the early colonists mixed with their tobacco
various ingredients to neutralise the effects of the fever,
among them opium and arsenic: the latter is still used
by the Chinese in what is called "water tobacco," and is
prescribed in cases of malaria by Western physicians when
for any reason quinine is contra-indicated. Kaempfer
visited Java in 1689, and in his account of Batavia is the


356 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the Canton authorities to be directed against the foreign
importation, is shown by the gradual and unconcealed
increase at the rate of 20 chests a year. A distinction was
recognised and made between opium for medicinal use,
and its sale for smoking; and its introduction for the
former purpose was permitted. In the " Hoppo Book " *
01 I753. which is based on tariffs of 1687 and 1733, then
still in force, opium is included as paying Tls.3 a picul,
which is at the rate of 6 per cent. (the then official rate
of levy) on a value of Tls.50; and in a valuation book of
the same date (1755), the values of certain commodities are
given, among them silk at Tls.1oo, tea at Tls.8, rhubarb
Tls.150, musk Tls.150, and opium Tls.50. The inference
is that the Canton officials were quite honest in holding
that the prohibitory edict of 1729 did not apply to the
importation of the foreign drug. The trade went on without
restriction on the importation, and in 1773 the English mer-
chants made their first imports from Calcutta, with the
probable effect of increasing the amount introduced. In
1780 a new Viceroy was appointed to Canton, who had
"the reputation of an upright, bold, and rigid minister," f
and who determined to apply the Imperial restriction to
the importation of the drug, as well as to its sale for
smoking; but the connection between this and the as-
sumption of control of the opium traffic by the East India
Company in the following year, is a matter of inference.
The evils arising from the use of opium became more
apparent from year to year, the import in 1790 having
increased to 4,054 chests; and in 1796, on the repre-
sentation of the Viceroy, an Imperial edict was issued
imposing heavier penalties on opium smoking. In 1800 an
edict was issued prohibiting the importation of foreign
opium and the cultivation of the poppy. From this date
the traffic became contraband, and about the same time
smuggling became organised by detailed arrangements
* " Journal China Branch of Royal Asiatic Society," 1882.
f "British Parliamentary Papers," 1783.


OPIUM
357
made between the importers and the officials at Canton
and elsewhere along the coast.
Drain of Specie •
In addition to the high moral ground taken by the
Imperial Government in their desire to suppress the opium
traffic, they rest their case upon their statement of the
fact that the necessity of paying for the opium drained
the country of silver, giving as an instance the " average
annual export of Tls.10,000,000 in the ten years previous"
to 1839; and this instance, and the drain of silver deducible
from it, have been generally accepted in the histories.
This drain of silver is not proved by facts. The sum is
first to be discounted as being a fine-sounding round figure
useful to support a prohibitory edict; and, being in a
Chinese official document, the statement must be inter-
preted strictly, and not taken to imply more than it says.
Assuming that in ten years shipments of treasure amounted
to upwards of Tls.10,000,000 annually, which was not the
fact, it does not follow that, on balancing exports against
imports, the net export was as much. Several foreign writers
of the time refer to the permits specially required for the
shipment of treasure, and there can be no doubt that any
reported export of treasure was derived from the records of
such permits without any offset or the introduction of alien
matters. It was before the day of banks; and while it is
almost true that at that time each ship had to square with
hard cash its accounts for imports and exports, it is abso
lutely true of each merchant, whether in a season he had
one ship or several. India supplied the opium, but t00k
no tea and no considerable quantity of silk, and shipment
of treasure to India was inevitable. In the present day
that country sends to China commodities to the average
annual value of over Tls.80,000,000, and receives in return
* For a detailed consideration of this subject, see the author's
"International Relations of the Chinese Empire "—" The Period
of Conflict," chap. viii. § 3$.


358 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
commodities not exceeding Tls.10,000,000 in value; to-day
the difference is adjusted by bank bills, but then the
opium from India could not be paid for by tea shipped
to England or America, but must be paid for in cash and
the specie shipped, except in so far as it might be taken
over by the East India Company against its bills on Calcutta,
to provide funds with which to buy tea. Except for the
opium of India and the spices of the Southern Isles, the
rest of the world could provide little that China wanted.
England could send a few pieces of camlet, probably not
a hundredth of what was needed to buy a cargo of tea;
and from the English, American, Dutch, Portuguese, and
other trade, poured in a stream of silver in the shape of
Spanish dollars,* which to this day are current in Anhwei,
and were current in Formosa up to 1895, in which year
two and a quarter millions of them were introduced into
the island for the tea season. The movement of silver was
inward, not outward; and the explanation of the fact that
merchants of the highest repute brought themselves to
engage in a trade which we have come to regard as dis-
reputable, is to be found in the imperative commercial
necessity of lessening the constant flow of silver from the
depleted European market, and of substituting for it any
commodity which the Chinese would consent to buy.
Opium Contraband
Opium was the one thing the Chinese would consent
to buy, and buy it they did and continued to do, after the
prohibitory edict of 1800, as they had before; and ar-
rangements were made with business-like method for cir-
cumventing the prohibition, allowing the buyers to get
the drug they wanted, and securing what they considered
their proper dues to the rulers of the land whose duty it
was to see that the edicts were enforced. The edicts never
were enforced; for forty years there was no pretence at
enforcing them in the spirit, and the restrictions of their
* See page 183.
■


OPIUM
359
letter had only the effect of covering the traffic with a veil
of decency such that the importing merchants might engage
in it, the officials might not have it thrust under their eyes,
and the dealers might get their supplies with more trouble
and at considerably more cost. The irregular dues levied
over and above the official tariff were already heavy, but
when it became necessary to pay for connivance in addition
to the payments demanded for complaisance, they became
heavier; and they were distributed between the officials,
Hoppo, Viceroy, Governor, Treasurer, and so on down the
list, not as bribes in one payment to secure that eyes should
be judiciously shut, but as dues levied on each chest divided
in proper proportion to each official. As the trade was
prohibited the duis received could not be included in the
regular reports of revenue collected, and the regular New
Year's gratifications sent in accordance with custom to the
Ministers of State and the officials of the Court at Peking—
heavier because of the greater amount of lucrum attaching
to the provincial posts—had no peculiar odour attaching to
them to betray their origin; it was therefore to the interest
of all officials concerned, below the Emperor and except
an occasional honest statesman, that the prohibition should
be enacted and that the traffic should go on. The Emperor
might prohibit the trade, but the Emperor's representatives
continued to sanction it.
On the issue of the prohibitory edicts it became im-
possible to continue the open storage of stocks in the factories
at Canton, and the depots were established at Macao,
which, it must be remembered, was under Chinese fiscal
control until 1848; quantities were, however, still brought
on in the importing ships and kept on board at the anchorage
at Whampoa until they could be delivered to purchasers.
This went on until 1820, when the order went out that
no opium was to be stored in Macao or at Whampoa; the
importers then established store ships at Lintin Island,
in the estuary of the Canton River. Up to this date the
import had not in any year exceeded 5,000 chests.


360 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
When the edict of 1800 was issued, the East India
Company ceased to carry opium on its own account. From
that time it was officially responsible for the production of
that portion of the drug which came from Bengal and for
its sale in Calcutta, but had no direct concern with its
transportation and sale in China, nor did it ever have any
connection with opium from Malwa or from Persia.
During the Lintin period, opium (then regularly called
"tea," and still ordinarily so termed at Canton) was sold
by sample, and paid for invariably in hard cash against
a delivery order. The importer had nothing else to do
with sales for local delivery. The purchaser having arranged
for the necessary protection from official interference, t00k
his order to the receiving ship at Lintin, where he repacked
into mat-bags, marked with his private chop, and t00k it
away in fast boats with crews of sixty to seventy men.
The trade would be temporarily interrupted on the arrival
of each new official of high rank, until he had settled into
his place; and occasionally there would be a brutum fulmen
of a proclamation ordering vessels " loitering at the outer
anchorage" either to come into port or to sail away; but
never was Lintin mentioned by name, and never was a
guard-boat so unmannerly as to poke its nose into the
anchorage, though doubtless there were many watchful
eyes round about.
Opium for the eastern part of Kwangtung was ordinarily
sold at Canton, also always for cash, to be delivered by
the seller ordinarily at Namoa, an island near Swatow, the
station of the Commander-in-chief of the provincial coast
forces. Hunter * describes a visit he made in 1837 m an
American clipper sch00ner of 150 tons regularly despatched
by his firm from Lintin to deliver their sales. On arrival
at Namoa he found there two English brigs belonging to
two English firms, engaged in the same traffic, and lying
near them the "Admiral's flagship." The Admiral came
on board, and all concerned went through some solemn
* "The Fankwae at Canton."


OPIUM
361
f00lery, the object of which was to secure supplies for the
sch00ner, on its way from Singapore to Canton, driven into
Namoa in distress; afterwards, at a more private interview
opened by the direct question "How many chests have
you ?" a bargain was struck, and non-interference provided
for, on terms additional to those which were arranged by
the purchasers at Canton. After this the opium, which
had been packed in bags at Lintin, was delivered to junks
flying a private signal, without further formality. The
jurisdiction of the Canton Hoppo and Viceroy ended at
Namoa, and farther up the coast the sweet simplicity of
the Canton procedure could not be carried out in such
perfect detail. The vessel in which Hunter returned came
into Namoa from the north, and "her entire freight to
Canton consisted of $430,000 in value of gold bars and
sycee-silver."
This contraband traffic went on uninterruptedly until the
end of 1838. In 1830 the annual import had increased to
16,877 chests, and in 1838 to 20,619 chests. The appoint-
ment of Lord Napier in 1834 as Ambassador of His Britannic
Majesty, brought to the foie a different aspect of China's
foreign relations, the right of foreign Envoys to treat directly
with the representatives of the Empire, and, connected with
it, the position of monopoly inherent in the Co-Hong, with
which alone Envoy and merchant were to have any dealings;
but opium was no more in question from 1834 to 1838, during
the time of Lord Napier and Captain Elliot, than it had
been before. At Peking, however, there was renewed dis-
cussion of the evils arising from opium smoking, aad of
the still greater demoralisation from smuggling an article
declared contraband by law; and there was even serious
consideration of a proposal to legalise the traffic in order
to bring the evil under better control. The proposal was
negatived, and the Emperor decided to enforce the edict
issued by his father in 1800, and found a willing agent for
the purpose in Lin Tse-sii. In this decision the Emperor
may have been mistaken, he may have attempted to sweep


OPIUM
363
evidenced by the fact that this was effectually destroyed
to the last ounce. Of the firms contributing the opium,
the largest contributor was an English firm with 7,000 chests,
then another English firm, then an American firm with
1,500 chests; after them came English, Parsee, and other
merchants, natives of India. Some fifty chests of Turkey
opium in the possession of an American firm were not
surrendered as not being from India. The only effect of
the Imperial Commissioner's action, directed against the
foreigner and not against his own countrymen, was to
check the local trade for a time, but it did not do away
with it: the demand remained, new supplies came forward,
and the trade went on.
The loss of prestige by the Imperial Government not only
inspired the smugglers with greater activity and less fear
of the consequences, but caused the officials along the coast
to throw off such modest feelings of restraint as they may
have felt before. Then, in the decade 1850-1860, the spread
of the Taiping rebellion over whole provinces, involving
millions of people, caused vast misery, which drove many to
the Chinese equivalent of "drink," filled the pockets of
myriads with plunder to be spent in indulgence, and brought
into the field on both sides armed forces whose chief occupa-
tion, then as in later times, was opium smoking. The result
of this laxity and this increase in the demand was a perfect
carnival of smuggling. Prior to Lin's mission the trade,
though not legalised, was fully regulated, and it is a misuse
of terms to apply the word " smuggling" to what went on
then: the foreign merchant imported his opium without
concealment, but, during the last twenty years of the period,
instead of bringing it to his factory at Canton and storing
it there or at Macao, he deposited it on store-ships at Lintin;
he sold it, generally speaking, and obtained payment at
Canton, all subsequent proceedings being the concern of the
purchasers, Chinese subjects; and he delivered it on board
his own ship, usually at Lintin, to a certain extent at definite
points on the coast to the east and north, but always under .


364 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
official oversight. To a limited extent the sales were not
effected at Canton, but at the points of delivery on the
coast. After Lin's mission the trade was neither legalised
nor regulated; even such restraint as might come from
publicity was absent, since at first the British authorities
refused to permit the establishment of a depot in Hongkong.
The result was to drive the importers into closer relations
with the officials, who were in a position to impede the traffic
at all places along the coast; to what extent they, and to
what extent the purchasers, made the actual arrangements,
who was the active agent in perverting from their duty
the only t00 willing representatives of the humiliated
Emperor, is not known, because the whole traffic during
this period is covered by a veil of secrecy and mystery.
From this driving of the traffic away from the light of day,
from the increased activity of the importers in supplying
an increased demand, from the greater enterprise of the
smugglers, whether they were foreign or Chinese, and from
the greater laxity and depravity of the officials of China—
from all these causes came two consequences: from the
20,619 chests of 1838 the import of opium increased to
about 50,000 chests in 1850, and to 85,000 chests in 1860;
and, as opium smoking had debauched the Chinese, the
opium traffic debauched the foreign traders and dragged
them down from their high estate.
It will be well to repeat, in a brief summary,' the salient
facts relating to opium. The poppy has been known in
China for at least twelve centuries, its medicinal use for
nine centuries, and that the medicinal properties lay in the
capsule for six centuries. Opium has been made in China
for four centuries. Tobacco smoking was introduced through
the Spanish at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
and the smoking of opium mixed with the tobacco through
the Dutch in the middle of the seventeenth century; there
is no historical record to show when opium was first smoked
by itself, but it appears to have nearly coincided with the
prohibition of all opium importation in 1800. Foreign


366 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
American and Russian treaties which must be considered
to be also the direct result of that war. But (to quote the
premier treaty) Article XXVI. of the British treaty pro-
vided for the appointment of a Commission to revise the
Customs tariff; and when, in November 1858, the Com-
mission agreed on the tariff, opium was quietly inserted in
it at a duty of Tls.30 per picul. Opium was included with
the full consent of the Chinese negotiators; of this there is
no doubt, for we have the testimony of Sir Thomas Wade
and Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who were the representatives
of the British Envoy on the Commission. That so burning
a question as the opium trade should not be mentioned in
those unofficial colloquies which accompany all negotiations
was impossible; and that the wisdom of legalisation cum
regulation was fully explained to the Chinese negotiators
as a measure of political economy is made known to us by
Oliphant. The first suggestion that the matter should be
taken into consideration was made by the American Minister,
Mr. William B. Reed, who came out to China with a strong
bias against the opium trade, and with instructions from
his government conceived in the same spirit, but who never-
theless became an advocate of the legalisation of the trade,
from witnessing the abuses to which its contraband char-
acter gave rise.* With this changed view he wrote to Lord
Elgin as follows:
"I have more than once underst00d your Excel-
lency to say that you had a strong, if not invincible,
repugnance, involved as Great Britain already was in
hostilities at Canton, and having been compelled in
the north to resort to the influence of threatened
coercion, to introduce the subject of opium to the con-
sideration of the Chinese authorities. Yet I am con-
fident, unless the initiative is taken by your Excellency,
things must continue as they are, with all their shame;
and I appeal to your Excellency's high sense of duty,
* "Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan,"
1860, Vol. II., chap. xiii.


OPIUM
367
so often and so strongly expressed to this helpless
though perverse people, whether we, the representa-
tives of Western and Christian nations, ought to
consider our work done without some attempt to
induce or compel an adjustment of the pernicious
difficulty. In such an attempt I shall cordially
unite."
After alluding to the possibility of putting a stop to
the growth of opium in India, Mr. Reed goes on to say:
"Of effective prohibition, and this mainly through
the inveterate appetite of the Chinese, I am not
sanguine; and I therefore more confidently, though
not more earnestly, call your Excellency's atten-
tion to the only other course open to us—attempt to
persuade the Chinese to put such high duties on the
drug as will restrain the supply, regulate the import,
and yet not stimulate some other form of smuggling,
with or without the connivance of the Chinese. The
economical arguments in favour of this course are so
fully stated in the accompanying paper that I need
not allude to them further."
It was therefore decided that the matter should be
brought to the notice of the Chinese Commissioners, who,
however, required no long persuasion; they were fully
awake to the evils of what had become unrestricted trade
in the drug, and their government needed the revenue which
had for so long a time gone into the pockets of its servants.
After approval by the French and American Envoys, the
tariff was agreed to, including opium. At the same time
it was recognised that opium was eminently an article of
import which must be left to the unfettered discretion of
the Chinese government to deal with; and the fifth of the
Rules of Trade appended to the tariff reads as follows:
"The restrictions affecting trade in Opium, Cash,
Grain, Pulse, Sulphur, Brimstone, Saltpetre, and
Spelter, are relaxed, under the following conditions:
"1. Opium will henceforth pay thirty taels per


3&8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
picul Import Duty. The importer will sell it only at
the port. It will be carried into the interior by Chinese
only, and only as Chinese property; the Foreign
trader will not be allowed to accompany it. The
provisions of Article IX. of the Treaty of Tientsin, by
which British subjects are authorised to proceed into
the interior with Passports to trade, will not extend
to it, nor will those of Article XXVIII. of the same
Treaty, by which the Transit Dues are regulated.
The Transit Dues on it will be arranged as the Chinese
Government see fit; nor in future revisions of the
Tariff is the same rule of revision to be applied to
Opium as to other g00ds."
The next step in the history of opium is found in the
Chef00 Agreement of 1876, by which the British government
accepted in principle a proposal that inland taxation (likin)
on the drug should be collected simultaneously with the
import duty, i.e. by the Imperial and not by the provincial
authorities. This was made effective by an Additional
Article signed on July 18, 1885, by which the amount of
likin was settled at Tls.8o per picul, making, with the
import duty, a total of Tls.no per picul which the Chinese
government is entitled to collect; and the establishment
in 1887 of the Kowl00n and Lappa Customs, to control the
junk traffic with Hongkong and Macao, operated further
to the benefit of the Imperial exchequer by the restraint
thereby imposed on smuggling.
The only restriction imposed by China on the opium
trade and accepted by a foreign Power, other than the
inclusion of opium as " contraband" in the tariff annexed
to the American treaty of 1844, is contained in the Supple-
mental Treaty of 1880 between the United States and China,
of which Article II. is as follows:
"The Governments of China and of the United
States mutually agree and undertake that Chinese sub-
jects shall not be permitted to import opium into any
of the ports of the United States; and citizens of the


372 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
native production exceeded the foreign importation in
1729—we know it did; or if it exceeded the foreign supply
of 1800—it very probably, almost certainly did. Coming
down to the nineteenth century, during its fourth decade,
when the great question—to legalise the foreign trade or
stamp it out—was under consideration, the native pro-
duction was referred to in several memorials presented
to the Throne. In 1830 it was stated that " the poppy is
cultivated over one-half of Chekiang," a rhetorical exaggera-
tion. In 1836 a memorial of Hu Nai-tsi proposed to legalise
the traffic on various economic grounds, and, incidentally,
because of the already great native production. This was
opposed in a memorial of Chu Tsun, who was convinced of
the evils of smoking, and based his objections largely on
the amount of the home production, instancing that in his
native province of Yunnan the annual production was many
thousand piculs. The habit of smoking opium had been
known in China for at least a century and a half, and it is
probable that it had extended to the inland provinces;
while it is improbable that the 15,000 to 20,000 chests,
which constituted the foreign supply, penetrated far from
the coast, and it is not probable that they supplied much
more than the provinces of Kwangtung, Fukien (including
Formosa), and possibly Chekiang; it seems probable that
the foreign drug reached along the coast beyond the mouth
of the Yangtze only after 1840. This is supposition, which
is alien to the purpose of this chapter; but it finds some
support in the fact * that at Hankow, prior to the opening
of the port in 1861, foreign opium was practically unknown,
a few piculs only being introduced to satisfy Cantonese
palates; that prior to 1859 Hankow was supplied with
opium from Shansi, but that these supplies were cut off by
disturbances in that province, and in 1860 Hankow drew
its supplies, to the extent of 2,000 piculs, from Szechwan
and Hunan.
Statistics are unknown in China, the only statistics
* "Native Opium, 1863." Shanghai, 1864.


