Some interesting notes on a little-known commercial entrepot in the north-west of Siam are to be found in Mr. Consul W. R. D. Beckett's "Report on the 'T'rade and Commerce of the Consular District of Chiengmai (or Zimmé) fur the Year 1900," just published by the Foreign Office as a blue-book, "Mr. Beckett begins by explaining that "the Consular district of Chiengmai comprises the whole of Northern Siam, which may be sharily described as a region composed of a succession of well elevated plains, ench plain being represented by a town surrounded by villages, and divided from the other plains by ranges of hills, varying from 1,600 to 4,000 feel. in altitude, over which run well-worn caravan paths, some fairly good in the dry weather, but all more or, less impassable in the rains. Along these routes are conveyed local exchanges of food-stuffs, etc, the trade with the British State of Kengtung on the north, and the more important trade between Yunnan and Moulmein, by way of Keng-tung and Chiengmai or Lalchon. No index is kept of this overland trade except such as passes the British frontier on the way to or from Moulmein. Even if the whole of this overland trade were registered, the total would be found to be insignificant, with little tendency under present conditions and with existing communication to increase. In fact the bulk of trate follows, as may expected, the line of least resistance, that is to say, along the water-ays."
Phe year 1900 was, we are told, a dull one for trade generally, teak excepted. The low rupee-tical exchange caused European goods to be so dear as to be beyond the means of the Tao peasants. The explanation of this dearness by a Chinese trader at Utaradit, a depot for Bangkok goods on the Nan, was "that no fewer than sixty foreign merchant vessels Jaden with merchandise had been captured on the high seas by the victorious Chinese in their war with all the Foreign Powers." Operations in teak do not make much difference to the mass of the people in the Chiengmai district, who are main agriculturists, What greatly militates against the expansion of trade is the irritating rule as to passports recently imposed by the Siamese authorities with the intention of checking dacoity. Mr. Beckett instances the trade in ca'tle, the export of which numbered 43,814 in 1898, and only 8,843 in 1900. He explains that "to obtain a passport the owner of the cattle is called upon to bring all the animals from their pasture into one of the towns, and attend at the local magistrate's office until a description of each animal has been recorded in the passport. This entails a delay of a week or ten days, or even more, according as the passport officer is busy or not. The fee collected is 8 atts (2d. for ench animal, and there are sundry small charges for ink, paper, &e. This tedious and expensive process is repeated at each town through which the cattle pass on their way to the Salween, It can thus be easily understood how all the drover's profits are speedily consumed in expenses connected with this dreaded operation of obtaining a passport. Cattle rearing on the abundant tures of Northern Siam might easily become a thriving industry. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Siamese authorities will, in their own interests, modify the present system, which, introduce! with the praiseworthy object of checking dacoity, is apeodily degenerating morely into a tax on the honest trader."
Mr, "Beckett gives a long explanation, which is of no deep general interest, of the way in which the teak is collected in the forests and floated down to tide water. The British capital invested in this industry is estimated at £2,000,000 sterling, and of the total trade 69 per cent is British, 5 per cent Danish, and 26 per cent Chinese and Siamese. The supply of teak, we read, must shortly be reduced, owing to the Siamese Government having decided to reduce the leased areas in the forests by one-half, and to prohibit all girdling. On the other hand, the wholesale spoliation of the forests by the felling of young trees for sale as house posts in the Bangkok market has been almost entirely stopped. As to imports generally, Mr. Bennett ays \ithore is a decrease to be recorded in every article of import, except Chinese and Japanese ware, which is an insignificant item. The high price of cottons and hardware made the Lao peasant shy of purchasing. The enunciation that under the policy of free trad", trade does not follow the flag but follows the lowest price current, is nowhere so applica able as to Northern Siam. The Lao and the Khamu will buy the cheapest article that suits their requirements, without regard to quality or the place of the article's origin. the markets of Chiengmai, Lakhon, &c, there are no fixed prices fur goods on sale; the price depends on the ability of the purchasers to bargain. If he cannot induce the seller to part with the article at the price he thinks he can afford, he keeps his money tied up for a more convenient season. Seeing that the rice harvest was talcly good there must bea considerable quantity of cash thus tied up.. The harvest of Rain has fallen so scantily that the price of rice has already gone up 50 per cent, All available cash will therefore be required to purchase this staple article of food."
The Yunnan traders who pass through Northern Siam on their way to Burma are rather hawkers than merchants. They start out from Yunnan with their pack mules loaded with salt, iron, opium, silk, and tea, selling goods' in one place and buying them in another according as they find it profitable, arriving ultimately at Mandalay or Moulmein, where they buy a stock of coloured yarn, silk and cotton prints, copper pots, spades, shovels, ete,, and repent the process of hawking' in a reverse direction until they find themselves back again in their homes in Yunnan and Talifu, Of the tea trade Mr. Beckett gives a very interesting account:—"The import of Kenghung tea to Chiengmai and Moulmein is a novel one, he Yunnanese purchase the tea, chiefly in circular bricks for convenience of pack transport, in the town of Kenghung, which is the centre ofa large tea-growing district, This tea brought south is of an inferior kind, being the older shoots of the "ming," or tea plant. Tis steamed like rice in copper pots, with a cloth over the mouth of the pot, and when sufficiently steamed is turned outend squeezed in the cloth till fairly dry, when it is ready forsake, The weight of one of these pudding-like bricks has been found to be 1 Ib, 12 ozs. The price in the Kenhung market is from 6d. to 10d. per chai (3} Ibs.); in Chiengenai, from 1} rs, (1s. 8d.) to 14 rs. (2s.); and in Moulmein from 2 rs. (2s. 8.) to 3 rs. (4s.) The tea is rather strong to European palates, but is appreciated by Burmese and Shans, who steep it in water before using. The best class of Kengchung tea does not come south, but is transported in cubes to the Yangtze, where it finds a better market. The medium class is taken by Talifu muleteers to Mandalay for Burmese consumption. This same '"ming"
rows wild on all the hills round hiengmai, anil there is a large local consumption of the leaf, not as a beverage but as a quid for chewing and eating. The leaf is picked in April, August, and November. After being picked it is at once steamed, and if it is to be kept for any length of time, either packed in bamboos or wrapped in a special kind of leaf and buried to exclude the air.
Before using, a few grains of salt are wrapped inside the leaf, and the quid is complete."
The King of Siam is gradually abolishing slavery in his dominions, and the redemption fee for existing slayes is now reduced to 25 rupees for a man and 82 rupees for a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.