26th Oct.
In Mr. T. F. Hughes's most interesting report on the trade of Wuhu in 1897 are several paragraphs deserving close. attention" Mu. Hughes begins by saying that 1897 was on the whole a prosperous year, though excessive rains and inundations injured the. crops in some districts. Wuhu, depending as it does on a cereal which itself depends on the weather, is subject to constant fluctuations and good years are naturally followed by less prosperous ones. These fluctuations apart, Wuhu has gone forward very fast; and its trade which. amounted to less than four million tdds in 1884, and less than six millions ten years ago, was worth neatly nine millions net in 1897. Of this.. the: British flag' contributed 69.6 per cent, the Chinese 26.52, the German 3.33, the Norwegian 0.48, and the American 0.07.
Mr. Hughes: shows how when one door is. closed against the rice of Wuhu another opens, and he mentions how. good the crop of wheat was and how large the export. Thence he passes; to the export of coal, as to which he says:—" 'I'he small quantity of native coal—793_ tons—which figures in our returns represents all that. is now left. of the Chihchou mines, started 20 years ago with such lofty pretensions and such promise of success, it being supposed by many at that time that they were going to have here' in Central China, on the banks of the Yangtze,, coal mines likely: to excel in every way the then rising mines of Kaiping in the North. 'Phe principal shaft at Chihchou is now exhausted and shut up, and the poor scrapings from other parts of the-mine which still make their way here in diminishing quantities find it hard fo compete' for local use among the poorest householders with the wretched substitute for coal obtained from the old Fanchang mines in our immediate neighbourhood."
From'céal Mr. Hughes passes to raw silk, in which there was an increase, though the silk piece goods export has become extinct. Thence he goes tea, as to which he.says:—*Tea also.a gradually diminishing quantity as an export from -Wuhu, the total annual shipment having fallen from the 2,000 odd piculs of a few years, igo to 274 piculs of black tea and.245 piculs of green tea in 1897. As there is no apparent local reason for this falling off; it thay probably "be assumed that the deficiency here only represents our modest proportion of the general decay. in the export of the heavily taxed China tea in face of the-increasing demand abroad for the untaxed, and therefore cheaper, teas of other countries."
Mr. Hughes mentions. the import of 1,178 piculs of Shanghiai cotton vara, which was very favourably received, and the trade in which promised to become a large one. English yarn had almost disappeared, Indiai-had fallen off, but there had been a marked increase in Japan yarn.
The rapid decrease in the importation of Indian opium is noted, and it is to a great extent explained by what Mr. Hughes says about native opium, the paragraph relating to which is worth quoting in full:—"Our returns give hardly any indication as to the modern development of Chinese opium in this district. They show, indeed, that the legitimate import of Szechuan opium through our office has risen from 6 piculs in 1893 to 776 piculs in 1897; but, they are naturally silent as to the amount brought down from the West by native boats and by smugglers and as to the extent of the Anhui opium cultivation and the quantities of the local product consumed on the spot or sent as merchandise into the conterminous provinces. With regard to Szechuan opium, it is generally believed that at least as much again—some say twice as much—arrives here, openly or clandestinely, as the amount passed through our office; and as to the opium produced in the province, there is ample evidence of the vast and yearly increasing extent of land under opium cultivation. A few years ago native opium was produced Tore or less surreptitiously—it was a discredited crop; now official regulations have made its cultivation legal, and it is grown openly and without restraint. Indeed, from the lenient way in which the comparatively light taxation on native opium is in many places now levied, it would almost seem as if the production was encouraged rather than restrained, and it would not be surprising if, with the light taxation on native opium and the recently increased imposts on rice, a tendency were to show itself before long among the Anhui farmers to grow more opium and tess rice"
Mr. Hughes' report is one of the The last aph, however,
most important, and it would bea great pity if it were left unnoticed among the mass of valuable commercial information which the annual volume of trade reports issued by the Customs contains. Mr. Hughes says:—'"TIt seems like a ran of the ally "characterise the foreign mer-energy and enterprise which gener-
chant in China to find the greatly extended business of this port still conducted through the clumsy agency of hulks in mid-stream, whilst the place marked out for the use of foreigners when the port was opened, with its deep-water frontage and its facilities for wharves with adjoining godowns, offices, dwellings, etc., is given over to raftsman and poor squatters. Difficulties such as have been often experienced elsewhere, and were ultimately overcome, are no doubt to be met with in the procuring of the necessary sites; but with resolution and perseverance success could be equally accomplished here, and with results which would richly repay the merchants and would as certainly lead to a greatly enlarged development of the Wuhu trade." With three or four English companies running steamers on the Yangtze, and the known enterprise and energy of their managers, it seems hard to understand why the improvements indicated. by Mr. Hughes have not been taken in hand. 'The low water season is coming on again, the time when the work required should be undertaken, and it will be a-reproach to the English companies interested, if the China Merchants' S. N. Ca., or the Japanese, or some rich Chinaman with an appreciation of the situation, should step in_and-wrest the prize from them. If the help of the British Minister is necessary to get the preliminary arrangements carried through, it will of course be available, but it will be a pity if the greatly extended business of Wuhu is left to be conducted as Mr. Hughes says, through the clumsy agency of hulks in mid-stream.
While we are considering possible improvements on the Yangtze and the call they make on the energy and enterprise of British merchants and shipowners, we may also draw attention to the letter which we published yesterday from our valued correspondent at Nganlufu in the great river Han which joins the province of Hupeh. Referring to the Yangtze at Hankow, he says:—"Ever since the news reached us that the inland waters of China were to be opened to steam navigation we have been hoping hear of some enterprising British or other firm starting a line of steamers up this Han River. This river is the great highway to many arts of Honan, to Shensi, and to the North-west. The large numbers of native boats continually going up and down full of cargo, "are proof of the great trade between Hankow and the higher parts of the River. This trade would, if steam navigation were established, soon be very largely. increased, and the numerous towns and marts found at frequent intervals along its course would ensure a large native passenger traffic. We trust that in the near future shallow-draught steamers will be running up to Fancheng or Lachokou and that one or other of these two busy towns will be made into a Port for international commerce. In this way foreign products may be brought within easy reach of the vast populations living in these parts." We trust that the local steamship/companies or other shipowners are preparing, wherever
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.