374 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Chekiang produces a considerable quantity, especially
in the Wenchow and Chuchow prefectures, the production
being estimated at 10,000 to 16,000 piculs in 1879, and at
4,500 piculs in 1887. It will be safe to put the output
to-day at 5,000 piculs.
Kiangsu, in 1879, was estimated to produce 2,500 piculs
of opium. There has recently been increased production
in the Hsiichow prefecture in the north-western corner of
the province, and the output of Kiangsu to-day cannot be
less than 5,000 piculs.
Shantung imported 3,536 piculs of foreign opium in 1879;
in 1888 this had fallen to 318 piculs, which is now the aver-
age amount. In 1887 it was estimated that the annual con-
sumption of native opium was 8,000 piculs, mostly Shantung
product. The production of the province to-day must be
at least 10,000 piculs.
Chihli imported 7,898 piculs of foreign opium in 1867,
and 5,181 piculs in 1879; in 1905 this fell to 225 piculs.
Native opium was reported as coming from Shansi in 1863
in considerable quantities; in 1879 the production of
Chihli was estimated at 3,000 piculs, and in 1887 it was
reported to be "very large." Within forty years 7,500
piculs of foreign opium have been entirely displaced by native
opium, and, allowing for increase in the population and
extension of the habit, the consumption of the latter is now
from 15,000 to 20,000 piculs. Some comes from Manchuria
and some from Shansi, and the production of Chihli is
probably 10,000 and certainly 5,000 piculs.
Manchuria has probably taken up the production of
opium within fifty years past. Foreign opium was imported
to the extent of 2,585 piculs in 1867, and 2,453 piculs in
1879; in 1888 the import was 113 piculs, and in 1905 was
only 25 piculs. Native opium in 1863 came chiefly from
Shansi, and it is on record that in that year 200 piculs
were introduced into the city of Moukden. In 1879 the
production of Manchuria was estimated at 3,000 piculs,
and in 1887 at 8,000 piculs, and the quality was reported


OPIUM
375
to be equal if not superior to that of foreign opium. The
population has been greatly increased by immigration in
the past thirty years, and, apart from the temporary effects
of war, the output to-day may be estimated at 15,000
piculs.
For the Coast Provinces the annual production, estimated
on a conservative basis, is 42,500 piculs.
Yangtze Provinces
Hunan opium was known at Hankow in 1863 and
before, and in 1879 the production was estimated at 1,000
piculs. Hunanese have filled the armies of China for fifty
years, and returned soldiers have brought back the habit
of heavy smoking. But little foreign opium is imported
(240 piculs in 1905), and the production of opium in Hunan
to-day is probably at least 3,000 piculs.
Hupeh consumed no foreign opium prior to 1861, and
imported 4,242 piculs in 1867, and (including Hunan) 562
piculs in 1905. Native opium is, and has always been,
introduced from other provinces, but there has also been
a home production, estimated in 1879 at 2,000 to 3,000
piculs, and in 1887 at 3,000 : the output to-day is probably
4,000 piculs.
Kiangsi maintains its consumption of foreign opium
of forty and thirty years ago. In 1863 the local production
was estimated at 200 piculs; there has been no great
increase in poppy growing, and to-day the output probably
does not exceed 500 piculs.
Anhwei imports to-day of foreign opium but half the
import of 1879 and 1888. In 1887 the local production
was estimated at 2,000 piculs, and to-day it is probably
over 3,000 piculs.
For the Yangtze Provinces, accessible since 1861 by
steamer, the annual production may be put at 10,500
piculs.


OPIUM
377
being confidently stated to be three times that of the coast
provinces. No foreign opium has ever been imported, and
the poppy, cultivated-certainly as early as the ninth century,
is to-day grown everywhere; Mr. E. C. Baber (1878)
says: "We were astounded at the extent of the poppy
cultivation in Szechwan and Yunnan." Baron von
Richthofen (1872) expresses the same astonishment, and
estimates the production of opium at a minimum of 60,000
piculs and a probable output of 100,000 piculs. In 1904
the quantity passing by the river route to the east through
Ichang was 36,856 piculs, and in 1905 it was 36,311 piculs.
Of this quantity 11,011 piculs were imported and 11,025
piculs re-exported by steamer at Hankow in 1904, and
2,736 piculs imported and 2,492 piculs re-exported in 1905,
the remainder of the Ichang transit going in the same way
by junk; this furnishes an apt illustration of the well-known
fact that opium in China comes into the light of day only
when there is some obvious fiscal advantage to gain. In
addition to the river route there are three main land routes,
besides many unfrequented mountain roads, by which opium
is carried to the east; and the total export from the province
eastward must be well over 50,000 piculs, and is possibly
upwards of 100,000 piculs. The recognised authority for
Szechwan to-day is Sir Alexander Hosie. In his consular
report for 1903 (presented to both Houses of Parliament,
October 1904, Cd. 2247), he records the fact that" in the pro-
vincial capital, Chengtu, there is one opium-smoking sal00n
to every 67 of a population of 500,000; these sal00ns are open
to men only, and women have to smoke in their own homes."
As the result of a careful detailed calculation he states that
the consumption of Szechwan-grown opium by the in-
habitants of Szechwan is 182,500 piculs. If to this be added
the probable export eastward from the province, we have
a probable production of not less than 250,000 piculs.
Yunnan has long produced opium, the production in
1836 being stated to be " many thousand piculs." Baber
(1878) says; "We were astounded at the extent of the


378 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
poppy cultivation in Szechwan and Yunnan. . . . With
a consciousness that I am underestimating, I estimate
that the poppy fields constitute a third of the whole culti-
vation of Yunnan." The province has to-day but two
articles of importance with which to pay for extra-provincial
products consumed—viz. opium and tin. The latter comes
from one spot twenty miles from Mengtsz, and the value
of the output in 1904 was Tls.3,200,000. Opium comes
from all parts of the province and goes in all directions,
that portion shipped for the use of the Opium Regie in
Tonkin in 1904 amounting to 2,958 piculs, the quantity
going by land into China being very much greater. Yunnan
opium was known at Canton and at Chinkiang in 1863;
in 1879 the production was variously estimated from 12,000
to 22,000 piculs; in 1887 it was estimated at 27,000 piculs.
A low estimate of the production to-day is 30,000 piculs.
Kweichow opium was known at Canton in 1863. In
1879 the estimates range from 10,000 to 15,500 piculs;
in 1887 one authority estimates it at 9,000 piculs, and
another states "total production nearly as much as
Yunnan." A safe estimate of the production to-day must
be fully 15,000 piculs.
Kwangsi imports practically no foreign opium (22 piculs
entered at Wuchow in 1905), and is a thoroughfare for
Szechwan, Yunnan, and Kweichow opium for its own con-
sumption, and in transit to Kwangtung. The poppy is also
cultivated in the province, but to what extent is little
known. The production of opium was estimated in 1879
at 3,000 piculs, and may be put at the same figure to-day.
For the Inland Provinces, not accessible at any time,
except Honan, to the invasion of foreign opium, the annual
production may be put at 323,000 piculs, making for the
whole of China a total of 376,000 piculs.
It cannot be asserted that this figure is measurably
exact; but it may be safely asserted that the production
of opium in China to-day * is, at the lowest, six-fold, and
* In 1906.


OPIUM
379
is more probably eight-fold, the quantity of the present
import of foreign opium.
Morphia
For one vice, both for its introduction and its main-
tenance, foreigners must be held responsible. How or
when the practice of injecting morphia was first introduced,
except in hospitals, is not known; it has been suggested
that it arose from the well-meant administration of anti-
opium pills containing the alkaloid, intended to satisfy the
craving without the knowledge of the druggard that opium
was administered in any form. However or whenever
first started, hypodermic injections have taken hold, and
the attention of the Chinese government has been drawn
to the necessity of checking the evil. The first record of
importation is in 1892: since that date the quantities im-
ported have been as follows:
Ounces.
Ounces.
1892
. 15.761
1898
92,159
1893 .
. 27,993
1899 .
■ 154.705
1894
. 43,414
1900
. 114,768
1895 .
. 64,043
1901
. 138,567
1896
. 67,320
1902
■ 195.133
1897 .
. 81,716
Up to April 1903 duty had been levied on import at the
rate of 5 per cent. ad valorem, representing a tax of about
Tl.008 per ounce; then a prohibitory tax of Tls.3 00
per ounce, about 200 per cent. ad valorem, was imposed,
and the imports declared to the Customs fell off as follows:
Ounces.
1903 106,148
1904 128
1905 54
1911 5o1


OPIUM
381
cism or the suspicion of a sneering attitude. The govern-
ment also reached a point on the path of reform so far
advanced that it could again take up social reforms, and
this time with a fair prospect of support from below, which
had been denied to it on previous occasions. Foreign
nations too had so far advanced in the development of
public morality that it seemed probable that they were
ready to abandon the laissez-faire policy of the nineteenth
century—the attitude of "mind your business, and we'll
mind ours." The impulse to reform was strong and the
time propitious; and on November 21st, 1906, an Imperial
edict was issued, providing that within ten years all land
then planted in poppy should by instalments be with-
drawn from its cultivation; that all smokers must take
out a license, those under sixty years of age gradually
reducing their consumption; that restrictions should be
placed on the sale of opium appliances and the extension of
smoking divans; that smoking be absolutely prohibited
to all in the government service; and that steps be taken
for the gradual reduction of the import of foreign opium,
and for its absolute cessation within ten years.
The countries chiefly concerned in the production were
India and Persia. The latter has no treaty with China
and is therefore not entitled to the privileges of extra-
territoriality or to most-favoured-nation treatment; and
the British government promptly responded to the demand
for support in this great moral movement, and, in December
1906, agreed to restrict the export from India by one-tenth
in each year. The agreement was, however, to be in force
only for three years, after which its continuance was to
depend on the extent to which China had made effective
her own reduction in the production of opium.
While the existing supply came mainly from India,
or, in the case of Persian opium, through India, it was still
open to other countries to produce and, under existing
treaties, to their nationals to import the drug. Accord-
ingly an international conference was held at Shanghai


382 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
in February 1909, with the American Bishop Brent presiding,
in order to arrive at a common agreement on the subject.
The conference adopted resolutions recognising the "un-
swerving sincerity of the government of China in their efforts
to eradicate the production and consumption of opium
throughout the Empire"; and urging the various govern-
ments represented at it to adopt regulations which would
aid China in accomplishing her declared purpose.
The three years' probationary period having expired, the
British government on May 8th, 1911, signed an agreement
with China by which continued co-operation between the
two was assured. On the one hand pr00f had been given
that the cultivation of the poppy had been diminished in
China even beyond the stipulated rate; and, on the other,
the import from India to China, which in 1907 had been taken
as being 51,000 chests a year, had been reduced by law
by an amount of 5,100 chests in each of the years 1908-09-10.
Accordingly the new agreement provided for a continued
reduction at this rate for the years from 1911 on to the end
of 1917; and it was further agreed that Indian opium
should not be conveyed into any province in which the
production and import of native opium had been entirely
suppressed, and that the tax on Indian opium should be
increased from Tls.110 toTls.350 per picul, "as s00n as the
Chinese government levy an equivalent excise tax on all
native opium." Simultaneously the Chinese government im-
posed a tax of Tls.230 a picul on nativeopium.this being taken
as the equivalent tax, proportioned to the narcotic content.
A second international conference was held at The
Hague in January, 1912, at which were represented Ger-
many, America, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan,
The Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam. An
international convention was agreed to and signed on
January 23rd, by which it was provided:
That the Powers should enact effective laws or
regulations for the control of the production and
distribution of raw opium;


384 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Manchuria and in the two provinces of Shansi and Szech-
wan; and, from September 11th, 1911, the introduction
of foreign opium into those areas was prohibited. It should
be observed, however, that foreign opium had never entered
into consumption in the two Chinese provinces; and, if the
enormous production of native opium in Szechwan had been
entirely suppressed, the dislocation of trade occasioned
thereby may serve to explain the rebellious state of that
province just before and at the time of the Revolution.
The clearing up of the provinces went on, however, and as
each was declared to have been cleared, the importation into
it of foreign opium was prohibited—in 1913 Chihli, Kwangsi,
Hunan, Anhwei, and Shantung; in 1914 Fukien, Hupeh,
Chekiang, and Honan; in 1915 far-distant Kansu and
Sinkiang. This at the end of 1915 left only Kweichow,
Yunnan, and Shensi, provinces which had never consumed
foreign opium, and Kiangsi, Kiangsu, and Kwangtung,
in which the foreign drug was legitimised until 1918.
Since 1906 the prohibition has been enforced. In some
provinces this has been done against the dead-weight
resistance of economic interest, in some the moral crusade
has over-ridden all obstacles, in some the people have drifted
and have yielded to an honest enforcement of the regulations.
The moral crusade has behind it the full weight of the strong
national feeling which created the Republic; and, against
many vested interests, against the innate apathy of the
Chinese people, notwithstanding the poverty of the Treasury,
that feeling has persisted in pushing the reform. The
disturbed state of the country for several years has doubtless
acted as a drag on progress; but the young generation has
grown up without having acquired the taste for the narcotic
and with the feeling inculcated in them that the habit is
a mark of a low civilisation; many, very many, of the
older generation have thrown off the habit and have re-
cognised that in mind and in body they are better; and the
present situation is full of hope for the future, when peace
and order are restored.





386 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
few Powers were involved. The first step taken to tide
over the moratorium was an arrangement by which the
foreign merchants declared to their Consuls the nature of
the merchandise imported and exported, and deposited
at the Consulates bonds for the duty leviable thereon, which,
be it noted, was on a moderate 5 per cent. basis. This
was found, for many reasons, to be irksome to the Consuls;
and, with the approval of the British, American, and French
Ministers, then at Shanghai, an agreement was made on
June 29th, 1854, between the Shanghai Taotai, Wu Kien-
chang, who was a refugee in the English concession, and
the three Consuls, the British, (Sir) Rutherford Alcock, the
American, R. C. Murphy, and the French, B. Edan, the first
article being:
"Rule 1. The chief difficulty experienced by the
superintendent of customs having consisted in the
impossibility of obtaining custom-house officials with
the necessary qualifications as to probity, vigilance,
and knowledge of foreign languages, required for the
enforcement of a close observance of treaty and
custom-house regulations, the only adequate remedy
appears to be in the introduction of a foreign element
into the custom-house establishment, in the persons
of foreigners carefully selected and appointed by the
tautai, who shall supply the deficiency complained of,
and give him efficient and trustworthy instruments
wherewith to work."
Under this agreement a board of three Inspectors was
nominated, British, Captain (Sir) Thomas F. Wade (after-
wards British Minister to Peking), American, L. Carr, and
French, Arthur Smith. Only one of the three. Captain
Wade, had any knowledge of the Chinese language or any
aptitude for the duties of his post, and on his shoulders
fell the chief burden of organising the new office; and, on
his resignation a year later, his place was filled by Mr.
Horatio Nelson Lay, who had an equal knowledge of
Chinese and equally g00d powers of organisation. The


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 387
board of three continued, but the actual control came
into the hands of the working member of the board.
The attitude of the foreign merchants toward the new
Inspectorate is shown by the representation addressed by
the American merchants to their Minister, Mr. Peter Parker,
upon his arrival in Shanghai:
"Shanghai, August 5,1856.
"Sir,—We take advantage of your arrival at this
Port to address you upon the subject of the con-
tinuation of the foreign inspectorship in the Chinese
Custom-house here, in so far as it affects American
trade.
"When established here in the fall of 1854, chiefly
at the suggestion and by the efforts of the Honourable
Mr. McLane, the affairs of the Custom-house were
in much confusion in consequence of existing political
troubles in this neighbourh00d, and some remedy
was ardently desired; not only by those interested
in securing to the Authorities their rightful dues,
but by the great body of Merchants themselves,
both English and American.
"The firms which we represent were unanimous
in approving of an arrangement which promised to
reform the abuses into which the Custom-house had
fallen, and to put a stop to the irregularities pre-
vailing.
"We underst00d, however, that the new institution
was not intended to be permanent, unless continued
political troubles and the concurrence of all the
Powers interested induced the establishment of the
same system at all the ports.
"The first and pressing cause for its establishment
here has passed away, the authorities having fully
reorganised their affairs and being able under their
own system and superintendence to conduct those
of the Custom-house with as much effect as else-


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 389
"Rule 10. Collection of Duties under one System at
all Ports. It being, by Treaty, at the option of the
Chinese Government to adopt what means appear
to it best suited to protect its Revenue, accruing on
British trade, it is agreed that one uniform system
shall be enforced at every port.
"The High Officerappointed by the Chinese Govern-
ment to superintend Foreign trade will accordingly,
from time to time, either himself visit, or will send
a deputy to visit, the different ports. The said High
Officer will be at liberty, of his own choice, and in-
dependently of the suggestion or nomination of any
British authority, to select any British subject he may
see fit to aid him in the administration of the Customs
Revenue; in the prevention of smuggling; in the defi-
nition of port boundaries; or in discharging the duties
of harbour-master; also in the distribution of Lights,
Buoys, Beacons, and the like, the maintenance of which
shall be provided for out of the Tonnage Dues."
This article foreshadowed the appointment of an In-
spector General of Customs, and the obviously indicated
person was Mr. Lay. Under his authority Custom Houses
had been opened at seven ports when, in June 1861, he was
granted leave of absence and returned to England. He
resumed duty as Inspector General on May 9th, 1863, and
was relieved from duty on November 30th of the same year.
A man of marked ability, he conceived that he was destined
to be the Clive and Dupleix, the Lally and Hastings, of a
renovated China; and when he failed to induce the Imperial
Government to share this view, he fell. While in England
he had been commissioned to procure a fleet of gunboats
for the repression of rebellion and piracy; and the demand
of Mr. Lay and his commander, Captain Sherard Osborn,
that this fleet should be directly and solely under their
orders, was one that could not be acceded to. The fleet
was accordingly paid off, the ships sold, and Mr. Lay
"permitted to resign."


39© THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Mr. Robert Hart, "The I.G.," was appointed on
June 30th, 1861, to exercise conjointly with Mr. G. H.
Fitz-Roy the functions of Inspector General during Mr.
Lay's absence from China. The appointment by the
Prince Minister was communicated by a circular despatch
signed by Mr. Hart and addressed to seven Commissioners
of Customs, including Mr. Fitz-Roy, viz.:
At Tientsin, C. Kleczkowsky (French);
„ Chinkiang, J. K. Leonard (British);
„ Shanghai, G. H. Fitz-Roy (British);
„ Ningpo, Geo. Hughes (British);
„ F00chow, W. W. Ward (American);
„ Swatow, F. Wilzer (German);
„ Canton, Geo. B. Glover (American).
The appointment was in the following terms 9
The Prince of Kung,
by Imperial appointment, Minister and
Superintendent of Foreign Affairs,
issues the following Instructions:
"Whereas it is laid down in Article X. of the Sup-
plementary Treaty and Tariff, that, in order to the
protection of the Revenue, one system shall be adopted
at every port, and that, if it seems g00d to the officer
deputed to administer the Customs Revenue, he
shall employ Foreigners to assist him, whom he shall
procure without Foreign recommendation or inter-
vention, &c.; and Whereas, the Inspector General
Li-tai-kwoh [Mr. Lay], now absent on sick leave,
having introduced the Commissioners of Customs
Fei-sze-lae [Mr. Fitz-Roy] and Heh-teh [Mr. Hart],
under whose supervision Customs Revenue has been
ably and satisfa torily administered at Shanghai
and Canton, the said Fei-sze-lae and Heh-teh
were officially directed by the Imperial Commissioner,


392 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the Inspectors General must make strict and faithful
inquiry into all breaches of regulations committed
by ships that presume to move about in contraven-
tion of law, and into all cases wherein smuggling is
attempted or the revenue defrauded. Should any such
irregularities and offences be allowed to occur, the In-
spectors General will be held responsible for the same.
"The zealous and satisfactory manner in which
business has hitherto been conducted, fully evinces
that Fei-sze-lae and Heh-teh are trustworthy and
to be depended upon; the Prince, therefore, hereby
confers on them the requisite powers and authority,
and commissions them to officiate as Inspectors
General. The salaries they are paid by the Chinese
Government are liberal, and the responsibilities of the
office to which they are appointed are very serious;
it therefore behoves them to be just, energetic, and
assiduous in the performance of their duties.
"The Foreigners employed in the Customs are not
to engage in trade; mismanagement or bad conduct
must be followed by dismissal from the service.
"The Officiating Inspectors General must not dis-
appoint the great confidence the Prince reposes in
them, in appointing them to their present Office.
"Let this Instruction be carried strictly into exe-
cution!
"A Special Instruction addressed to the Officiating
Inspectors General of Maritime Customs, Fei-sze-lae
and Heh-teh (Mr. Fitz-Roy and Mr. Hart).
"Hsien-F£ng, nth year, $th month, 23rd day
"30th June, 1861."
The office was in fact administered by Mr. Hart alone,
with his headquarters, in 1861, June at Peking, July at
Tientsin, September at Peking, November at Shanghai;
1862, May at Canton, then back to Shanghai; 1863, February
at Canton, April back to Shanghai, where on May 9th he


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 393
surrendered his office. Mr. Lay, resuming his office, estab-
lished himself at Peking. Upon the substantive appoint-
ment of Mr. Hart, November 30th, 1863, he established his
office at Shanghai, and in May 1864 transferred the In-
spectorate General to Peking, where it has since remained.
During his only two absences from China, in 1866 the office
was administered by Mr. G. H. Fitz-Roy, and in 1878-1879
by Mr. (Sir) Robert E. Bredon conjointly, first with Mr. W.
Cartwright, later with Mr. I. M. Daae.
Upon his appointment Mr. Hart found himself con-
fronted by the difficulty that each Custom House had
continued the decentralised system characteristic of Chinese
administration, and that each Commissioner, acting con-
jointly with his Chinese colleague the Superintendent,
l00ked to the provincial authorities and considered local
needs, and was disinclined to conform without question to
the leading given by the centralising office, the Inspectorate
General. The ability and tact which he has shown so
uniformly, and in so many instances since, were never more
marked than in Mr. Hart's first decade of office, the Sixties,
when he had to reconcile the Imperial Government to a
form of administration which, though working in its interest,
was distinctly alien; to lead, with small powers of com-
pulsion, subordinates of marked personality and of different
nationalities to submit their judgment to his, and accept
his instructions for their guidance; and to introduce into
Customs procedure the uniformity and system which are the
necessary concomitants of effective administration. During
that decade elementary questions were vital, and an unwise
settlement could easily have undermined the foundations
of the structure he was erecting. The Chinese Customs
collect duty, not only on imports from foreign countries,
but also on exports whether abroad or to another Chinese
port, and on re-importation at a Chinese port collect an
import duty; they also collect tonnage dues on shipping,
transit dues exempting from further taxation foreign im-
ports conveyed inland and native produce from inland marts


394 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
intended for export to foreign countries, and, since 1887,
likin on foreign opium; with all this complexity there had
to be maintained simultaneously foreign and native control,
foreign and native record, and foreign and native report.
To introduce simplification into this complexity was the
task of the first ten years, and among the questions to be
decided were: the regulation of the coastwise traffic; the
provision that the original duty payment exempted imports
from further tax, instead of the provincial system of refund
and repayment on each reshipment; the regulation of
the inland transit trade; the compilation and publication
of statistics; pilotage; emigration; the ton equivalents
of various lasts and metric and other tons; and, above all,
the proper dovetailing of the foreign and Chinese sides of
the administration; and all these were settled on lines which
have endured. Mention must not be omitted of the lieu-
tenants who seconded the work of the Inspector General
during this formative period. In addition to the seven
mentioned before, who were Commissioners in charge of
ports in 1861, it is right to record the work done in instituting
this new experiment by, among others, E. C. Bowra, Chas.
Hannen, Tnos. Dick, A. Macpherson, and W. Cartwright,
British; E. C. Taintor, F. E. W00druff, and E. B. Drew,
American; Baron de Meritens and A. Huber, French; and
F. Kleinwachter and G. Detring, German.
In all matters of procedure and regulation—in admini-
stration ad rem—the Inspector General has always referred
to the Imperial Government, giving of course his views,
and the instructions he has issued for the guidance of the
Commissioners have always been based upon the instructions
given to him by the government, sometimes, in important
matters, after reference to and report by the High Com-
missioners of Trade, the Viceroys at Tientsin and Nanking
acting ex officio ad hoc; and the bilateral character of the
Service is exemplified by the practice of issuing identical
and simultaneous instructions through the Inspector General
to the Commissioners and through the High Commissioners


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 395
to the Superintendents. Originally the Inspector General's
phraseology was " I have received the commands of H.I.H.
Prince Kung to direct"; it then became "I enclose for
your information and guidance copy of a despatch from
the Tsungli Yamen directing," and this form (with the
substitution from 1901 of the Wai-wu Pu, and from May
1906 of the Shui-wu Chu, for the Tsungli Yamen) continued
to be adopted for over forty years. Given an Inspector
General loyal to the government he served, the most hostile
scrutiny could detect no development of an alien imperium
in imperio, and during a service of close on half a century
not a breath of suspicion has even been thrown on the I.G.'s
entire loyalty to those whose salt he ate.
In the administration ad personam the Imperial Govern-
ment has never interfered. The aim in establishing the
Inspectorate was, momentarily to secure from foreign
traders a revenue which the disturbed state of the country
might otherwise render precarious, and permanently to
secure to the central government the advantages of Western
system and organisation in one branch of its revenue;
and at the outset it was recognised that it was "impossible
for the Chinese government to form an estimate of the
merits of the different . . . foreigners employed in the
public service." The Outer Barbarians could only be
controlled by one of themselves, and the Chinese government
having for that function found a man they could trust,
trusted him. The appointment of a Commissioner in charge
of a port, or his transfer to another post, has always been
reported to the higher authorities; but apart from this the
Inspector General has been left to the exercise of his discre-
tion in the appointment, promotion, and discharge of all
placed under his orders, keeping in his own hands movements
affecting foreigners, and leaving to the Commissioner at each
port much of the control over the Chinese staff. During the
period covered by the I.G.'s tenure of office there has been
probably nowhere in the world any servant of the state so
unfettered in the exercise of so large a patronage; and the


398 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHT\'A
An attempt will now be made to give some idea of
the nature of the work done by the Chinese Customs
Service, differing, as it does, so much from the work
done by corresponding organisations in other parts of the
world.
On the entry of a ship, her papers are deposited with
the Consul of her nationality, to be surrendered only upon
issue of a provisional Customs clearance. The passing of
the import cargo proceeds much as elsewhere, but note is
to be taken of the fact that from point to point the foreign
ship and the foreign merchant are covered by the privilege
of extraterritoriality. Against an offending ship the
Customs have only three remedies, all strictly limited by
treaty. For clandestine trading she may be prohibited
from further trading along the coast, a penalty which has
never yet been enforced; and for having on board un-
manifested goods—for a" false manifest "—she may be fined
after joint investigation and decision by the Customs and
the Consul concerned, the limit of fine being Tls.500.
The third remedy is in the withdrawal of an extra-treaty
concession made by the Customs; the treaties were made
to fit the old sailing-ship conditions, and it is only in the
modern steamer procedure that any means can be found
for enforcing proper preventive measures, by the with-
drawal of the privilege of clearing before the payment of
all import duties on the ship's cargo, whereby the Customs
are often forced to use a steam hammer to crack a nut.
Against the merchant the Customs have even less power,
and, in effect, any penalties for false declaration are enforced
against the incriminated goods, and never against the
offending merchant: to confiscate an importer's goods
and to fine him in addition for a breach of Customs regula-
tions is unheard of in China. This arises partly from the
very considerable degree of protection accorded to foreign
merchants by treaty, and partly from the fact that there
is no competent tribunal before which a revenue case can
be carried; the Chinese territorial courts are ruled out.


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 399
the Consul is necessarily the advocate of his national, and
the Commissioner of Customs is a party to the case.
G00ds, having paid their import duty, are in most
countries free to go anywhere; in China movement is taxed
at every point, and documentary protection must be ac-
corded to imports at every point. This protection is given
to foreign imports at any treaty port without further
payment, provided that the original payment within three
years past can be proved; and so valuable is this pro-
tection that Chinese produce may be shipped to a foreign
port, e.g. Hongkong and back to China, paying once duty
on export and once duty on import, and a half duty on
transport inland^and show a balance of profit over transport
from the place of production direct to another place, perhaps
only a couple of hundred miles away. At Shanghai the great
volume of the re-export trade has caused the institution
of a system of " Importers' Passes," by which the importer
may convey his rights to a purchaser. When re-exported
to another treaty port, either by the original importer or
by the purchaser under a pass, the g00ds are covered by
an " exemption certificate," without which they are liable
to import duty at the second port; and the exemption
applies only to g00ds in their original packing. If again
re-exported, g00ds are again covered by exemption certifi-
cate. If imports are intended for an "inland" place,
i.e. any place not being a treaty port, the purchaser has the
option of paying likin en route, or of paying half the import
duty additional and obtaining a "transit pass inwards,"
and being then exempt from likin.
Chinese produce may be brought to a treaty port on
payment of likin, or, if intended for shipment abroad,
and only in that case, may be covered by a "transit pass
outwards" on payment of a half duty. On shipment
at any port export duty is paid, whether for a foreign or
another Chinese port: in the latter case the g00ds are
covered by a " duty pr00f." On arrival at a Chinese port
a half duty is paid as "coast-trade duty." Upon re-


400 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
export to any destination from this second port the coast-
trade duty is refunded; if re-exported to a third Chinese
port, the g00ds are covered by a "duty-paid certificate,"
and on arrival the coast-trade duty is again paid. Going
inland these g00ds have no transit pass privilege, and the
greatest confusion results from the necessity of distinguishing
between, e.g., Swatow sugar shipped to Shanghai direct,
thence re-exported to Hankow and thence going inland,
and Swatow sugar going inland from Hankow after having
reached there via Hongkong and Shanghai.
Upon payment of tonnage dues a "tonnage dues
certificate'' is issued to the ship, exempting from further
payment for a period of four months, which is extended
by the time spent in effecting repairs in a Chinese port.
Foreign opium, having paid duty and likin, is covered
by labels affixed to each ball or small package, and ex-
empted from all further payment so long as the labels are
intact. Native opium is since 1906 treated in the same way
whenever it comes under the cognisance of the Customs.
Since November 11th, 1901, the Native or Regular
Customs have been under the supervision of the Com-
missioner of Maritime Customs at each port. To exercise
this supervision over a Chinese office run by Chinese methods,
operating on a purely Chinese trade, with the original
Chinese staff, and with little or no aid from foreign agents,
and without published regulations or a unified tariff, is to
impose on the Commissioner a task of quite a different
character from his ordinary work, varied and complicated
though that be, and calls for the exercise of the diplomatic
function as much as the executive. He must not rub
t00 much the wrong way those who have previously
exercised control; he must not render t00 much discon-
tented the staff whose irregular practices he is there to
check: while facilitating work to the traders by the in-
troduction of regularity, he will find that t00 much un-
accustomed rigidity may lead to discontent and even to
riot; he must satisfy the representatives of the foreign


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 401
Powers in whose interest, to secure funds for due payment
of the indemnities, he is placed in control; his measures
must be such as not to alienate the Chinese government
whose servant he is, while he is often called upon to enforce
against them the provisions of their own treaties; and all
this he must do from a position which, in some respects,
is rather advisory than executive.
In the control of the Foreign, as of the Native Customs,
the Commissioner is freed from one responsibility, in that
he does not handle the revenues. In a country in which
the currency is a tangled mass of complexity, and banking
is an exact science of great inexactitude, this would be an
impossible function for the foreigner to assume; and the
Commissoner's function is only to obtain a receipt certi-
fying to the payment to the properly constituted authority
of the amounts due, and to report the revenue so collected.
This authority is the Customs Bank, appointed by the
Chinese government at each port, and revenues received
by the bank pass directly under the control of the Chinese
side of the Customs, the Superintendent and not the Com-
missioner. Malpractice by the bank might be made the
subject of representation, but for effective action would
be rather a diplomatic than an executive matter, the affair
of the Consul concerned than of the Commissioner.
The Coast Service for preventive duty is composed of
6 revenue steamers, officered by a special Coast Staff, 4
revenue cruising launches, 21 revenue launches, and 9
sailing-craft, officered by men detached from the Revenue
Staff. For movement from one district to another, and for
general control, they are under the orders of the Inspector
General; for personnel and materiel they are under the
Coast Inspector; and for control, discipline, supplies,
and work they are directly subject to the Commissioner
in whose district they are. Besides their ordinary pre-
ventive duty, the revenue steamers are used in connection
with new Lights work and for supplying Lights, and for
coast work (surveying, etc.) as well.
26


402 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
The Marine Department is divided into the Engineers',
Harbours, and Lights branches.
The Engineer-in-Chief is charged with the construction
of new and maintenance of existing Lights, and the pro-
vision of illuminating and other special supplies. He
reports direct to the Inspector General on new proposals
and on Lights work affecting the whole coast, and through
the Commissioner, who has joint authority, on work affect-
ing only one district. Under the superintendence at first
of Mr. David Marr Henderson and recently of Mr. J. Reginald
Harding, there have been installed by this office and are
now working 106 Lights (of which 14 are of the first order,
and 39 are occulting, flashing, or revolving), 4 Light-vessels,
and 22 Light-boats.
At the head of the Harbours Staff is the Coast Inspector,
who supervises coast work, surveying, sea and river con-
servancy; selects the sites for new Lights; and is in
technical control of all Harbours work and Pilotage for
China generally. He reports direct to the Inspector
General on matters affecting the whole coast, and through
the Commissioner, who has joint authority, on work affect-
ing one part or lying within one district. Subject to the
direct control of the Commissioner, he has general control
over the revenue steamers and their personnel. He is
also charged with the general supervision—the direct con-
trol being with the Commissioner—over buoys (111 estab-
lished) and beacons (105 established). Record must be
made of the good work done by Captain A. M. Bisbee while
he occupied this post. A Harbour Master, paid from Marine
funds, exists only at Shanghai; elsewhere the duties of
the post are performed by the Tide Surveyor, a Revenue
officer who is, under the Commissioner, in direct control
of the Outdoor Staff. The Harbour Master is the official
charged with the supervision of pilotage, conservancy,
movement of shipping in port, and similar matters; port
regulations on these subjects are issued with the authority
of his signature, but, as he is the subordinate of the Com-


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 405
has grafted Western methods on Chinese requirements.
An enormous mass of organising work was thrown on the
broad shoulders of the Inspector General of Customs and
Posts, and on his lieutenant, the Postal Secretary; and
a no less enormous amount of organising on the Commis-
sioners. It speaks volumes for the spirit which animates
the Service that this unaccustomed work has been cheerfully
undertaken and carried through. The Commissioner, as
District Postmaster, is a Postmaster General for his district,
which in most cases is of the size and with the population
in many a European kingdom. He audits the accounts of
each post office, and, with his accountant, prepares his
district accounts; he exercises a direct supervision over
the working of the head office at his port, which serves as
model for the other offices in his district, and is responsible
that existing instructions and new procedure are properly
underst00d and duly carried out; he studies the needs of his
district, and himself decides on opening new "agencies,"
corresponding to the fourth-class post offices of the United
States and village grocery offices of England; he refers
to headquarters his proposals for opening " branch offices"
or for raising the status of an agency; and he is the medium
of communication with the territorial officials and with
foreign Post Offices established in his district. He is the
responsible head of the district, and its working and
personnel are subject to his authority. All this adds
no small amount to the already extended work and re-
sponsibility of that Jack-of-all-trades, the Commissioner
of Customs.
Nor is this all. The many departments of work which
devolve on the Customs in China trench so often on matters
outside even the extended sphere of the Customs Service,
that it is naturally and inevitably brought into touch with
questions even more remote; where the foreign merchant
has so privileged a position, and the relations between
foreign and Chinese are so complicated and have so many
ramifications, it would be difficult to define the exact limits


406 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
of a Customs establishment working on and in a situation
characterised by the principles of extraterritoriality. To
exemplify this by action taken by the Inspector General
would be to give a resume of the foreign relations of China
for forty years, and it will be enough to refer to matters,
purely local, in which the Commissioner of a port may be
called upon to intervene. The first recorded intervention
was national rather than local, and constituted the several
Commissioners the intermediaries for paying to the British
and French governments the quarterly instalments of the
indemnities due under the treaties of 1858 and 1860; the
"1st quarter" for this purpose began on October 1st, 1860,
and the successive quarterly reports and returns to the
Chinese government are still numbered from that date,
the 184th quarter ending on September 30th, 1906. Follow-
ing this precedent the Customs have often, both generally
through the Inspector General and locally through the
Commissioner, been made the financial and disbursing agent
for the payment of indemnities or of principal and interest
of loans. One such instance will suffice. In 1895 the
Canton authorities issued an internal loan of Tls.5,000,000,
the prospectus and bonds stipulating that the bonds, to
bearer, should be countersigned by the Commissioner of
Customs at Canton; the proceeds of the loan be received
by him; the monthly instalments paid into banks to his
order; the coupons and drawn bonds paid by his cheque;
the register to be kept and bonds cancelled by him; and
in case of default the bonds should be received by him
at face value in satisfaction of Customs duties. The
Chinese government recognised that the Chinese public
would not trust its agents of the official hierarchy, but
would trust the Commissioner, and the loan was a success.
In times of foreign complication the reading and experience
of the Commissioner have been freely drawn upon to supple-
ment the deficiencies of provincial officials, whose reading
and experience offered them nothing to meet the exigencies
of a novel situation; and many a well-intended breach


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 407
of international conventions has been averted, many an
Asiatic incitement in dealing with a Western enemy has
been withdrawn or modified, many a blunder based on
Asiatic ignorance of modern conditions has been avoided,
under representations made by the Commissioner and
pressed upon the notice of the responsible officials. The
application of the principle of extraterritoriality, t00,
brings within the purview of the Commissioner many cases
which are not strictly Customs matters; and yet, apart
from missionary cases, it may be said that there are few
questions arising under this principle which do not touch
in some way on commerce or revenue. In such cases it
rarely happens that some one of the parties interested,
the Chinese territorial authority, the Consul, or the foreign
merchant, does not invoke the aid or the influence of the
Commissioner, and it is one of his hardest tasks to limit
the extent of his own interference. Even in cases where
the apparent Customs connection is of the slightest, how-
ever, it has often been found of the greatest advantage to
all concerned to have the representative of the foreign side
of a Chinese administration available to act as intermediary;
though a Chinese official, he is a foreigner, and though a
foreigner, he is a part of the Chinese administration; he
supplies to the Chinese that connection with foreign ways
and principles in which they have in the past been lacking,
and he supplies to the foreign Consul and merchant the
intimate knowledge of Chinese legal and official machinery
which they do not always possess; and, in the past at least,
his position may be likened to that of the man in the middle
of the see-saw, able to raise or to depress, as he may judge
the right to lie on one side or the other. The general
testimony is that this position of influence has not been
used arbitrarily, either in favour of the Chinese government,
whose servant he is, or in favour of the foreigners, to whom
he is allied by birth and education.
In all these local matters the closest touch has always
been maintained with the Inspector General. Commis-


THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS 409
Sir Robert Hart, the organiser of the Service which has
done this work, was bora on February 20, 1835. After
graduating (A.B. and Senior Scholar) at Queen's University,
Ireland, in 1853, he was appointed Supernumerary In-
terpreter to the British Superintendency of Trade at Hong-
kong in May 1854; and in May 1859 was granted special
permission to resign irf order to join the newly instituted
Chinese Customs Service. He was appointed Officiating
Inspector General in 1861 and Inspector General in 1863.
In May 1885 he was appointed Her Britannic Majesty's
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
Emperor of China and also to the King of Korea, but did
not take up the appointment, and continued as Inspector
General. His services to China and to the world have
been recognised in a tangible way by the bestowal of many
honours. From China he received in 1864 the brevet title
of Provincial Judge, with civil rank of the third class;
in 1869 the brevet title of Provincial Treasurer, with civil
rank of the second class; in 1881 the red button of the first
class; in 1885 the order of the Double Dragon, second
division, first class, and the distinction of the Peacock's
Feather; in 1889 Ancestral Rank of the first class of the
first order, dated back for three generations, with Letters
Patent; in 1901 the brevet title of Junior Guardian of
the Heir Apparent; and in 1902 he was received in Audience
by the Empress Dowager and Emperor. In 1908, on his
departure on furlough, he was given the brevet rank of
Shang-shu, President of a Board (v. p. 44). His native land
has recognised the distinction he has conferred upon it
by making him in 1879 a Companion of the Most Distin-
guished Order of St. Michael and St. George, in 1882 a
Knight Commander, and in 1889 a Knight Grand Cross
of the same order; and in 1893 a Baronet of the United
Kingdom. Other countries also have shown their apprecia-
tion of the value of his work, and he has received decorations,
many of them Grand Croix or Grand Officier, from Belgium,
Sweden, Austria, France.. Italy, Portugal, Norway, Holland,


4IO THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Prussia, and the Pope. From the United States has come
the degree of LL.D., bestowed upon him by the University
of Michigan. For native ability and power of organisation
he may be compared, in one aspect or another, with John
Lawrence and Alexander Hamilton. His monument is in
the Service he created and his life-record is in the history
of the foreign relations of China during a period of forty
years of transition. Another sits in his chair,* another
signs as Inspector General, but in the history of China
there will be but one " I.G."
• Sir Robert Hart died on September 20th, 1911, and Sir Francis
A. Aglen was appointed to succeed him as Inspector-General of
Customs. Among the changes introduced by him, the most signifi-
cant is the assumption of control over the actual collection of tha
revenue. This is now received by the Commissioners at the ports
and held by them subject to the order of the Inspector-General.


