'TRADE OF PAKHOI, Pho following are the portions of the report supplied by Me, Consul Allen to Mr. O'Conor on the probable effects of the opening of Tongking on the trade of Pakhoi which will interest Northern readers may take it for granted that Her Majesty's Government, in opening Pakhwi, never intended it to be simply a port to supply the neighbourhood with yarn, opium, and piece-goods, and to procure thence a little cassia and aniseed wud a fow idea, but rather to be the shipping port of south-west China, Hitherto, theas hopes have been unfulfilled. 1 do nut suppose that foreign goods often penetrate more than 160 miles into the interior. he exports intended for a foreign market come almost euterely from the Yit-lin and Now-ning Aistricts, more from Yiislin than Nan-ning. The shipping trade is monopolized by the Dincao Guild, who run the three lite ateamors (two of which are German) which Eeingkong. Theis export cargo. ovusiste ly between this, Hoihow, Mow, and
principally of ground-nut cake, liquid in-Aigo, wud sugar, all to be consumed by Chinese in the neighbourhood ut Canton sud Hongkong. The trade is only onowxh to give a precarious living to one British merchant, and to a German, who has lately aturted in business. 'I'he native morchunte are dvalere on x emall scale. Che richer of them are agents fur the members of the Dinca Guild I cannot think that Hor Majesty's G vernment would consider these vats results sutticiont to compensate the expense of establishing " Consulate, and stationing 8 man-of-war here from time to time, were it not that they look on Pakhoi as at outpost whence British reade may advance into the large and undeveloped districts of south-west China. In my Report on the Trade of Palshoi in 1884, L have fully detailed the obstacles, natural and artificial, against the proposed advance. These hi dronees are capable of being diminished by the action of the authorities. Lhe want of good water communication may be overcome by the construction of a railway or good macadamized roads, and thy burden. sume and unequal duties now in force be changed for " light and equitable tariff, and the transit pass clauses of the Treaty of Tientsin may be carried out la an honest and liberal spirit, Until there things are done, Pakhoi cannot be a place of any ime portance, and if these are not only not done, but there is w port opened close bj whence communication with Kwangsi an Yunnan may be had, and whence a rail way will carry goods safely into the i torium, ata moderate rate of freight, Pal hoi must either be content to remain at a! level even lower than its present level, or it must make a start in rivalry.
The question of taxation is the most important point, The route on which dues are the lightest will infallibly carry away trade from the others, Kuei-lin, for instance, takes goods under transit pass from Hankow, though to reach the city on that route these goods have to traverse 2,0 0 miles more than they would have vid Canton or Paklvi, but the likin and barrier dues on the two latter rondo stop the transit The daties to be levied on goods passing through Aunam and imported or exported across the frontiers of Yunnan or Kwangsi are of course not yet announced, nur can ive those now in force on gonds carried ud from Pakhoi with the accuracy that could wish. Suffice it to say that after an import duty and di-riu of 14 per cent, ad valorem at Pakhoi, are liable to a fresh charge at every station and and bacrier prosed in transit, show the universality and the oppressiveness of these dues, I may state that when the inhabitants of Pakhoi fled out of the town to Lieu-chou on approach of the French blockade squadron, taking with them their goods and chattola, likin was charged on ull their possessions by the Lieu-chou authorities, Uhave tried in vain to get an exhaustive list of all the stati bat neither the Custom-house officials nor the foreign merchants know all their names, and if the native merchants know, in spite of their professions of ixuorauce, they will not tell mo. Their reticence is accounted for by the fact that carriers of gonds try to lip round evade these taxing places, Mr. Horton gites me the only trustworthy plyes of intelligence that [can obtain, On a consignment of yarn, shictings, and newelles, value sent to" Yunnan Fu, he paid the following charges Import and tr Dues charged at Coolie and boat-bir Interest for five month From likin dues being charged at Yunnan alone, L have no doubt that the meu charge of the youds evaded every station en route, Next comes the s, uestion of freight and charges, The expense of porterage and boat hire between this and Yiuuen is, 0 the Chinese assure we, as much ae 15 fuels wr picul, may £45 por ton dond weight. The amount paid by Mr. Horton gors to show that this is scarcely an exaggeration. Phe journey from Pakhui to Yunnan Fu occupies furry-six days. The custom of the trade is to pay, not in cash, but in native opium, which is sold at Kao-Chow, whence the cash is wt last remitted. Thus the Pakhoi merchant is kept out ut his money for four or five mouths. Interest at the rate of L per cent. " month will cause " deduetion of five per cout. from the profits. Add es the heavy and uncertain dues, and the only conclusion to which a reasonablegnan can come is that no route ever had " better chance of success than projected one thro king into the south-west provinces, always provided that the new Treaty is honestly carried out, and that the reduction in taxation and not nominal.