CHAPTER XIII
THE POST OFFICE
An organised service for the conveyance of government
despatches has existed in China for many centuries, the
I-chan, or Government Service of Couriers, being mentioned
in the records of the Chow dynasty, the beginnings of which
date back 3,000 years. During the succeeding centuries the
necessity was always felt of maintaining regular com-
munication between the Emperor and his government at
the capital, and his officials and garrisons in the provinces;
and what may be called postal communication was as fully
organised in China as it was under Persian Kings or Roman
Emperors. The I-chan is wholly maintained by the State
through provincial contributions from ordinary local taxes;
the cost being estimated in a joint memorial to the Throne in
1902 by the two Yangtze Viceroys, at some Tls.3,000,000
annually. The service is under the supervision of the
Board of War at Peking. The direct control is exercised
by the Cart and Chariot Department of the Board, and
under it, the Horse Office controls the couriers and their
horses, and the Despatch Office receives and forwards the
official mails at the capital itself. At each provincial
capital is a Director of Posts, a military officer appointed by
the Board of War, and placed under the orders of the Pro-
vincial Judge, his duty being to see that despatches are
transmitted without impediment. The actual forwarding
is done by each District Magistrate from border to border of
his district, and the cost is a charge on his budget. With
the constitutional conservatism of Chinese officialdom in
4"


412 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OP CHINA
matters of expenditure—in never letting go a good thing
when they have it—the full machinery of the I-chan is still
maintained, though, when available, steamers and railways
are now utilised for the more rapid transmission of despatches.
The Wenpao Chii, or Document Office, is an offshoot of
the I-chan, but quite independent of it. On the appointment
of Ministers to foreign countries in 1875, it became necessary
to arrange for the transmission of their despatches between
Peking and Shanghai, where they could be deposited in and
taken from the foreign Post Offices; and offices were opened
for this purpose at Tientsin and Shanghai. In subsequent
years offices were opened at Yangtze ports from Hankow
down, and at coast ports as far south as Canton; and much
of the work of the I-chan along the coast and on the Yangtze
is done by these offices. Notwithstanding the development
of the Imperial Post, the Wenpao Chii continues to function.
£The only really Government Post open to the public,
organised by Chinese officials, was established in Formosa.
When, after the attack by the French naval forces in 1884-
1885, the attention of the Imperial Government was drawn
to the necessity of organising the island as a province, the
Imperial High Commissioner and Governor, Liu Ming-chuan,
introduced several startling innovations, among them a
railway and a Post Office. For the latter it was at first
proposed to adopt adhesive stamps and they were ordered
from England in two denominations, red 3-cent for short
distances, and green 5-cent for longer distances. The
simplicity of an almost uniform tariff worked, as always in
China, against its adoption; and these stamps had a history
unique in philately, being used for railway tickets.(This
Post Office was ultimately organised on the following lines:
1. Mails were carried by couriers on foot.
2. The postal routes were divided into stages, averaging
a day's journey in length, or, say, 70 to 100 1L
3. Letters and packages were carried at the rate of 20
cash per tael per stage, with additional charges
for delivery at places not on the main routes.


THE POST OFFICE
413
4. Postage stamps were of two kinds—official and
ordinary. The former were supplied to public
offices, free of charge, to be used on official
mail matter; and the latter were sold to the
public. As regards stamps, the system was
cumbrous. Stamps were not sold to the public
indiscriminately. Any one who had a letter to
forward, say from Tamsui to Tekcham, t00k
it to the Tamsui district Post Office, where he
prepaid 60 cash for the three stages, and got
a receipt for his letter, the Post Office affixing
the stamp. The letter was then sent on to
Taipei, and thence to Tiongleck and Tekcham,
receiving at each stage an additional stamp,
probably as evidence of the responsibility of
the affixing office.^
This organisation fell on the cession of Formosa to Japan .
in 1895 .J —
These are the postal organisations instituted by the
government of China, and, except in Formosa, for the
transmission of official despatches only. The people of
China are essentially a literary and commercial people, and /
in both capacities are a letter-writing people; and for /
centuries past they have attended to the transmission of {/>/
their business and family correspondence with no more
support or interference from the government than is given y^0<
to any other commercial undertaking. This they did by
"Letter Hongs," usually established by a remittance bank
or a merchant's firm having its own business connections
with certain other places, and having its own correspondence
to forward, undertaking for a consideration to forward the
letters of other people, and gradually extending their postal
operations to other places in the same direction to which
their ordinary business does not extend. Under this system
very strong letter hongs have been developed, utilising
every means of conveyance, and meeting in every way the
wishes of the public; maintaining fast special services


414 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
where they are wanted, content with slow channels where
economy is the first object, keeping open until after midnight
when that hour is more suitable, and, most attractive in
China, making the addressee pay a portion of the postage,
usually half. The transmission of silver, bank drafts, and
parcels is a most lucrative part of their business. They have
a tariff, more or less fixed according to distance, ranging
from 20 cash (\d.) to 200 cash (5<2.) for each letter, but are
not particular to an ounce or two in the weight; and these
rates may be reduced to an important customer or commuted
for an annual subsidy, while smaller people will ordinarily
pay more, and addressees are regularly mulcted in extra
payments. On the whole the system has suited admirably
the public which it serves, but has the fatal effect, from a
national point of view, that it does not encourage postal
development on lines not immediately profitable, the funds
for this purpose, derived from the more profitable routes,
being diverted to private pockets.
Any national and general postal organisation has thus
two strong vested interests to encounter: the first, the
official interest in the expenditure of Tls.3,000,000 annually
in rendering a service which could be performed by other
hands at less than half the cost; the second, the com-
mercial interest in a profitable business enterprise, under
a government which never coerces the people but acts
mainly by moral suasion and on the principle of "live
and let live."
The Imperial Post was established by Imperial Decree
on March 20th, 1896, as the result of a long experiment
begun as far back as 1861 by the Inspector General of the
Chinese Maritime Customs Service, Sir Robert Hart; and
Mr. T. Piry traces the development in his report on the
Working of the Post Office for the year 1904:
"Early in the ' sixties,' during the first few winters
after Foreign Representatives t00k up their residence
at Peking, the Legation and Customs mails were
exchanged between Shanghai and Peking, under the


THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
winter mail service overland from Tientsin to New-
chwang, from Tientsin to Chefoo, and from Tientsin
to Chinkiang, as also the introduction of Customs
postage stamps in 1878.
"The growing importance of the Service thus
quietly built up and its convenience for regular com-
munications with Peking and between Treaty ports
were not only appreciated by the foreign public, but
were also recognised by the foreign Administrations
having postal agencies in China. In 1878 China was
formally invited to join the Postal Union. In the same
year, while on a visit to Paris, the Inspector General
was sounded by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs
as to a possible way of withdrawing the French Post
Office in Shanghai; and while, more than once, the
British Postmaster General at Hongkong expressed
his readiness to close the Hongkong Post Office
agencies along the coast, arrangements were actually
discussed for the absorption by the Customs Depart-
ment of the Municipal Post Office at Shanghai. But no
definite response to these overtures could be given, or
final steps taken, before the Chinese Government had
declared its intention to undertake national responsi-
bilities; and the Customs Department continued to
satisfy only certain wants and prepare the system
for further development till, twenty years after the
Chefoo Convention, the Decree of the 20th March,
1896, appeared. This Decree created an Imperial
Post for all China, to be modelled on Western lines, the
organisation and management of which were confided
to Sir Robert Hart, who from that date has acted
'n the double capacity of Inspector General of Customs
and Posts.
"This long hesitation on the part of the Chinese
Government to formally recognise and foster an
institution known to have worked with such profitable
results in foreign countries, both from public and


THE POST OFFICE
417
revenue standpoints, may be to some people a matter
of surprise. But it must not be forgotten that from
immemorial times the Chinese nation has possessed
two postal institutions: one, the I-chan (or Imperial
Government Courier Service), deeply r00ted in official
routine; the other, the Native posting agencies, long
used and respected by the people. Both give employ-
ment to legions of couriers, and are still necessary to
the requirements of an immense nation; they can
neither be suppressed, transformed, nor replaced at a
stroke. The Imperial decision therefore only gave
final sanction to a new and vast undertaking, but
abolished nothing; it is through competition and
long and persevering efforts that the two older systems
must be gradually superseded and the implantation
of the National Post Office patiently pursued."
The first notification of the extension to the public of
the Customs postal facilities appeared in the Shanghai
newspapers in the following terms:
CUSTOMS NOTIFICATION
Winter Serv1ce
Postage stamps and copies of Postal Tariff may
be obtained on application at the Customs Postal
Department.
(Signed) J. H. HART.
Shanghai, 16th December, 1878.
This winter service was organised by the Tientsin
Customs Commissioner, Mr. G. Detring, in 1876, so as to
maintain, with an overland courier service via Chinkiang,
the postal communications with the outer world necessarily
interrupted by the port of Tientsin being ice-blocked.
Mr. Detring sent to Shanghai one of his Writers, a
Mr. Wu Kuan, who, under the control of the Shanghai
27


4l8 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Commissioner, supervised the overland courier service to
the north. This department, which was called the Shu
Hsin Kuan, or Post Office, was opened on July 24th, 1878,
and started with a staff of seventeen men
Under instructions issued in December 1882, the system
was extended to all treaty ports north of Fukien, but still
working on "Postal Department" principles, and this
continued until the issue of the Imperial Decree in 1896.
Up to this time Mr. Detring had, under the Inspector
General, been mainly responsible for the organisation and
development of postal work, under the designation of Postal
Commissioner. In 1896 Mr. H. Kopsch was appointed the
first Postal Secretary; he was succeeded in 1897 by Mr. J.
A. van Aalst; and he in 1901 by Mr. T. Piry, to whom the
present organisation of the Post Office is mainly due.
Under its present organisation the headquarters of the
Imperial Post Office are at Peking, where all postal affairs
are dealt with by the Postal Secretary under the Inspector
General of Customs and Posts. There is also at Shanghai
a Deputy Postal Secretary to attend to supplies. The
Eighteen Provinces and Manchuria have been divided into
postal districts, now fifty in number. Next to the head-
quarters staff come Postal Commissioners—now four,
at Peking, Hankow, Shanghai, and Canton—exercising direct
control over their own district and a supervising direction
over neighbouring districts. The other treaty-port districts
are under the Commissioner of Customs acting ex officio as
District Postmaster; and the inland districts, six in-number,
are under District Inspectors stationed at the respective
provincial capitals.
Each Head or Sub-Head Office has under it a certain
number of subordinate offices; these are of three kinds:
Branch Offices, at which the Imperial Post Office
maintains its own staff on its own premises;
Inland Agencies, at which licensed Agents, who are
usually substantial shopkeepers of the place and
guaranteed, undertake all postal business, includ-


THE POST OFFICE
419
ing the delivery of correspondence, in return for
a fixed commission and certain other emoluments;
and
Box Offices—that is, small shops in which the
Imperial Post Office places letter-boxes, cleared at
certain times during the day, and where the owner,
under license and guarantee, is allowed to sell
stamps to the public in return for a small com-
mission: ordinary postal business, including regis-
tration, can be effected at these shops, but the
owners do not undertake delivery. Box Offices
are placed in all large cities as adjuncts to the
Head and Branch Offices situated there. In
addition, in certain cities are to be found street
pillar-boxes, which are cleared at regular intervals.
All Branch Offices established at important places
undertake the transmission of small sums of money by
means of a Money Order system, with a limit of $50 for
places served by steam, and $10 for other places. The
value of money orders issued in 1910 was 85,280,000.
The size of each postal district was originally determined
by consideration of the distance, the density of population,
and the means of communication available in the district;
but, the limits once defined, it has been left to Postmasters
to extend to inland places within their districts on certain
broad lines fixed by headquarters, and this extension, begun
in 1901, is continued; and it is intended to open and establish
direct postal routes to as many as possible of the prefectural
and district cities, and to bring every open place into postal
communication, via the treaty ports or Peking, with the
foreign mail termini at Shanghai, Tientsin, Canton, thence
with Union countries and the outside world.
The result of this first period of extension has been
that at this date the Imperial Post Office is to be found and
all postal business can be transacted in every provincial
capital of the Empire, in most prefectural and district
cities, and in the more important smaller centres and


THE POST OFFICE 421
For light mails night-and-day f00t couriers are used in
some parts and mounted couriers in others, raising the
speed to 200 li (or 65 miles) per day. The couriers are
the employees of the Imperial Post Office, and wear
uniforms or badges.
As actually constituted, the staff of the Imperial Post
Office included in 1906—
Foreign
Inspector General and Headquarters
oian 3
Postmasters ex officio .. .. 33
Postal Commissioners .. .. 4
Postmasters, Deputy Postmasters,
and Assistants .. .. .. 14
District Inspectors 4
Postal Officers 78
Mail Escort Officers 6
— 144
Chinese
Inspecting Clerks .. .. .. 29
Chinese Clerks—linguists .. .. 319
non-linguists .. 674
Postal Agents 1,361
Writers .. .. .. .. 5
Sorters, Letter-carriers and Couriers, and
Miscellaneous .. . . .. 3,190
5.578
Total Foreign and Chinese .. 5722
In 1910 the foreign staff numbered 120, and the Chinese
staff over 14,000.
The functions of Postmasters are for the present fulfilled
by the Commissioners of Customs authorised to act at the
treaty ports as Postmasters ex officio, or, for a few ports,
by separate appointees. Deputy Postmasters are ad-
ditional at the largest ports. District Inspectors reside in


422 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the interior in charge of sub-districts or travel on tours of
inspection of the inland establishments. Postal Officers
supervise all Service details at Head Offices, and control
from there all the routine work and active operations
carried on by native hands throughout the districts. Chinese
linguist clerks possess a practical knowledge of English, and
do duty at Head Offices or act in charge of Branch Offices
at places where foreign communities are found. Non-
linguists are not required to know a foreign language, and
work at Head Offices under the linguists, or in charge of
various establishments inland. Grades and rates of pay
are fixed, and all employees advance by promotion. Chinese
clerks are all guaranteed, and the whole system, which, in
the main, rests on their honesty and their efficiency, works
satisfactorily, cases of loss, misbehaviour, or peculation
being of extremely rare occurrence.
A uniform and elaborate system of accounts has been
devised for recording all receipts and expenditure. Each
Head Office, under foreign supervision, keeps the accounts
of its district and renders them to Peking, where they are
audited and passed to a General Account for the whole
Service.
The organisation as above described, incomplete as it
is yet, answers the most immediate requirements of postal
work; and the progress made these last few years—that is,
since steady expansion began in 1901—vouches for the
soundness of the system upon which it is established.
A few comparative figures will prove interesting.
1901.
«9»3.
1906.
1910.
District Offices
Branch Offices
Agencies
30
134
12
34
320
609
38
484
1,574
113,000,000
1,383.000
9,482,000
49
736
4,572
355,000,000
3,766,000
25,373,000
Articles dealt with
Parcels: number
10,500,000
126,800
552,000
42,500,000
487,000
2,673,000
„ weight in lbs.
Letters in Native
clubbed mails
7,300,000
7,267,500
7,892,000
7,409,000


424 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
received in full, not more than half being forthcoming, but
it enables the Service to provide for its actual money
deficiency. The Post Office is worked "on the cheap."
Chinese cheap labour is utilised to the fullest extent com-
patible with paying a sufficient living wage to remove from
the staff the necessity of supplementing it by peculation;
and in addition much is still provided from funds of the
Revenue Department of the Customs. The salaries of the
Inspector General, the Deputy Postal Secretary, the District
Postmasters ex officio, the District Accountants, and many
subordinate employees are not a charge on postal funds; the
mass of printed forms required, about thirty million in
a year, are provided without special accounting; office
accommodation is provided on Customs premises at many
of the smaller ports; steamer mail subsidies are paid from
Customs funds; and it is probable that a complete sever-
ance of Customs and Postal expenditure would add to the
latter some lakhs of taels a year.*
It must be acknowledged that the Postal undertaking
has long passed the experimental stage. Large communities,
foreign and Chinese, are now dependent on the Imperial
Post Office for the transmission of their correspondence,
and the public duties of the Service increase every day.
New establishments are wanted in every direction, and
at those now open the work is becoming heavier. The
system hitherto followed, to stretch out lengthy lines of
couriers so as to rapidly bring all large cities of the interior
into communication with treaty ports, had to be carried
on without special regard to the local exploitation of each
great centre, and, as a consequence, many are still only
provided with Agencies quite inadequate to their require-
ments. Every fu and hsien city f should now have its own
and properly constituted Post Office, able, separately, to
* In 1911 the Post Office was severed from the Customs, and
provided with its own budget.
t In 1910, in a total of 1,910 such cities, 1,680 were provided
urjth Post Offices, leaving only 230 for the futures.


THE POST OFFICE
425
undertake the establishment and control of agencies or
box offices in all the localities in its neighbourh00d. A
larger staff and larger means are required for this, and it
is obvious that until this is done much of the advantages
and possibilities of the new system will be neglected. These
considerations have been brought to the notice of the Chinese
government, and effective official support in various direc-
tions is now assured. Doubts can no longer be entertained
that the Postal programme is definitely accepted and
welcomed in official circles, and we have seen in Shansi,
Honan, Hupeh, and some other provinces the high pro-
vincial authorities issue, of their own accord, remarkable
proclamations making known to the population the char-
acter and aims of the Imperial Post Office, and enjoining
upon all to welcome and support it as the national institu-
tion. There is now no more trouble, on the opening of new
establishments, to obtain local proclamations from the
authorities of the place, and, in fact, Magistrates not
unfrequently apply of themselves for the planting of es-
tablishments in their cities, and wherever protection is
asked for offices or couriers it is readily granted. Indica-
tions are seen everywhere of the growth of the institution;
its low rates, quickness, and regularity draw the public
more and more to its counters.
China has not yet formally entered the Universal Postal
Union, but special Conventions entered into with Japan,
France, Hongkong, and India place her, through the inter-
mediary of the contracting Administrations, in exactly the
same postal relations with all Union countries as if she had
already joined it. Under these Conventions Chinese mail
matter for abroad, franked in Chinese stamps, is handed
over in open bags to the foreign Post Office at the foreign
mail terminus port, and that Post Office, by date-stamping
each cover, confers on it the right of admission into any
Union country in the world; on the other hand, the foreign
Post Office hands over in a similar way its incoming cor-
respondence for transmission through Chinese lines, There


426 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
is thus between the Chinese and foreign Offices an exchange
of services which are paid for, as is done by any two Union
countries, on the basis of yearly statistics taken during the
first twenty-eight days of May or November of alternate
years, and which are settled at the established Union rates.
For this exchange of services foreign governments have made
ample provision. At Shanghai, where a reason for the
presence of a few of them exists in the necessity of con-
necting with various national and subsidised lines of mail
steamers, there are no less than six foreign Post Offices—
British, French, German, American, Japanese, and Russian
—and, to utilise fully the postal facilities of the port, the
public may find it expedient to keep supplies of the postage
stamps of seven nations. At other ports no such neces-
sity now exists, but foreign Post Offices, from one to five
(the American not participating), have been established
at twenty-five ports, not including French Offices at Mengtsz
and Chungking for an internal and purely Chinese postal
traffic. Of these, the British offices were established many
years ago to supply the need of merchants when no other
postal facilities were offered to the public; but, except at
Shanghai, the others all date from the general scramble for
political influence of the past two decades.
It should be remembered here that in dealing with
international correspondence, China in every respect con-
forms to the rules of a Union country. In April 1896,
shortly after the promulgation of the Imperial edict es-
tablishing the National Post, China addressed the Conseil
Feddral Suisse, notifying the creation of the Imperial
Postal Service, and her formal intention to join the Union
as s00n as organisation permitted; meanwhile her Post
Offices, as they opened at the treaty and other ports, were
to observe Union practice and rules. These declarations
she confirmed again before the Universal Postal Congress
of Washington in 1897, and ever since she has acknowledged,
at these places, Universal Postal Union regulations and
rates. Consequently, all international mail matter, to and


428 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
tation to their hours of business, and they patronise the
agency which consults their convenience. The Post Office
must close at some fixed hour, even if it is at 9 or 10 p.m.
The business agency may remain open until 2 or 3 or 4 a.m.
if thereby business is furthered, and makes a practice of
collecting mail matter, even at those hours, from its clients'
places of business. By these conditions the Post Office in
China is driven to develop on lines of its own, without
much regard to procedure elsewhere, and several innovations
have been introduced experimentally. An "express de-
livery" system has been instituted at and between Peking,
Tientsin, Shanghai, Hankow, Foochow, and Canton; house-
to-house collection has been started in the business section
of certain large cities; and, in general, every effort is made
to increase postal facilities to meet the views of an exacting
Chinese public.
Postscript
What precedes has more particularly an historical value,
showing the difficulties which had to be encountered in
establishing a postal organisation" in China, and the way in
which they were met. The connection of the Post Office
with the Customs was severed on May 28th, 1911, and it was
placed under the Ministry of Posts and Communications
(Yu-chuan Pu); after the establishment of the Republic it
remained under the Ministry of Communications (Chiao-
tung Pu), but with a separate organisation and a separate
budget. At its head in 1911 was placed Li Ching-fang as
Director-General, with Mr. Théophile Piry as Postmaster-
General. In 1917, on the resignation of Mr. Piry, Yeh
Kung-cho, Vice-Minister of Communications, was appointed
Director-General of Posts, and Mr. H. Picard-Destelan Co-
Director-General. Mr. Piry died in France in July 1918.
In 1918 the Chinese staff of the Post Office numbered
26,933, including 55 on the administrative staff, 3,698
literates, 1,623 sorters, 7,604 postal agents, and 13,953
postmen, ppuriers, office-boys, etp, Tp superintend this


THE POST OFFICE
number there was a foreign staff consisting of 15 Commis-
sioners, 18 Deputy Commissioners, 68 Assistants, and 6
Postal Officers, besides a few absent on leave or on war
service.
In 1918 the number of official post offices was 1,763,
and of agencies 7,604. Courier lines had increased to 449,000
li (150,000 miles), steamer and boat lines to 69,800 li (23,300
miles), and railway lines to 20,000 li (6,500 miles). Despite
adverse conditions due to the civil war, the weight of mail
matter carried by the post-boat fleet between Ichang and
Chungking was 970,000 kilos.
The table on page 422, showing the rate of progress
of the Post Office, is correct in that respect; but it is deceptive
in showing the number of mail articles and parcels dealt
with, each article being recorded on each occasion when it
was posted, transmitted, or delivered by a post office.
The more correct method is to record the number of articles
posted, and on this basis the progress of the Post Office
is shown by the following figures:
1908. 1913. 1918.
Mail matter
posted .. No. 79,882,252 197,484,136 302,269,028
Parcels f No. 623,315 1,380,912 2,738,090
posted \Wt., kilos. 2,315,190 5-581,755 10,850,034
In 1918, of the total number of mail articles posted, no
less than 25,131,528, or 8 per cent., were registered, express,
or insured. Native clubbed mails, representing the effort
of the mercantile postal agencies to maintain their business,
fell in 1918 to less than half the 1910 figures.
Money orders were issued to the amount of $10,161,000
in 1913 and $35,335,800 in 1918. In the latter year orders
of a value of nearly 83,500,000 were issued to the
British Emigration Bureau at Weihaiwei alone, representing
allotments payable in remote villages in Shantung and
Chihli to the families of members of the Chinese Labour


CHAPTER XIV
RAILWAYS *
Fifty years ago China was the one great commercial country
in the world which had no railways. Of the eighteen pro-
vinces of China proper, twelve were served, in all their
populous parts, by waterways, providing safe and cheap
transport for their commodities. The people at large asked
nothing better; the commercial classes had been satisfied
with the junk, and were now quite content with the steamer;
and the officials dreaded the introduction of additional
foreign innovations. In the summer of 1863, while S00chow
was still held by the Taiping rebels, but with the armies
under Li Hung-chang and Gordon in sight of its walls, a
group of twenty-seven English and American merchants
presented a petition to Li Hung-chang, as Governor of
Kiangsu, asking a concession for a railway from Shanghai
to S00chow. The Governor had come into close touch with
foreigners and had realised their aggressiveness; he had
further realised the danger to the Chinese state from any
extension of the privilege of extraterritoriality; and he
returned to the petitioners the answer that " railways would
only be beneficial to China when undertaken by the Chinese
themselves and conducted under their own management;
that serious objections existed to the employment of numer-
ous foreigners in the interior; and that the people would
* This chapter is an abbreviated reproduction of the chapter
on Railways in " The International Relations of the Chinese Empire,"
vol. iii. It is given here since it is thought that this work may be
read by many who will not see the history.
431


432 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
evince great opposition to being deprived of their land for
that purpose." The petition was accordingly rejected.
In that same year an English engineer, Sir MacDonald
Stephenson, paid a visit to China, and, from the incomplete
information then available, without a personal inspection
of the country, he laid down certain trunk lines. His lines.,
with the exception of that from Hankow westward through
Szechwan and Yunnan to Burma, were those which have
since been followed; but it did not require a great engineer
to make the proposals, and, such as they were, they were
rejected. They served, however, as the text from which
one friendly adviser after another exhorted the rulers of
China to promote the welfare of their country by building
railways. Mr. Burlingame in 1868 asserted that China was
even then ready to engage western engineers to open mines
and build railways; but the attitude of the imperial advisers
was expressed by the Grand Secretary Wensiang: "The
only instruction we gave our envoy was to keep the West
from forcing us to build railways and telegraphs, which we
want only so far as they are due to our own initiative."
The Shanghai merchants were not dismayed by their
first failure, and in 1865 they formed a syndicate to make a
railway from Shanghai to Wusung, a length of ten miles.
In 1863 this would have presented no difficulty, since the
country to be traversed was then in the occupation of the
English and French forces protecting Shanghai; but in
1865 the territory had reverted to the control of the Chinese
civil officials, and only the warmest support from those
authorities could have overcome the difficulties in the way
of expropriating the land in a territory so covered with graves
and cemeteries, objects of the highest reverence to all
Chinese. The promoters then resorted to a subterfuge.
They obtained permission to reconstruct the military carriage
road from Shanghai to Wusung, and to acquire by private
negotiation the land necessary to widen and straighten it.
Their project was delayed by the financial situation in
Shanghai consequent on the crises of 1866; but in 1874 the


434 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, had in 1878
opened the Kaiping coal-mine to obtain a direct supplyof coal
for his steamers. The main shaft at Tongshan was twenty-
nine miles from the nearest shipping port, Pehtang, and
seven miles from Hsiikochwang, the nearest point to which a
canal could be made. The chief engineer, Mr. R. R. Burnett,
proposed a railway from Tongshan to Pehtang; for this
imperial sanction was obtained, and Mr. C. W. Kinder was
placed in charge of the construction. The imperial assent
was s00n after withdrawn and the work stopped. Mr.
Kinder then obtained permission to connect Tongshan with
Hsiikochwang by a tramway, the track to be of standard
railway gauge, and the cars to be drawn by mules; and
this line was begun in 1880 and completed in 1881. Mean-
while he had built a locomotive, of which the boiler had
originally belonged to a portable winding engine, the wheels
had been bought as scrap iron, and the frame was made of
old channel iron; its total cost was $520 (£95). Orders
came to stop its construction, but the Viceroy, Li Hung-
chang, was interested and gave his approval; and on June
9th, 1881, the hundredth anniversary of George Stephenson's
birth, it was christened the " Rocket of China." Its success
was s00n demonstrated, and in 1882 two locomotives were
bought to work the seven-mile length of railway to the canal,
which had meanwhile been dug to Lutai on the Pehtang
River.
The next venture was made in Formosa. The war with
France in 1884-1885 had shown the necessity of erecting the
island into a province of the Empire; but it had also shown
the importance of Kelung as a coaling port, and the vulner-
ability of that port to hostile attack from the sea. The
first Governor, Liu Ming-chiian, an energetic army com-
mander, realised the importance of protecting this port and
the coal-mine near it, which had been opened in 1875;
and he proposed to connect Kelung by a railway with Taipeh,
the capital, a distance of twenty miles. Formosa was
l00ked on as a detached province in which experiments


436 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
Shanhaikwan, also eighty miles. It was now proposed
to construct the western section before the eastern; but
the forces of reaction, and of opposition to Li Hung-chang
and all his works, became active, and the Grand Council
withheld its consent and called for the opinions of the
viceroys and governors. Of the replies received, that from
Liu Ming-chiian was most pronounced in support of the
extension, its argument being based on strategic grounds.
Chang Chih-tung, viceroy at Canton, opposed the extension,
also basing his argument on strategic grounds; and he
advocated instead the construction of great trunk lines
through the interior of the country, safely remote from
attack by sea power, beginning with one from Peking to
Hankow. This opinion prevailed, and Chang Chih-tung
was transferred to Wuchang with orders to undertake his
projected trunk line, building it of Chinese material and
under Chinese direction, as he had proposed. He found
himself unable to carry out his intentions, but, to provide
for the future, he established the Hanyang steel works.
The extension to Peking was thus shelved; and, because
of the requirement to use only Chinese capital and Chinese
material, the trunk lines were also shelved for an indefinite
time. Li Hung-chang did not fear responsibility, and, on
the authority of the original imperial sanction, he proceeded
with the extension eastward to Shanhaikwan. The line
to this point was completed in 1894; and, overriding an
objection made by Russia to Mr. Kinder's surveying in
Manchuria, Li Hung-chang pushed his line further eastward,
reaching Chunghowso, forty miles from Shanhaikwan, on
the outbreak of the war with Japan. The result of that war
demonstrated the strategic value of railways, and the absur-
dity of building only those which were " safely remote from
the sea "; and the western extension was taken in hand.
Peking was reached at the end of 1896. The management of
this railway, purely Chinese except for the engineer staff,
has been most competent. In 1906 the length of line
operated, excluding sidings, was 588 miles, of which 141


438 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
the competition for railway concessions led to a clearer
definition of these spheres. In the end, during the year
1898, it was recognised that Russia had special and exclusive
interests in Manchuria, and claimed them in North China;
but the latter claim was resisted. Germany claimed, and
was accorded, an exclusive interest in Shantung; the British
government even voluntarily disclaimed any intention of
penetrating that province through the portal of Weihaiwei.
England claimed a special interest in the provinces bordering
on the Yangtze; but Germany refused to recognise any
exclusive right, such as she arrogated to herself in Shantung,
and other nations also claimed equal rights in the Yangtze
basin. France claimed exclusive rights in the three pro-
vinces bordering on Tongking; she also claimed rights in
Szechwan, but they were not accorded to her. Japan
claimed preferential rights in Fukien, the province fronting
on Formosa. Finally, in 1899, Italy took steps which
seemed to indicate an intention to claim rights over
Chekiang; but on this occasion the Chinese government
stiffened its back, and offered a stout resistance to the
Italian pretensions.
The Viceroy Chang Chih-tung found a difficulty in
providing the funds for his Peking-Hankow railway, and,
in October 1896, he received permission to obtain foreign
capital. Negotiations were opened with the American-
China Development Company, at the head of which was ex-
Senator W. D. Washburn, and it undertook a rough survey
of the route; meantime a Belgian syndicate made counter
offers which were more attractive, and the American syndi-
cate, cold-shouldered by its own government, missed the
prize which it counted its own. But the way of the Belgians
was not smooth. Behind Belgium interested eyes, foreign
and Chinese, discerned France and Russia; other powers
might or might not support the American pretensions, but
they were all united in opposing the Belgian claims. The
Belgian negotiations were then dropped, but they were
renewed in July 1897 on the expressed condition that


RAILWA YS
439
"the money is all to come from Belgium, none from France
or Russia will be accepted." In the face of much opposition
these negotiations were again dropped.
In April 1898 the Peking government created a Bureau
of Control for Railways and Mines; and at the same time
the Belgian negotiations were resumed, resulting in the
signature, on June 26th, of a contract for a loan and for work-
ing the line. The loan was for 112,500,000 francs at 5 per
cent., issued at 90, and was to be paid off by twenty annual
drawings beginning in 1909; the syndicate was further to
operate the line for thirty years from 1898, receiving therefor
20 per cent. of the net profits, after deducting operating
expenses and interest and amortisation of the loan. The
line was completed in 1905, with a total length of 812 miles,
including branch lines' of 58 miles. ' The rails and iron
fittings were bought from the Hanyang steel works. In
October 1908 China exercised her right under the contract,
and bought back the line by means of a thirty-year loan,
issued through the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the
Banque de lTndo-Chine, for £5,000,000 at 5 per cent, for
fifteen years and 4J per cent, for the second fifteen years,
issued at 94; and £450,000 at 7 per cent. and par repayable
before 1920.
Shantung was claimed by Germany as her sphere of
development. By a convention signed March 6th, 1898,
the enclave of Kiaochow was ceded to Germany on lease,
provisionally for ninety-nine years; and in this China
sanctioned the construction by Germany of two lines of
railway in Shantung. An imperial German charter was
granted in 1899 to the Schantung-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft,
with a capital of 54,000,000 marks, for a railway from
Tsingtau to Tsinanfu: the shareholders were to be only
German or Chinese; the material used was to be German as
far as possible; and the German treasury of Kiaochow was
to share in the profits after 5 per cent. had been paid to the
shareholders. The company was also to have the right to
build lines from Tsingtau to Ichowfu, and from Tsinanfu to


RAILWAYS
443
840 miles. The engineering difficulties were found to be so
considerable that, in July 1900, a new agreement was made
increasing the loan to 40,000,000 gold dollars, this agreement
being declared to be a mortgage, with the railway as security.
Subject to this mortgage, the line was to be Chinese pro-
perty; and it was expressly stipulated that the Americans
could not transfer their rights to other nations or the people
of other nationality.
The Americans had now the contract for the southern
half of the great medial line, Peking-Hankow-Canton; but,
if the Chinese were desirous that the whole of that line should
not come under Belgian control, the Belgians, with the other
interests in the background, were no less desirous of obtain-
ing that control. The Americans met many impediments.
The American money market was upset by the Spanish war,
the English by the South African War; China was thrown
into confusion by the Boxer troubles and their consequences;
and the death of Senator Brice knocked the bottom out of
an undertaking which was now deprived of his support.
This was the opportunity of the Belgians, and, through an
American nominee, they acquired a controlling interest in
the American company. China protested; the Belgians
stood firm; but ultimately, chiefly in consequence of the
Japanese victory over Russia, the principal supporter of the
Belgian claims, the Belgians yielded and the control passed
back into the hands of American interests. This did not
settle matters, however, because of the hostility of the
gentry and merchants of Kwangtung, Hunan, and Hupeh,
based on a strong feeling of nationality; and the American
company agreed in 1905 to sell the concession, and the
work already done, back to the Chinese government for
6.750,000 gold dollars. To provide for this the Chinese
borrowed from the Hongkong colonial government £1,100,000
at 4$ per cent, and par. The southern section, within the
province of Kwangtung, has since then been " in course of
construction" by the Chinese of Canton; the northern
section was in 1911 entrusted to the Four-Power Group.