Teonclude, therefore, that if th main as they are at Pakhoi, and the Tung-king railway is built, this port may as well be closed; but, ne l'said before, vue commercial condition may be improved, either by the construction of w rival railway, by the reduction of taxation, or, what the same thing, the issue of transit passes, which the inland authorities will respect. We have been so xccnstomed to look on railway enterprise in China as that the idea of constructing a railway from this seems about as hopeful as the scheme of flooding the Sahara. A short time ago I was assured most positively that the High Provincial Authorities had the construction of a railroad in contemplation here. I pouhpouhed the motion, but he became all the more persistent, and begged me to report it to you, I wrote the draft of a despatch cluing 80, but before sending it Lwent to call on hie succeeaur, Wu Weiyuan, and found Hea Weiyuau with him. I broached the subject of but Hsii had by this time changed and merely said that it would be " very good thing for Pakhoi if one could be male, but that he was too small an otticial to "make any positive statement. may be that he was afraid to speak vit in the presence of his colleague, who protested niter ignorance of the matter butt inned ae in the view that his former assertion was merely romance, and sv I tore up the Report which I lid prepared. Lu vivid. ually, I have no expectation of a railway, though I would thankfully be disappointed, The abatement of charges on exports and imports, especially on the tatter, is a more hopeful business, Br, Horton ase sures me that though only three inward passes were issued by the Customs last year, yet the report that the likin authorities "bad been called on to make good his claims (although he las not yet received the money) will cause transit passes in future to be valid, and that when this is once effected, yarn and 'L-cloths, and mateies, will yo up country in quantities, M,. Shonburg, tuo, his only rival, a German, lias started in busine on August 1, with the express inten sot profiting by this improved atate of affairs. Practically, there are only two roads out of Pakhui; ous vid Li chow to Yiblin, the other to Nun-ni which may be reached in tio ways, ya Lieu-chou, Ling Shan-hsien and the West Liver, or by crossing the bay to Chfiu-chou, and then going direct to Nai i by latter is rather shorter, but the more expensive route, 'The' Yulin roud is comparatively unimportant, Cuasin and aniceed come down that way, but Ya-lin iv a complete terminus for imports, us Benn-chen Fu and Wu-chen Fu, the next districts, are supplied from Canton, and the country further uorth—Kuei Lin Fu, the provincial capital—divides its trade be, tween Canton and the Yang-tav ports, Nat ning, on the other haud, instead of being a terminus, is " distributing contre, Lee merotauts come or send to Pakhoi on on ide, and trady with Yunnan on the other.
he route from Nanning onwards is up the wu Cutan, past Lai Ping Fv. T have 4 list of halting places between Pakhoi and Yunnan Fu, but none of them are tu be identitied by Mr. Pitie's Map. They are doubtless the smallest hamlets, chosen in order to avoid li-kin statiuus and custome barriers.
Lhe Yi-lin road need not be considered.
his road trends eastward, and such as it belongs tu Pakhoi, and nothing can interfere with it, The route to Nanning and on to Yunnan is on a different footing, for a road into Yunnan from Ha-lung Bay, if It can be made as the crow five, would be only half or two-thirds of the distances from Pakhoi to the same place. The ph, sical difficulties know little of, except that the country traversed by M. Aumuitte seemed by no mears well calculated for railway cvustruction. If M. Dutreuil de Rhin's map, published under thy authority of Admiral Jauréguiberry, may be trusted (it is most incorrect on the China side) there is alrendy " road running from the cost up to Lanysun, interrupted by no largo rivers or mountain ranges, and fle lowing the course of the River Tam, A road, rail, or otherwise could apparently be made on this line, reaching the Yunnan frontier, and branching off at intervals to the Kwangsi boundaries. Of course the most natural and directest way Into Yunnan the Song Koi or Red River, but I fail to cee how this can be combined with road to Kwangsi, which has no river communication with Tongking.
The question of the cvasting trade may be of great importance, As it is, " large proportion of the coasting trade between this and Hongkong and Macao is done by juuke, which pay duty at the native Cus. tumrhouse, avd are granted @ discount
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