444 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
In 1898 England was led by one graceful concession after
another to admit the utmost pretensions of other powers
which asserted protectionist principles in their respective
spheres of development, and was left with the privilege of
competing, on an open-door basis, with all except Russia
in railway development in the Yangtze basin. There, in
May 1898, the British and Chinese Corporation obtained
the contract for a railway, Shanghai-Soochow-Chinkiang-
Nanking. Financing was delayed by the South African
War, and then by the Boxer rising; but in 1903 an agree-
ment was made for a fifty-year loan of £3,250,000 at 5 per
cent.; the first issue was made at 90, the second at 95$.
The line and its plant were to be the security; and the
corporation was to pay Tls.1,000,000 (£125,000) for the
Shanghai-Wusung railway, which had been built by the
Chinese. The line, 210 miles in length, was completed in 1908.
The contract provided that construction and operation should
be under the control of a board of five commissioners, two
Chinese, two English, and the (English) Engineer-in-Chief;
but, since the completion of the line, control of the operation
has been vested in the Chinese president for the commission.
In August 1898, as compensation for what was regarded
as the Chinese government's " breach of faith in the Peking-
Hankow affair," the same corporation obtained concessions
for a railway, Soochow-Hangchow-Ningpo, and for one
Pukow-Sinyangchow (a point tapping the Peking-Hankow
line). Owing to provincial opposition, the construction of
these lines was not entrusted to the corporation, but in 1908
it undertook a loan of £1,500,000 at 5 per cent. for the former;
the latter has been shelved.
The province of Shansi is one of the richest coal-fields
in the world, and it has besides large deposits of iron-ore.
In 1896 Commendatore Angelo Luzatti made a study of
this field, and in 1897, to work it, he formed the Peking
Syndicate—Anglo-Italian in its composition, but English
in its capital. In May 1898 he obtained by imperial decree
the sole right for sixty years to open and work coal and iron


RAILWAYS
445
mines and petroleum wells in certain districts of Shansi and
of Honan north of the Yellow River. The syndicate was
to pay a royalty of 5 per cent. of gross receipts, then 6 per
cent. was to be paid on capital, then 10 per cent. of net
profits to a sinking fund, and of the surplus 25 per cent. was
to be paid to the Chinese government and 75 per cent. to
the syndicate. The syndicate, using its own capital, might
"make roads, build bridges, open or deepen rivers or canals,
or construct branch railways to connect with main lines or
with water navigation," to carry its coal and iron. The
syndicate, with a subscribed capital of £1,520,000, proceeded
to develop mines and to construct to them a railway starting
from Taokow, at the head of barge navigation on the Wei
River. After being delayed by the Boxer rising, the railway
was completed in 1905 to (Pashan) Tsinghwa, a length of
90 miles. The Chinese then decided to buy out the rights of
the syndicate in the railway; and, under two agreements of
July 3rd, 1905, the syndicate issued a thirty-year loan for
£700,000 at 5 per cent. and 90, and sold the railway for
£614,600 cash; the line itself was the security, and it was
to be worked by the syndicate during the currency of the
loan.
Other lines were also taken in hand, each representing
some diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government.
(a) The Chengtingfu-Taiyuenfu Railway, connecting the
capital of Shansi with a station on the Peking-Hankow line.
For this an agreement was made with the Russo-Chinese
Bank in 1898, supplemented by a definite contract in 1902,
for a thirty-year loan of 40,000,000 francs at 5 per cent.,
issued at 90, guaranteed by the imperial government and
secured by the traffic receipts. The contract was later
transferred to a French syndicate. The line, of one-metre
gauge, is 151 miles long and was completed in 1907.
(b) The Kaifengfu-Honanfu-Sianfu Railway, parallel
to the Yellow River. In 1899 an agreement was signed with
a Franco-Belgian syndicate, La Compagnie Generale des
Chemins de Fer et Tramways en Chine, followed by a final


446 THE TRADE AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA
contract in 1903, for the section Kaifengfu-Honanfu,
115 miles. The icontract of 1903 provided for a loan of
25,000,000 francs, to which a later contract of 1907 added
16,000,000 francs, at 5 per cent., issued at 90. This section
was completed in 1909.
(c) Railway communication between Hongkong and
Canton is solely a British interest, and that portion of the
line, 28 miles, which is within the limits of the colonial
territory is, for financing and construction, a British affair.
The line from the frontier to Canton, 85 miles, was taken in
hand by the Chinese of Canton. In 1907 a contract was
made with the British and Chinese Corporation for a thirty-
year loan of £1,500,000 at 5 per cent., issued at 94, secured
on the railway and guaranteed by the Chinese government.
Other smaller lines have been taken in hand by the
Chinese themselves, and in general without foreign financial
aid or government guarantee; but their length is not
considerable.
The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 resulted in the
transfer to Japan of much of the Russian interest in Man-
churian railways. Russia retained the whole of the Tran-
siberian line, west to east from Manchuli to Suifenho, 950
miles; of the north and south line she kept the northern
section to Kwanchengtze, 132 miles, but the lines south of
that point, 514 miles, went to Japan. In addition, it was
agreed with China in 1905 that Japan, providing the funds
herself, might build a line from Mukden to Antung on the
Korean frontier, a length of 189 miles. Two other lines
were to be built by Japanese for China, half the cost being
provided by China, the remaining half being lent by Japan
at 5 per cent., viz.: Sinminfu-Mukden, 48 miles (loan
£33.300); Kwanchengtze-Kirin, 75 miles (loan £225,000).
For her lines in Manchuria Japan in 1906 organised the
South Manchuria Railway Company, with a capital of
200,000,000 yen (£20,000,000), of which half was provided
by the Japanese government, and £4,000,000 by a 5 per cent,
thirty-five-year loan issued in London in 1906.


RAILWAYS
447
Szechwan was a subject of rivalry between England and
France: the latter hoped to tap its trade from Tongking,
the former from Burma, by railways through Yunnan; and
England would benefit the more by a continuance of traffic
along the course of the Yangtze. In 1905 an Anglo-French
syndicate, the Chinese Central Railways Company, was
formed to undertake railways in the Yangtze basin; the
American financial interests were invited to co-operate, but
were not then inclined to accede. In 1909 the German
syndicate was admitted to form a tripartite group, and in
the same year the Americans demanded that they should
be admitted to share. In May 1910 an agreement was
made in conference at Paris for dividing the Hukwang
railways, including the Hankow-Szechwan line and the
northern portion of the Hankow-Canton line, equally
between the members of the "Four-Power Group," viz.:
For England, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
For Germany, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank.
For France, the Bank de l'lndo-Chine.
For the United States, the American Group (composed
of Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Co., Messrs. Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the
First National Bank, and the National City Bank, all of
New York).
It may here be said that the Four-Power Group, in the
interest of China, asserted its sole right to provide all loans
for the purposes of the Chinese government, and to exercise
a supervision over the expenditure of their proceeds; that,
for this function, it became the Six-Power Group by the
adhesion, on their demand, of Russia and Japan; and that,
in March 1913, on the inauguration of President Wilson,
it became the Five-Power Group by the withdrawal of official
support from the "dollar diplomacy" of the American
group.
In May 1911 the Four-Power Group obtained the con-
tract for the Hukwang railways. The contract provided for
a present loan of £6,000,000, and a later loan of £4,000,000,
at 5 per cent., guaranteed by the Chinese government, and


APPENDIX A
FORElGN DEBT OF CHlNA OUTSTANDING DECEMBER 31ST, 1QII.
(Exchange at 3s. per tael.)
Title.
1ssued.
Principal
Amount.
Rate
Charge
1911.
Principal
paid
off to
Principal
outstanding
of
1nt.
Dec. 1911.
Dec. '911.
1. Loan H, Tls.767,200 ..
National Loans:
1886
t „
115,080
t
7
7
8,400
•97,835
/
87^780
»7,SOO
f
2. Hongkong and Shanghai
3. Arnhold, Karberg & Co.
Bank, Tls.10,900,000
1894
1.635,000
1,308,000
317,000
4. Cassel Loan
(Nanking Loan)
1895
1895
1,000,000
1,000,000
6
6
84,600
84,600
733.300
733.300
166,70a
266,700
5. Hongkong andShanghal
6. Franco-Russian Loan
Bank
189J
3,000,000
6
248,000
2,400,000
600,000
(Fr.400,000,000)
7- Anglo-German Loan ..
1895
1896
1898
15,820,000
16,000,000
16,000,000
4
836,669
960,479
831,688
4,452.527
3.602,575
•.977.375
••.367,473
•2.397.4S5
14,022,623
8. Ditto
5
9. Hongkong andshanghai
41
10. Japanese Loan
Bank
1905
1911
1911
1,000,000
1,000,000
500,000
5
5
5
61,250
50,000
25,000
800,000
200,000
1,000,000
500,000
11. Telegraphs Loan
1ndimnitiis (1901):
1t. Series A
11,250,000
9,000,000
4
4
4
4
4
574.4S5
520,470
900,000
300,000
690,000
'.493.(862
9.756,13«
9,000,000
13. Series B.
(•oT5)t
i'9'6)t
(•932)t
14- Series C
22,500,000
7,500,000
22,500,000
7,500,000
15. Series D
16. Series E.
17,250,000
17,250,000
Railways
124,570,080
«.373.4«6
• 7,588,719
106,981,361
17- 1mperial Chinese Rly.
1899
1902
2,300,000
1,600,000
1,640,000
2,900,000
5
5
5
5
5
169,626
80,000
82,000
402,500
•.897.500
1,600,000
1,640,000
2,900,000
18. ShansiRly
19. Kaifeng-Honanfu Rly.
2o. Shanghai-Nanking Rly.
2'. Taokow-Tsinghwa Rly.
22. Canton-Hankow Rly.
1903- 7
23. Canton-Kowloon Rly.
1904- 7
1905
1903
1907
1908
700,000
1,100,000
1,500,000
1,500,000
8,000,000
5,000,000
4.
145,000
35,000
49.500
75.000
75.000
(•935)t
('915 t
■9*>)t
'9'9)t
l'9'9)t
700,000
z,100,000
1,500,000
1,500,000
8,000,000
5,000,000
24. Shanghai-Ningpo Rly.
5-
5
5
5
7
25. Tientsin-Pukow Rly.
1908-10
1908
1910
400,000
26. Peking-Hankow Rly.
230,000
31.500
(1976)t
27. Ditto.
450,000
450,000
28. Manchurian Rys. (Ja-
panese)
19. Hukwang Rys.
1909
1911
258,300
6,000,000
J
5
",915
300,000
258,300
6,000,000
32,948,300
•.705,541
402,500
32.S45.8oo
Total LMritUia
157,518.380
8,078,957
17,99'.219
'39,527.161
* Redemption to begin 1911, but delayed by Revolution. f Redemption to begin.


APPENDIX B
A few typical instances are given below, showing the nature
of the cases which come before the foreign Courts in China, and
the way they are dealt with.
BRITISH SUPREME COURT
Shanghai, May 21st, 1906.
Before Sir Havilland de Sausmarez, Judge
A. Pavlow v. Baron Ward
This was an adjourned rehearing with regard to the defen-
dant's set-off of Tls.40,000.
Mr. L. E. P. Jones appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. A. S. P.
White-C00per for the defendant.
Mr. Jones said that at the last hearing the Court had asked
him for an assurance that there was another Court in Shanghai
which was competent to deal with Baron Ward's claim against
Mr. Pavlow in the event of this Court dismissing it; and on
the strength of the correspondence which he had filed counsel
was now able to give the assurance that the Russian Consular
Court had the necessary jurisdiction in the case.
Mr. White-C00per said he had not yet any evidence available,
and asked for the hearing to be adjourned till June 15th. The
Tls.40,000 had been retained by Mr. Kristensen; it had never
been in the hands of Baron Ward.
His Lordship said the state of the case was that there would
have to be some issue determining the amount to be set off.
It had been held that the plaintiff was entitled to set off some-
thing, but the amount had not been ascertained. A new trial
was to be had as to the propriety of the sum of Tls.40,000.
At the trial before the full Court the Assistant Judge said: "I
therefore agree there ought to be a new trial as to this issue,
which I would frame somewhat as follows: 'What is the proper
sum to be set off in respect of the Edendale transaction ?'"
Then, his Lordship supposed, the order was drawn up.
450


APPENDIX B
451
Mr. Jones said that the defendant had had ample oppor-
tunity afforded him of coming to the Court and proving his
claim. He had failed to do that, and counsel applied that that
claim be dismissed, that the order be amended accordingly,
and Baron Ward be now left to take such steps as he thought
fit against Mr. Pavlow in the Russian Court.
His Lordship said he had considered the matter very care-
fully, and what he would do would be this: grant an adjourn-
ment until June 15th and fix that date peremptorily so that,
in the event of the defendant not appearing to substantiate
his defence, he would immediately fail, and the judgment,
as modified by the order of November 16th, 1905, and the order
of the Full Court would stand. As regarded this particular
claim something had been said by Mr. Jones as to its nature.
His Lordship had l00ked very carefully through the record of
the case and also the report, and had been unable to find
that it had been seriously argued at any time that this was
a counter-claim and not a set-off. At the same time, l00king at
the Order in Council, Article 151(3), " Cross-action.—A counter-
claim shall not be brought in the Court against a plaintiff being
a foreigner," his Lordship felt clearly, from what had occurred,
that the plaintiff in this case did not consent to a counter-claim
being brought against him in that Court; and it was perfectly
evident to his Lordship's mind, on the terms of the Order, that
if he did adjudicate on a counter-claim which was not properly
before the Court the Court would be exercising jurisdiction
which it did not possess, and therefore any judgment which
might be passed in the matter would be necessarily void, or could
be attacked and easily upset. He thought therefore that if it
was made to appear to him, either at once or on June 15th, that
this was a counter-claim and not a set-off, then he ought not
to exercise jurisdiction. If, however, it should prove to be a
set-off on argument, then it seemed to him that would sub-
stantiate the defence, and the Order in Council did not modify
the right in any way to raise such a defence as a set-off. In
this particular case, the proceedings had gone on so long and had
so nearly reached an end, and the findings of the jury were very
explicit now that they had been dealt with in the judgment of
the Full Court, that he thought clearly he ought to entertain
this set-off if it proved to be a set-off and not a counter-claim.
Therefore he would grant an adjournment until June 15th,
and the case would be set down peremptorily for that date;
but in the meantime, or at the trial, if plaintiff's counsel chose
to move that this Court did not entertain this claim on the ground


454
APPENDIX B
continued throughout, and it appears to exist still. Difficulties
arose, and I do not see that it makes any difference to the present
action as to whether these difficulties arose through the nature of
things or from personal objection to the defendant on the part
of the Chinese, as suggested by the plaintiff. From whatever
source they did arise, the business did not flourish, and after
about a year things were so bad that the plaintiff left Changsha
because he thought it was useless to go on, and he returned to
Hankow. A claim was later made for the intervention of the
British authorities in Peking, and they did intervene, with the
result that payment of Tls.5,200 was made. I think it is quite
clear from Mr. Fraser's letter, which was put in, how that sum
was arrived at and the purpose for which it was paid. It was
to be, shortly, for compensation for disturbance; and the person
who had approached the British authorities was the defendant
in this action, and, therefore, naturally it was to him that the
communications of the British Consul-General at Hankow were
addressed. The terms of the communications between the
British Consul and Mr. Bennertz would, of course, in no way
affect any liability which Mr. Bennertz was under to third parties
—that is to say, parties other than himself and the British govern-
ment—in the distribution of this sum. That appears to be the
way the Tls.5,200 was paid. As regards the various sums
which were from time to time expended in this business, I am
unable to find that there was any capital found by either of the
parties; I think they each managed to scrape along as best they
could in Changsha, paying their own expenses and hoping things
would improve. Unfortunately they did not. Then comes the
29th of June, when there was an interview; when the plaintiff
decided that, as he had something definite to go to at Hankow and
nothing definite to remain for at Changsha, he had better go to
Hankow. On the evidence before me I have come to the conclu-
sion that these two parties did do business in partnership from
the date of this contract, namely July 4th, 1904, down to June
29th, 1905, and that on that date the partnership was dissolved by
mutual consent. I will finish the story first, before I come to the
terms of that partnership. I think that after that the business
was carried on by Mr. Bennertz alone. He came down to Shang-
hai to see what he could do; the whole of the responsibility was
upon him; he was the only person looked to by the Chinese
authorities in Changsha; and the plaintiff does not appear to
have taken any steps with respect to the business, and except
with regard to a loan on one occasion—which amounted to very
little—he does not appear to have done anything with reference


APPENDIX B
455
to this partnership or the affairs of the defendant. Unfortunately
things did not improve. Mr. Bennertz did not seem to get on
any better with the Chinese than before, and Changsha seems to
have opened its d00rs to foreign trade in an extremely reluctant
manner. The end of it was that Mr. Bennertz appeared at
Changsha with a considerable amount of g00ds which he had
been able to secure in Shanghai and things had to be finally
settled up. The result was that an agreement came to be made
between Mr. Bennertz and the Chinese in which the sum of
Tls.25,000 was paid for the stock-in-trade which he had there,
and various other things which are enumerated in this agreement,
and he was to clear out—all connection between him and Chang-
sha was to cease. I consider this agreement was made personally
between the Chinese and Mr. Bennertz—not Bennertz & Co.,
but Mr. Bennertz himself and the parties in Changsha who paid
him the Tls.25,000. I need not go into the different terms of
this agreement, but I think what I have already stated, and the
document itself will enable any one who comes to take the
accounts to see how the money should be applied. I think there
is only one other thing. I think that the Tls.25,000 was intended
to cover not only the debts which Mr. Bennertz himself had
contracted in Changsha, both before and after the time that
this partnership was dissolved, but I think it also was intended
to clear up any debts which had been contracted, and which
might still be outstanding to the partnership while it existed.
Therefore, assuming for the moment that the Tls.25,000 was
more than enough to cover all claims, then I think the Tls.25,000
should be applied in wiping them all out, and any balance of
the Tls.25,000 would have to be considered as belonging to
Mr. Bennertz, subject to any contracts which he might have
with other parties. The Tls.5,200 stand in a different position.
Assuming, as I say, that the Tls.25,000 was sufficient, that
Tls.5,200 definite compensation would remain to be divided
between the two parties.
Now as to the terms of the contract. They appear to me
to be embodied in this agreement of July 4th, 1904, in so far as
they were at that time put into force. Mr. Gilmore was so far
as was possible made a partner in the firm of Bennertz & Co. As
a matter of fact, that firm never having come seriously into
existence, the fact that he was made a partner in it did not give
him any claim, because Bennertz & Co. having no property,
there was nothing for him to have a claim to. But the partners
—the plaintiff and the defendant—did carry on business under
the form of Bennertz & Co., and, from all the documents before


456
APPENDIX B
me, there is no doubt they were carrying on business in partner-
ship. There is or there might be, in consequence of this sum
for disturbance, something to be divided, and it will be divided
on the terms on which the partners agreed to trade. We have
the definite statement here that of whatever profit Henry
Bennertz touched, he should pay 25 per cent. to the plaintiff.
There is the suggestion that an agreement was come to on
June 29th that the sum of one-third instead of one-quarter should
be paid to Mr. Gilmore out of this sum paid as indemnity, but
there appeared to be the stipulation that Tls.3,500 should first
be paid to the Chinese. There are various other matters which
certainly are somewhat complicated, and which I should expect
to find reduced to writing. We have the version of it given by
the plaintiff, which no doubt represents his own view, and there
is on the other hand a denial of it by the defendant, and I cannot
come, on the evidence before me, to the conclusion that the
original agreement of one-quarter of the profits was varied by
anything that took place on that occasion. It will have to be
ascertained what accounts come under this exhibit "Q "—the
deed of January 30th, this year, by which the Tls.25,000 was paid.
I think this includes all debts due by the partnership, as well as
by the defendant, to the people who are enumerated in this
deed. There are, for instance, the Chinese in Changsha, and the
firms in Shanghai, and there are certain others. I will take
for instance the sum of Tls.64, which is a small sum due to
Messrs. Hall & Holtz in Hankow, and this probably would not
come under that. I give that as an example, but I do not
decide that. This is a point which I shall have to take in
Chambers, or must be considered by whoever takes the account.
I mention that as it is a small sum and it does not matter much
whichever way it goes. If the Tls.25,000 is not sufficient, then
it will have to be divided, the various sums will have to be
paid, so far as I can see, pro rata, and if after that there are
partnership debts—debts between July 4th, 1904, and June 29th,
1905—then, of course, these will have to be liquidated out of
the Tls.5,200. I think if there is any balance on the Tls.25,000
—I do not think there is the least likelihood that there will
be—then the matter will have to be referred to me again as to
its division. It is not quite clear now, and I should like to hear
counsel more fully as to what ought to happen to any balance
of the Tls.25,000. I think, as it was to cover everything, the
plaintiff is entitled to a certain amount. I do not think he is
entitled to a quarter, but I think he is entitled to any amount
Which might be assessed as sufficient and proper. I thjnk thajt


APPENDIX B
457
direction is sufficient. The accounts may be so reduced that
they might come before me in Chambers, and I might be able to
come to a decision at less expense to the parties and in a very
short time, because I know about it; and if it is referred to any-
body else there will be some question of nicety as to some of
these sums, and they would probably have to be sent back to me
for direction. I would like to hear counsel further especially
in the case of Tsau's debt. I shall want to know a little more
about that, but so far as I can see this money which has been
expended by Mr. Bennertz in purchasing g00ds for the trading
of his company will have to be paid out of this Tls.25,000. If
it is proved that this amount for provisions is a purely personal
debt in no way connected with the company, it ought not to be
set off against the Tls.25,000; but at the same time from what
I can see, and in l00king at the contents of the agreement and
the way in which the business was carried on, the Tls.25,000
was meant to cover Tsau's debt. Still, at the same time, I do
not think I have anything before me which would make me say
definitely whether it ought to be paid. I have given my direc-
tion, and I think that the outstanding points may be so reduced
that I can come to a conclusion very shortly.
Mr. Symonds, on behalf of his client, said he would be pleased
to refer the matters of account to his Lordship.
His Lordship—You will have to get the accounts in order
first. In my judgment, I really say what is wanted is that Mr.
Bennertz should show how the Tls.25,000 has been spent, and
if he has gone beyond that to pay the debts of the firm, he
will have to show that the Tls.5,200 has been expended on the
remaining debts of the partnership.
Mr. Jones asked his Lordship if he would deal, with the
question of costs at this time.
His Lordship—I will deal with that when I deal with the
accounts. If I find the money substantially misapplied by
Mr. Bennertz, he will have to pay costs; but on the other hand,
if the inquiry was uselessly raised, it will be the other way.
His Lordship then rose.
Shangha1, December yd, 1906
Before Mr. F. S. A. Bourne, Assistant Judge
dlederichsen jebsen & Co. v. the Chinese engineering
and Mining Co., Ltd.
Mr. J. H. Teesdale appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. A. S. P.
\Vbite-C00per for the defendants, Mr. Loftus E. Jones watched


458
APPENDIX B
the case on behalf of the Holland China Trading Co., interested
parties.
Mr. Teesdale said that his Lordship was not sitting when
counsel made his application, last Saturday week, for an injunc-
tion restraining the defendant company from parting with the
possession of certain cargo stored at their wharf and of the
shipping documents relating to it. The injunction was granted,
and counsel now merely made application for pleadings. The case
would probably be rather complicated, and several legal points
were likely to be involved. It was possible that evidence would
have to be given on questions of law—not necessarily British
law—which would have to be gone into thoroughly, so that he
applied that pleadings should be delivered in the usual way, and
that his Lordship should fix a date on which he had to deliver his
statement of claim.
Mr. White-Cooper, in reply to his Lordship, said he had
nothing to say. The defendants simply held the goods as ware-
housemen, and if the plaintiffs set up a better title to them
than the Holland China Trading Co., they would deliver to them.
At present the defendants had no interest in the subject-matter
of the goods except as warehousemen.
His Lordship—And you, Mr. White-Cooper, have an under-
taking that any costs you may be put to will be paid by the
plaintiffs?
Mr. White-Cooper—Yes.
His Lordship—Won't this case have to be fought out in
another Court?
Mr. White-Cooper—As far as one can see, the contract would
appear to be governed by Dutch Law.
His Lordship granted the application for pleadings, the
statement of claim to be filed within fifteen days.
The Court then rose.
Shanghai, September 20th, 1906
Before Sir Havilland de Sausmarez, Judge, and Messrs. T.
Grayson {foreman), F. W. Rawsthorne, W. E. Blades,
T. H. W. Charnley, G. W. Noel, D. C. Kerr, G. C. Dew,
V. H. Lanning, G. H. Rendall, W. Fleming Inglis,
James Jones, and G. R. Barry (Jurors)
Rex v. Peter Sydney Hyndman
Peter Sydney Hyndman, bookkeeper, was charged that on
September 1st feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought,
he did kill and murder Harry Smith.


APPENDIX B 459
When formally charged, prisoner, in a low voice, pleaded
"not guilty."
* • * * *
Addressing the prisoner his Lordship said: Peter Sydney
Hyndman, you have been convicted of the crime of manslaughter.
The jury have taken, I am glad to say, a lenient view of your
conduct on this occasion. They thought that the provocation to
which you were subjected so wrought on your emotions and your
feelings that for the moment your will was suspended, and that
the intent which would be presumed from your acts did not exist.
At the same time I cannot help feeling that you were more
rash in this matter than you were justified in being. The case
of a husband who finds his wife whom he believes to be faithful
to him in a position of that kind is one which might excuse him
almost from receiving any punishment at all for taking such
sudden and violent vengeance on the man. I cannot feel that
you are in that position, and, though I do not consider your
crime one of great enormity, I must pass upon you a sentence
which will let the community know that the f00lish and reckless
carrying of firearms is not to be encouraged, and that when a man
does put himself in the position in which you put yourself, he
must take the consequences of his own acts. I sentence you to be
kept in prison for eighteen calendar months with hard labour.
BRITISH POLICE COURT
Shangha1, December 4th, 1906
Before Mr. G. W. King, Police Magistrate
Assault by a Sikh Constable
How to Evade an Agreement
Dungah Singh, Indian P.C. 199, was charged with assaulting
and beating one Chang Ah-cumat No. 216, Fcaron Road, at 5.15
p.m. on December 2nd.
Inspector Bourke prosecuted, and intimated to the Court
that the accused was on duty at the time the assault t00k place.
*****
His Worship (addressing accused) said: I consider the
evidence given by the prosecution to be true; that you did do
what you are said to have done. In an ordinary case, perhaps,
it would be meet to give you a fine only, because the assault is not
a grave one. I cannot overl00k the fact that at the time you
were on duty, and from the fact that you were on duty and that
you did what you are accused of having done, I believe you


APPENDIX B
461
sum of Tls.2,000; that the plaintiffs have duly paid to the
defendants the said consideration of Tls.2,000, which sum of
money is still in the possession of, or under the control of the
defendants, but that the said defendants have illegally, wrong-
fully, and in breach of the terms of the agreement, refused to
abide by and carry out its terms and surrender the land agreed
therein to be surrendered to the plaintiffs; that by reason of
the defendants' wrongful breach of this agreement, and by
reason of the defendants' wrongful trespass on the said land,
the plaintiffs have suffered damages through (1) the defendants'
wrongful actions above mentioned; (2) the deprivation of the
said temple lands and trespass thereon; (3) and the loss of
Tls.2,000; and that the defendants had notice and well knew
that the land in question belonged to the temple and could not
lawfully be purchased by defendants.
Wherefore, it was the plaintiffs' prayer that the defendants be
required to carry out the terms of the said compromise agree-
ment, or that the defendants be ordered to forthwith vacate
and give immediate possession of the land wrongfully inclosed;
that the defendants be ordered to pull down, forthwith, any
buildings erected on the said land and to restore the land to its
condition prior to such wrongful trespass; that the defendants
be ordered to pay the sum of Tls. 1,000 as damage for such
trespass, and in addition to return the sum of Tls.2,000 paid
the defendants by the plaintiffs, and that defendants be ordered
to pay the costs of this action.
In answer the defendants have admitted that the plaintiffs
are Chinese subjects, but have specifically denied each and every
other allegation of the plaintiffs. And answering further, the
defendants allege that all of the land possessed and inclosed by
the Southern Methodist Mission at Huchow was procured legally,
and according to treaty rights between America and China;
that the plaintiffs well knew, while the defendants were acquiring
the said land, of the facts, and purposes for which it was sought;
that the plaintiffs well knew of the purchase of said land, and
of the improvements in progress on the same from time to time,
but that the plaintiffs did not make any protest against such
improvements while they were in progress; that the alleged
agreement referred to by the plaintiffs was never signed by the
defendants but by parties who never had the right, nor the
authority, directly or indirectly, either in fact or in law, to bind
the defendants, and that when said agreement was presented
to the defendants herein for their signatures, said defendants
immediately repudiated the same and refused to sign it; that


APPENDIX B
463
transaction, nor have the plaintiffs attempted to show that the
Magistrate exceeded his authority in thus disposing of "waste
lands," or that any one objected to his doing so. The Magistrate
gave defendants a proper receipt for the consideration of the
transaction, and published the facts relating to the sale to the
people of Huchow by means of a special proclamation.
The defendants having obtained all the land desired for
mission purposes, sent their title-deeds to the yamen to be
registered and stamped. The deeds remained in the yamen,
some five months, when they were returned to the defendants,
having been properly registered and stamped. These various
transactions also received the written approval of the various
authorities concerned, including the Provincial Governor.
The acquisition of all this land by the defendants was not
accomplished without long delays—something over a year's
time being required for its completion. The negotiations were
carried on openly, and the people of Huchow were made ac-
quainted with the fact that the defendants were buying the
land, through the medium of the Magistrate's proclamation;
this, the plaintiffs have not disputed. Nor does the evidence
show that the people, or the gentry of Huchow, made or offered
any protest against the acquisition of this land by the mission
until after all the negotiations had been completed and the
land so purchased had been inclosed by the defendants within
a wall. Nor is there any evidence to show that in the acquisition
of this land the defendants deviated, in the least, either from
the letter or the spirit of the provisions of the treaty between
the United States of America and China governing such
matters.
As to the allegation of the plaintiffs that a portion or portions
of the aforesaid land is Confucian temple land, the Court must
hold that it is incumbent upon the said plaintiffs to show, by a
preponderance of evidence, that such is the case; but this the
plaintiffs have failed to do.
The fact that the ruins of what the plaintiffs allege to be those
of an ancient Confucian Library are characterised by numerous
carvings of the Lotus flower, which is a characteristic emblem
of Buddhism and of Buddhistic ornamentation; that the said
ruins, or foundation stones, are situated a considerable distance
away, and in another ward, or division of the city, from the
group of buildings recognised, and confirmed by the officially
written topographies of Huchow, as constituting the Confucian
temple property; that the defendants have produced docu-
mentary and other evidence showing that the real site of the


464
APPENDIX B
ancient Confucian Library (the Tsen Ching-ko) is not situated
on any land now enclosed by, or in possession of the mission,
but is entirely outside of, and is a considerable distance away
from the property of the said mission, is sufficient evidence to
convince the Court that the said Confucian Library site (Tsen
Ching-ko) is not situated on the defendants' premises, and that
none of the land now held by the defendants is Confucian temple
land.
The plaintiffs have endeavoured to force upon the defendants
the terms of an agreement of compromise, which agreement had
been signed by certain representatives of the Southern Methodist
Mission, whereby a portion of the mission's land was to be
turned out of the defendants' enclosure. The facts are that one
member of a committee of three members, appointed by the
mission to deal with this matter, two of whom are the defendants
in this action, signed this said agreement as indicating to the
other two members his opinion of the case, and not in any manner
as trying to bind the other two members to the agreement.
However, when this agreement was presented to the defendants
who were named therein as parties to the agreement, they
refused to sign it, or to carry out its terms; and it has been
shown by evidence that to do so would be grievously injurious
to the plans and future work of the mission. And since the
provincial officials have offered, upon their own motion, written
testimony to the fact that the Tls. 1,000 named as the considera-
tion of this agreement, and that the Tls.1,000 presented to the
mission for charitable purposes had been provided for by them-
selves, and does not, nor ever did in any manner belong to the
plaintiffs, and the further fact that the defendants have never
accepted or been in possession of this money, it is evident that
plaintiffs are not entitled to bring action against the defendants
for its recovery.
According to solemn compacts between China and the United
States of America, the Southern Methodist Mission, as well as
all other American missionary societies, have the right to pur-
chase, or lease land in perpetuity, at Huchow, as well as at all
other places within the Chinese Empire. And when they have
obtained their land, and secured properly executed title-deeds,
they are entitled to enjoy full and complete possession of all
such land without annoyance or molestation of any nature.
The petition of the plaintiffs is hereby dismissed at plaintiffs'
costs.
The defendants' prayer for damages is disallowed, as this
Court has no jurisdiction to award damages against Chinese


APPENDIX B
465
subjects, and leaves defendants to follow plaintiffs into a regularly
constituted Chinese tribunal.
(Signed) Frederick D. Cloud,
American Vice-Consml-in-Charge,
Acting Judicially.
J Steinacher.i
J. H. JUDSON, / ^"='ul.m,■c^■
INQUEST
Shanghai, December yth, 1906
Before Mr. W. P. Boyd, American Vice-Consul-General-in-Charge,
Acting as Cuban Coroner
A Sad Ending
An inquest was opened at 2.30 p.m. yesterday at No. t,
North Honan Road, to inquire into the circumstances attending
the death of Miss Loura Leslig, alias Cossette Denvers, a Cuban
subject, aged thirty-two years, who died in bed at her residence,
between the hours of 10.30 and 11.30 p.m., the 5th inst., from
laudanum poisoning.
* * * * *
The Coroner brought in a verdict that deceased came to her
death on December 5th, 1906, between the hours of 10.30 and
11.30 p.m., by taking an overdose of laudanum, self-administered,
with suicidal intent.
GERMAN CONSULAR COURT
Shanghai, December yth, 1906
Before Mr. L. Heintze, Vice-Consul
The Muzzling Order
V. Blinkman, No. 72, Range Road, was charged with allowing
his dog to be at large unmuzzled on the Range Road on the 30th
ultimo, contrary to Municipal Regulations.
Inspector Bourke stated the nature of the charge.
Defendant was fined $3 or in default one day's detention.
JAPANESE CONSULAR COURT
Shanghai, December yth, 1906
Before Mr. D. Yamamoto, Police Magistrate
Breaking the Rules
One Nejita was charged with keeping a house of entertain-
ment, to wit, a sh00ting gallery, at No. 513, Miller Road, without
a license and contrary to Municipal Regulations.
30


466
APPENDIX B
Inspector Bourke stated the nature of the offence.
Accused was severely cautioned and ordered to close the
place at once.
Shanghai, December e,th, 1906
Before Mr. D. Yamamoto, Police Magistrate
Jack Ashore
A festive sailor from the N.Y.K. steamer Chiyoda Mam,
named M. Yasuda, was charged with having been drunk and
disorderly on the Broadway, and damaging property to the
extent of 50 cents, about 10 p.m., the 3rd inst.
Inspector Bourke related the nature of the charge.
Tsang Zen-fah, the complainant, gave evidence of the accused
having been drunk and doing damage to witness's goods.
Accused was fined $3 and ordered to pay the amount of
damage done.
RUSSIAN CONSULAR COURT
Shanghai, December yd, 1906
Before Mr. C. Kleimenow, Consul-General
Alleged Arson
A. M. Silkiss was charged on a Russian Consular warrant
with having feloniously and wilfully set fire to his premises and
dwelling-house known as the Tivoli Hotel at Nos. 9 & 10, Boone
Road, about 11.30 p.m., December 1st, 1906, with intent to
secure insurance money thereon, and thereby endangering life
and property.
Inspector Bourke appeared to prosecute.
Extensive evidence was taken, but, the press not being
admitted, we are not able to give a report of the proceedings.
Shanghai, December yth, 1906
Before Mr. C. Kleimenow, Consul-General
Alleged Arson
A. M. Silkiss was brought up on remand charged on a Russian
Consular warrant with having feloniously and wilfully set fire
to his premises and dwelling-house known as the Tivoli Hotel,
at Nos. 9 & 10, Boone Road, about 11.30 p.m., December 1st,
1906, with intent to secure insurance money thereon, and thereby
endangering life and property.


APPENDIX C
The following letter gives the attitude of the British government
in respect to intervention by missionaries in the interior on
behalf of their Chinese converts.
MISSIONARIES AND CHINESE OFFICIALS
To the Editor of the " North China Daily News"
Sir,—Under instructions from H.M. Minister at Peking
I beg to hand you herewith for publication copy of a circular
dated August 31st, 1903, addressed by Sir E. Satow to H.M.
Consular Officers in China.
I am, etc.,
Pelham Warren,
Consul-General.
October 31s/, 1906.
Circular
H.B.M. Legation,
Peking, August 31s/, 1903.
Sir,—Cases have come to my notice in which missionaries
have addressed themselves directly to Chinese officials, either
verbally or in writing, on behalf of their Chinese converts,
instead of acting through the proper channel, which is one of
H.M. Consuls or the head of H.M. Legation.
Such intervention I presume would be defended on the
ground that some action has been taken in regard to the convert
which is in violation of Article VIII. of the Treaty of Tientsin.
It is necessary, however, to point out that missionaries are
not accredited agents of the British government for the enforce-
ment of the Treaty, and Article VIII. was not intended to
confer upon missionaries any right of intervention on behalf of
native Christians.
I do not see any objection to a missionary addressing the
local Chinese authorities directly on any matter affecting himself
468


APPENDIX D
471
their liberation. He did this by promising to behead one of
the military officers who had been.active against the robbers,
and to pay $3,000 to the Roman Catholics for rifles taken from
the robbers by order of the Tong-ling. Houses and shops
belonging to Protestants were pillaged, and passengers to
and from the boats were robbed. A Protestant inquirer was
caught and held for ransom. He was told that if he did not
furnish 100 jars of Chinese wine he would be killed. He
gave them 90 jars and was allowed to escape. Some of the
members and inquirers had narrow escapes from being shot.
The son of an inquirer was shot through the thigh, and one
of the robbers was accidentally shot dead by another Roman
Catholic.
On Saturday evening the Mandarins sent word to the Pro-
testants that they could not protect them, but would send an
armed escort to take them to Tai-chow city. A fleet of five
gunboats sailed with them from Haimen. At a point, 40 li
from Haimen, two of the gunboats returned, leaving three boats
to carry the refugees the remaining 80 li to Tai-chow city.
In company with two foreign missionaries and the Mandarin
under whose escort they had travelled, they went to visit the
Prefect, who said that the Protestants had shown themselves
superior to the Roman Catholics, and had acted splendidly in
the great trouble caused by the Roman Catholics. He also said
they must not return to Haimen until the trouble was over.
Testimony of the Protestant member whose shop was pillaged
by an armed Roman. Catholic band:
"I was upstairs above the shop when the armed band entered
my shop. My assistant told them I was upstairs. They called
me, and I asked who they were. They said,' Come down and see.'
I l00ked out and saw the men armed with long pistols and big
knives, and became alarmed. I shouted, ' I will come down at
once,' and then ran out at the back d00r and hid in a neighbour's
house. Here I remained for an hour or so, until after they had
pillaged my shop; then the Chen-tai passed, and I went out
and asked him for protection. He sent seven or eight soldiers
to escort me to the Protestant compound. Here I remained
from Friday till Sunday morning. The Protestant compound
was surrounded by a band led by Li Ti-song. This man struck
the Tong-ling when he rode up to disperse the mob, upon which
the Tong-ling proceeded to the R.C. compound, where he was
detained to make him promise $3,000 to pay for rifles which
had been taken from some of the Roman Catholic robbers by
his order. The Roman Catholics also demanded execution of


APPENDIX D
473
under the Tong-ling, but these Mandarins are afraid to harm the
Roman Catholics because the R.C. bishop would accuse them
to the Provincial Governor (Fu-tai) and they would lose their
rank,' kong-ming.'"
The Provincial Governor (Fu-tai) having wired to settle
the combatants without violence, the military stored their
rifles and went about unarmed. All the sh00ting was done by
Romanists, who accidentally shot one of their own men. Many
of the Roman Catholics assembled under arms are well-known
robbers.
The following is a diary showing the principal events that
occurred in connection with the Roman Catholic attack at
Haimen.
Friday, November glh
Hundreds of armed men, under the command of the native
Roman Catholic priest Nyun, suddenly appeared in the streets
of Haimen. They l00ted the houses and shops of Protestants.
The owners fled to the Protestant compound. The Protestants
asked for an escort to Tai-chow city, but the Military Mandarin
said they would protect them in Haimen. The son of a Protestant
inquirer was shot through the thigh. The Protestant preacher
sent an open note by a messenger to the foreign missionaries
here. It is as follows : " Eight hundred Roman Catholic soldiers
armed with rifles and swords have just pillaged the houses and
shops of Christians (names given) and are building the wall.
The Military Mandarin is powerless to restrain them. I do
not know about killed and wounded. We hope you will rescue
us quickly."
Upon the arrival of this messenger, at 5 p.m. on Friday, a
telegram was sent to C.I.M., Shanghai, and to British Consul,
Ningpo, as follows: "Hundreds armed Romanists attacked
Haimen Protestants. Killed, wounded, unknown. Houses pil-
laged. Tidal wall occupied." Foreign missionaries visited
Prefect, and found that he already knew the situation, and that
the District Magistrate and two Deputies from the Prefect
were preparing to start for Haimen. It was learned that the
Major-General (Chen-tai) at Haimen had previously warned
the city Magistrate of a Roman Catholic plot to attack the
Protestants on the following day—Saturday. Evidently, there-
fore, the attack began a day s00ner than the Major-General
expected. The Protestant city pastor left for Haimen in
company with the returning messenger^


476
APPENDIX D
Thursday, 13/A
8.30 a.m. A Thanksgiving Service to God for the escape of
the refugees was held in the China Inland Mission Chapel. Psalms
37 and 124 were read, and prayer was offered for the persecuting
Roman Catholics.
At Haimen the Roman Catholics are searching for those
who have shown sympathy with the Protestants. Many have
fled from the town, others are in hiding, and business is paralysed.
One man was caught and taken to the R.C. premises to be
tortured. The Mandarin succeeded in getting him liberated.
Attempts were then made to catch his son, who escaped, and
fled to this city, arriving here by steam launch with District
Magistrate and Tong-ling at six o'clock. He says some of the
armed bands have dispersed, others have come, and they reside
principally in the R.C. compound.
The Roman Catholic army is composed of bands of men,
each under a leader, and each band has a distinctive badge.
The Commander-in-Chief is the native Roman Catholic priest,
Nyun, and the principal leaders are: (Eleven names given).
Several of these are well-known robber chiefs; at least two
of them are only recently liberated from prison.
THE CATHOLIC VERSION
After the disturbance over the chestnuts, in which the Pro-
testants summoned the brigands in order to pillage a Catholic's
house and deliver from jail by force of arms a criminal arrested
by the Magistrate, the parties interested were extremely excited.
It had only need of another incident to cause an explosion, and
the Protestants were soon to furnish it.
At Haimen the Catholic Mission owns a piece of land on
the river front which surrounds the Protestant church. Houses
are being built there for the support of our charitable institutes.
One of these houses being built behind the Protestant church, it
was now necessary to build a wall around it as it was to serve
as a warehouse. In order to avoid all occasion of fresh discord
the wall was to be built four feet from the church, but when the
masons came to commence the work they were stopped by the
Protestant church master, Ko Siao-tsen, and his band, who, ready
to fight, claimed the property as theirs.
Instead of resisting violence by violence we preferred to bring
the case before the local authorities. Civil and Military Mandarins
were immediately appointed by the Prefect of Tai-tcheou-fou,


APPENDIX D
477
Mr. Tchang, to examine the case. Their first act was to demand
the titles of ownership from the Protestants. Now, the latter
have none to give, no, not even for their church, which stands
on a site formerly used as a place of capital punishment, and was
partly occupied by them, partly given to them by a famous
brigand named Tchang. They answered, however, first saying
that the deeds were at Ningpo; the second time they said they
were at Shanghai; and the third time they showed a false paper
which they had manufactured after taking the measurement of
their church's land.
The Mandarins afterwards examined the titles of ownership
in the possession of the Catholic Mission, which are incontestable,
and all were unanimous in acknowledging our rights, adding that
we could build the wall. This decision being given, the workmen
returned on November 9th to continue work on the wall; but
Ko Siao-tsen, the Protestant master, the evening before, had
already assembled eighty armed men in the church for the purpose
of opposing the work. They rushed at the workmen and
threatened to sh00t them if they would not quit. The workmen
retired.
It was market day; the news s00n spread to the outskirts
of Haimen, and a great number of Catholics assembled, being
exasperated by the incessant provocations of Protestants and by
former insult and injustice.
The next day, Saturday, November 10th, the workmen
returned to their labour with a guard of Christians to defend
them. Two hours after the Mandarins asked that the work be
stopped, promising to settle the question immediately. About
four o'clock that evening a delegate paid our missionaries a visit
and offered the following conditions of peace:
1. That the Protestant master Ko would be sent away from
Haimen and forbidden to return.
2. The wall would be built the next day and the lines drawn
without any change.
3. If Protestants thereafter wished to take revenge, the
delegate and Colonel Tsao would take upon themselves the
responsibility and would answer for all.
The missionaries accepted these conditions and immediately
ordered the Christians to disperse. The latter were still in the
port in the act of eating when they perceived two vessels coming
towards them from the other side of the river. They were full of
pirates and armed Protestants, who as s00n as they landed opened
fire on the Christians. The latter were obliged to defend them-
selves, and put to flight their assailants. Then there t00k place


478
APPENDIX D
a deplorable encounter between the Christians and Colonel Tsao's
soldiers, caused by the bad-will of an under-leader commonly
called Siao Lao-yi. He was formerly a pirate, who, having
made his submission, is now in command of some soldiers who
themselves are more or less second-hand pirates. He had been
sent to the port with fifty soldiers to separate the combatants.
When he saw his former companions of brigandage fleeing, he
ordered his men to charge the Christians and disarm them, and he
himself fired. Ten were wounded, of whom one died.
Shortly after this bloody fight Colonel Tsao paid the mission-
aries a visit, saying that if any had been killed, the guilty parties
would be executed; if depredation had taken place, the damages
would be compensated. General Ou was present and put the
blame on the soldiers. Sub-prefect Siao did so likewise, as also
all the witnesses of this bloody brutality committed against
men who were justly defending their lives and who, faithful to
instructions given them, offered no resistance to the soldiers.
Siao Lao-yi is greatly to blame, and merits punishment.
As for reproaching the Christians with having firearms, that
is ridiculous in a country in which, to the knowledge and before
the very eyes of the Mandarins, all the inhabitants carry arms
to defend themselves against the pirates, who, thanks to the
inactivity of those in power, abound there—brigandage and
assassination are continual.
Peace reigns there now, since the Mandarins expelled the
pirates of Peyen and sent away under good escort the Protestant
master Ko Siao-tsen. But I received a telegram this morning,
November 16th, stating that he returns this very day at the head
of a large number of robbers. What will happen, and what
can we do?
The other side of the relations between Roman Catholic and
Protestant missionaries is seen in the following communication
sent to the Shanghai Mercury by a Protestant missionary in
Szechwan.
Sui-fu, via Chungking, Szechwan
(From our Correspondent)
November 28/A, 1906.
Death
It is with sorrow that I have to record the passing away of one
of the Roman Catholic Fathers who has laboured in this land
for over thirty years, twenty of which he has spent in this city.


482
APPENDIX E
The Chinese Version
The Chinese view of the disturbance on Friday in the Mixed
Court is represented in the following letter from " One who was
present." The original letter is in Chinese.
"It has always been a part of the Regulation of the Inter-
national Mixed Court for female criminals to be confined in
the Mixed Court prison. Mr. Twyman, the British Vice-Consul,
has, however, repeatedly wanted to send these females to the
foreign gaol, and on this account it has been a subject of repeated
opposition on the part of Mr. Kuan, the Magistrate of the Mixed
Court. The latter has also petitioned the Shanghai Taotai to
back up this opposition. This is on record.
"On the morning of the 8th instant, Mr. Kuan, Magistrate,
Mr. Ching, Assistant Magistrate, and Mr. Twyman, the British
Assessor, were trying cases brought by the police, among which
was one in which a certain Mrs. Li Wang-shih was charged with
kidnapping children. According to the evidence, this woman
claimed to be the wife of an official, and that she, accompanied
by four others, had arrived in Shanghai from Szechwan; that
she had with her five little girls which she had purchased in
Szechwan as personal attendants, but which the police had
wrongly charged her with having kidnapped. In view of the
wrongful accusation Mrs. Li Wang-shih asked that her accusers
be punished. It was found, in the course of the trial, that the
defendant had arrived in Shanghai in the steamer Poyang, en
route to her home in Kwantung, and that the luggage brought
by her amounted to over one hundred pieces. As for the children,
the defendant declared that she had documents proving bona
fide sales to her of them, etc. As this evidence appeared to
refute the charge of the children having been kidnapped, the
Magistrate consulted with the Assessor as to the advisability of
remanding the case, sending the children to the ' Door of Hope,'
and keeping the defendants under the custody of the Mixed
Court ad interim. The British Assessor, however, determined
to have the defendants confined under remand in the foreign
(municipal) gaol. The Magistrate replied that as he had
not received any instructions from the Taotai to change the
regulations, he could not consent to this. An argument ensued,
and, neither side being willing to give way, the Magistrate
accordingly ordered his runners to follow the regulations and
hand the female defendants to the charge of the Court female
gaoler. Upon this the Vice-Consul ordered the police inspectors
and all the constables present to use force in getting away the


APPENDIX F
REGULATIONS PROHIBITING OPIUM SMOKING
(Issued November 21st, 1906)
Article I. To limit the cultivation of the poppy is the way
to eradicate the evil. The poppy obstructs agriculture, and its
effect is very bad. In China, in the provinces of Szechwan,
Shensi, Kansu, Yunnan, Kweichow, Shansi, and Kianghuai,
the poppy is widely cultivated, and even in other provinces
there are places where poppy cultivation is largely pursued.
Now it is decided to prohibit and r00t out the habit of smoking
opium within ten years. It is therefore necessary to limit the
cultivation of the poppy so as to effect the prohibition. Viceroys
and Governors of provinces have to instruct the Magistrates of
departments and districts to report upon, after registering, the
actual area of land used for cultivation of poppy. Unless land
has been hitherto used in the cultivation of the poppy it is not
to be used for that purpose in future. For the land already
being cultivated with the poppy special title-deeds must be
obtained. Of the land at present in use for the cultivation of
the poppy one-ninth must be annually withdrawn from culti-
vation, and if such land is suitable, other crops are to be cultivated
thereon. Magistrates of departments and districts are to pay
surprise visits in order to ascertain whether there is any violation
of this regulation.
By this means the cultivation of the poppy will be exter-
minated in nine years.
Any person violating the rule will forfeit his land, and any
person ceasing to grow the poppy and adopting some other crop
before the time required in the decree shall be considered as
meriting special reward.
Article II. The issuing of certificates will prevent the
possibility of new smokers. The bad habit of opium smoking
has now been indulged in for such a long time. About three or
four tenths of the natives smoke opium. Therefore we must
486





496
INDEX
Cabinet of Republic, 89
Calcutta, Black Hole of, 197
Cambodia, 292
Camphor, 273
Canton, port, 10, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22,
40, 42, 63, in, 176, 220, 279
Cantonese, the, 5
Capacity, measures of, 192
Caravan trade, 301, 330, 344
Carr, L., 386
Cartwright, W., 393, 394
Cash (copper coin), double value, 150
variability of tiao, 147
Cassia, 278, 283, 324
Catty, weight, 168, 170, 191
Censors, Court of, 45
Cessions and leases of territory, 27,
232, 243, 286
Chang Chih-tung, 29, 71, 436, 438
— Chun,116
— Hsien-Chung, 12
— Hsfin, 73
— Yung, 151
Changan, city, 5
Chang-lu, salt area, 113
Changsha, city, 21, 252
Changteh, 252, 339
Chaochowfu, 278
Chapdelaine, Pere A., 22, 213
Chapu, port, 19, 63
Charlemange, contemporary coins,
139
Chefoo Agreement, 25, 249, 282,
368, 415
— port, 167, 173, 241, 245, 440
Chekiang, province, 5, 49, 50, 63,
80, 105, 107, 108, 114, 270, 374
Cheling Pass, 251, 333
Chemulpo, 26
Chen Dynasty, 5
Chengtu, city, 63, 248, 377
Chih-Chow, 53
Chih-Fu. See Prefect
Chih-Hsien. See Hsien, office of
Chihli, province, 50, 62, 74, 104,
105, 107, 232, 374
Chihli-chow. See Prefect
Chihli-ting. See Prefect
Chihtai. See Viceroy
China, government of Imperial, 32;
of Republic, 31, 67, 85; under
feudal system, 3, 4, 92; central
administration, 42, 89; the
eighteen provinces (China
proper), 225; the name, 233
China, National Assembly, 72
— National Council, 72
— Presidential Mandates, 72
— Constitution, 85
Chinchew, port, 299
Chinese, a law-abiding people, 59;
calendar, 2; convert, position
of, 216-19; dynasties, 2-13;
fleet destroyed by the French,
25; Government, 32,85 ; history,
1; race, 1
Chinkiang, port, 19, 63, 114, 263
Chinwangtao. port, 238
Chow Dynasty, 2, 3, 6, 137
Chow-pan, 53
Chow-tung, 53
Christianity in China, 212
Chu Tsun, 372
Chu Yuan-chang, founder of Ming
Dynasty, 10
Chun, Prince, 435
Chungking, port, 164, 249, 254
Chun-tsung, Emperor, 6
Chwangliang, city, 63
Chwanglieh-ti, Emperor, 12
Cigarettes, 230, 238, 242, 272, 316,
349
Cigars, 349
Cinnabar, 248, 293
Clansmen, Imperial, 39
Coal, 238, 242, 251, 316, 326, 347,
434. 444
Coast Inspector, 402
Co-Hong. See Gilds
Coins, 137-41; weight and value,
141
Commissioners of Customs, 251,
39°. 394. 395. 4°o-8
"Concessions." See Treaty Ports
Confucius, 2, 3, 30, 240
Constitution, Chinese, 85
Consul, office of, 204, 223
Consular Courts, 205
Consuls, foreign, 202, 204-8, 236,
385. 398, 403
Coolie emigration. See Emigration
Copper, 107, 110, 238, 316, 326
— coins. See Currency
Cotton cloth, 154, 230, 237, 242,
250, 259, 260, 262, 269, 272, 275,
277. 279, 295. 3°9. 313. 347
— raw, 154, 253, 256, 258, 260, 269,
270, 271, 272, 295, 318, 325
— seed, 326, 348
— yarn, 230, 238, 242, 250, 256^


502
INDEX
Peking, city, 10, 13, 14, 23, 29, 33.
42, 46, 57, 62, 95, 112, 144. 233,
335. 345. 392
— Convention of, 23
Penalty for homicide, 199, 201, 220
People of China. 1, 32, 277
Perestrello, Raphael, 297
Persecution of Christians, 214
Persia, 355, 371, 381, 382
Pescadore Islands, 27, 299
Petroleum, 248, 445
Philippine Islands, 298, 353
Phoenix emblem, 38
Picard-Destelan, H„ 428
Picul, weight, 170, 191
Piracy. See Brigandage
Piry, T., 414, 4x8, 428
Plague, 74, 292
Plato, 3
Pneumonic plague. See Plague
Polo, Marco, 9, 140, 154, 156, 297
Pope, the, decision of, 214 1
Poppy. 35°. 380, 383, 486
Population, 225, 228, 231, 232, 234,
237. *39. 246, 247, 250, 252, 253,
256, 258, 260, 266, 270, 273, 277,
289, 292
Porcelain, 10, 14, 107, 257, 258, 334
— pagoda, 10, 261
Port Arthur, 27, 228, 288
— Hamilton, 26
Portuguese relations, 10, 198. 282,
286, 297. 355. 365. 382
Poseh, mart, 289, 332
Post Office, 411
Postal Department, 396, 404, 415
— hongs, 413, 417, 427
— money orders, 419, 429
— Union, 415, 416, 425
Pottinger, Sir Henry, 20, 202
Poyang Lake, I, 4, 256, 334
Prefect, office of, 53, 54, 57
Prefecture, 52
President of China, 72, 87
Provinces of China, 225
Provincial Assemblies. See Na-
tional Assembly
— government, 33, 45, 50, 90
Provisions (poultry, etc.), 284, 285,
326
Pu-cheng Shih-sze. See Treasurer
Puchun, Prince, 36
Pulun, Prince, 36
Punti, 277
Putiatin, Count, 22
Queue, head-dress, 11
Quicksilver, 310
Railways, 229, 431, 439, 492
— Shantung, 244, 439
— Yunnan, 293, 441
— Hankow-Canton, 333, 442
— Shanghai-Wusung, 432
— Shanghai-Soochow-Nanking,
431. 444
— Formosa, 434
— Imperial North-China, 435
— Chinese Eastern, 437
— Peking-Hankow, 438
— Tientsin-Pukow, 440
— Soochow-Ningpo, 444
— Pukow-Sinyangchow. 444
— Taokow-Tsinghwa, 444
— Chengtingfu-Taiyuenfu, 445
— Kaifeng-Sianfu, 445
— Hongkong-Canton, 446
— South-Manchuria, 446
— Hukwang, 447
Ramie. See Fibres
Rape-seed, 271, 326
Rebellions. See also Mohammedan
and Taiping, 2, 6, 10, 12, 17, 21,
31, 68, 292
Reclamation of land, 233
Red girdle, 39
— River (Tonkin), 285, 293
Reed, Hon. Wm. B., 22, 366
Reed tax, 117
Reform, demand for, 68, 106, 127
Remittance of money, 95
Residence in interior, 214
Revenue, 97, 129. 131, 132, 154
Revolution, Chinese, 31, 71, 72
Rhubarb, 356
Ricci, Matteo, 11, 212
Rice, 9, 101, 108, 154, 230, 238, 242,
251, 256, 258, 259, 260, 270, 277,
278, 279, 283, 317, 346
Riots, 207, 217, 400, 470, 480
Roman dominion, 3, 72, 195
Russian Consular Courts, 466
— overland trade, 112
— relations, 22, 27, 42, 112, 200,
212, 235, 255, 301, 382, 437, 445,
447
Sacred Edict, 15
St. Francis Xavier, 11, 212


INDEX
505
Wade, Sir Thomas, 366, 386, 415
Wai-wu Pu, 44, 73, 395
Waldersee, Graf von, 29
Walls of City, 56, 58. 235
Wanghia, Treaty of, 203
Wang-mang, 5
Wanhsien, 250
Wanli, Emperor, 11
Ward, General Frederick T., 24
— W. W., 390
Wars: China-Japan, 8, 26, 65,
288, 327; with Great Britain, 19,
22, 199, 200; with France, 22,
25; with Burma, 16; between
Russia and Japan, 26, 288, 327,
443
Washburn. W. D., 438
Wax. 107, 250
Weddell, Captain, 299
Wei, kingdom, 5
— river, 1, 342
Weights and measures, 4, 190
Weihaiwei, British Colony, 27, 243,
288
Weising lottery, 118
Wen Siang, 41, 71, 43a
Wenchow, port, 27a
Wenpao Chfl, 412
West River, 226, 277, 285, 289, 293,
33*
Whampoa, anchorage for Canton,
277. 304. 359
— Treaty of, 203
Wharfage dues, 120
Wheat, 228, 230, 260, 275, 279
Wilier, F., 390
Window glass and glassware, 317
Wine, tax on, 119
Women prohibited in the factories,
303. 3°4
Woodruff, F. E., 394
Wool, 238, 250, 327, 345
Woollens, 310, 315
Wu Kien-chang, 386
— kingdom, 2, 5,
— San-kwei, General, 12, 46
Wu Wang. Duke of Chow, 2
Wuchang, city, 7, 21, 255
Wuchow, port, I2«, 290, 294
Wu-how, Empress, 6
Wuhu, port, 173, 259
Wusih, city, 341
Wusung, port, 264
Xavier. See St. Francis
Yaishan, island, 8
Yalu river, 27
battle of the. 27
Yangtze gorges, 248, 337
— River, 1, 2, 4. 7, 117, 247, 253,
256, 263, 293, 335, 336
Yao, ruler, 2
Yatung, mart, 296
Yeh Kung-cho, 428
Yeh Ming-chin, Viceroy, 21
Yellow girdle, 39
Yellow River, 1, 49, 95, 233, 239,
245. 34'. 344
— Sea, 4, 240
Yentai. See Chefoo
Yen-yOn Shih-sie. See Intendant
of Salt
Yi-ho Society, 28
Yin Dynasty, 2
Yingkow, Yingtze. See Newchwang
Yochow, port, 21, 251
Young China party, 27
Yu, Emperor, 2
Yuan Dynasty. See Mongols
— River. 253, 334. 339
Yuan Shih-kai, 31, 71. 72, 73, 83
Yuenmingyuen, 23
Yungcheng. Emperor. 15. 35, 355
Yunglo, Emperor, 10, 261
Yung Wing. 440
Yunnan, province, 1, 8. 46, 50, 63,
82, 84, 105, 107, 114. 292, 377,
441
Yusien, Governor of Shansl, 30
Zinc, 293



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