Newfoundland to Cochin China

"Steel is everywhere manufactured in a rude way, but the foreign importation is gradually supplying a better article."

Importation of Metals

25.—This is illustrated by the importation, in 1890, of 242,000 taels (60,500l.) worth of steel, besides 800,000 taels worth of iron sheets, plates, bars, hoops, nail rod, pig and old iron, and 500,000 taels worth of copper bars, nails, wire, &c.,—a purchase exceeding 400,000l.,—the greater part of which was from the United Kingdom.

The Statistical Secretary of the Imperial Maritime Customs states that "iron of all kinds maintained, in 1890, a steady consumption of 1,100,000 piculs (each picul equals 133-1/2 lbs.), and steel rose from 39,000 to 56,000 piculs,—an increase of 43 per cent.,—although it is noticeable that the import is very variable from year to year."

The Commissioner at Newchwang states that "importations of metals advanced to the enormous extent of 113 per cent. over 1889—the most conspicuous being nail rod;" while his colleague at Tientsin speaks of "the increasing demand for manufactured iron nails, which are cheaper and better than those made by native blacksmiths;" and Chin-kiang states, from the Central Provinces—"For iron of all kinds, 1890 totals have not been equalled."

Sheffield Enterprise

26.—The enterprise of Sheffield has not been behindhand. In 1843, after the Northern ports had been opened, a Times correspondent reported "that an eminent Sheffield firm sent out a large consignment of knives and forks, and declared themselves prepared to supply all China with cutlery. The Chinamen, who knew not the use of knives and forks (or, as they say, abandoned the use of them when they became civilized), but toss the rice into their mouths with chopsticks, would not look at these best balanced knives. They were sold at prices which scarcely realized their freight, and shops were for years afterwards adorned with them, formed into devices, like guns in an armoury."

A somewhat similar fate has attended the efforts of another prominent, but younger firm, whose dust-covered sample cards were shown me in Shanghai.

Although in 1885 Germany sent a considerable quantity of cutlery to Tientsin, Chefoo, and elsewhere, Sheffield evidently meets the demand of foreign residents as regards table articles, for some of our leading names are present at every meal.

Demand for Razors

27.—The demand for razors is, however, enormous. It is stated that, having regard to the artificially caused excess of the male population, some 180 or 200 millions of men have their heads and faces "painfully" shaved once a week by a razor of the rude specimen I am sending, with others, to the Cutlers' Hall, and which cost about 5 cents, or 2½d. Three-quarters of a Chinaman's head is always kept closely shaved, and custom prohibits either whiskers or beards, and even moustaches, unless before then a grandfather!

At Canton, a well-known Hallamshire trade-mark is reported as selling freely on razors at 20 cents. But in other places, more removed from British example, I was assured that it is quite hopeless to induce Chinese barbers to adopt the Sheffield shapes, unless they wish to empty their crowded shops. For the Sheffield-made Chinese pattern, however, a vast demand might possibly be brought about by careful agents, if only it can be done at the low price the Chinese are willing to pay.

Demand for Large Forgings

28.—There is already a considerable request for large forgings, and the arsenals under the control of Englishmen are steadfast believers in the undoubted superiority of English manufacture. But all agree that it is nothing compared to what will come when China really begins to go ahead, and to open up for her people the vast wealth of the Empire. The representatives of Messrs. Krupp and of M. Creuzot are very vigilant, active, and skilful.

Adoption of Metrical Measurement

29.—In connection with this matter, it is important to mention that a recommendation is about to go forward from a high authority, to whom attention is paid, that China should adopt, as Japan has already done, the metrical system of measurement of France and Germany. Unless this is fully realized, there may be a loss of valuable business, for although there are measures which render feet and inches in mètres and millimètres with the utmost nicety, foreigners contend that there is sometimes an inevitable plus or minus, which upsets calculations.

Want of Uniform Monetary Standard

30.—In the same direction, too, it may not be amiss to give expression to the general mercantile complaint of the absence of a uniform and international decimal monetary system. Not only are many firms ruined by unexpected and often unaccountable fluctuations of exchange between the 29 principal currencies of the world, but the clerical labour involved, not to speak of constant misunderstandings, is stated to be most prejudicial.

This can be appreciated when it is considered that trade in the East is conducted in rupees, piastres, Mexican and American dollars, Japanese yen, silver shoes, shapes, and bars; Haikwan, Shanghai, and Tientsin taels—the latter unrepresented by coins or notes, and all varying in value from day to day. The Shanghai tael, for instance, which was worth 4s. 3⅛d., on February 28th, 1890, rose to 5s. 3⅛d., by September 5th,—a difference of 23 per cent.,—and fell back again 13 per cent. in the next two months. The rupee, too, worth 2s. at par, was at a discount of eightpence in 1889, but early in 1890 all but touched 1s. 9d., until, in November, it fell to 1s. 5½d.—each penny of fall occasioning not only great loss to individuals, but it is calculated many thousand lacs of rupees to the Indian Government.

It is difficult to say which decimal system has the most advocates,—probably dollars and cents,—but all agree that pounds, shillings and pence, and English coins on which the value is not stated, entail more trouble than any standard.

Cotton Goods

31.—The vast present and the enormous future interest Lancashire has in China, as also the British capitalist in India, is shown by the Imperial customs report for 1890. It runs thus:—"Cotton goods bounded upwards in value from 36 million taels in 1889, to 45 millions (say 11,000,000l.) in 1890—an increase of 25 per cent. Cotton goods of nearly every texture were infected with the general contagion of increase, and expanding in quantity and value, while cotton yarn, and more particularly that from India, poured into China in a higher ratio of increase than ever heretofore, having risen from 108,000 piculs in 1878, to over a million piculs in 1890, representing 19⅓ millions of taels (say nearly 5,000,000l.), or 50 per cent. more than in the previous year."

It is not necessary to add anything to this authoritative statement, unless it be that the French efforts to force their "cotonnade" upon the Annamites, by prohibitory duties upon all foreign goods in Indo-China, are unavailing, and that the prospect before Manchester is unlimited so soon as the South-West of China is opened from Burmah. It is tempered only by the establishment of mills to turn Chinese-grown cotton into yarn.

Wollens

32.—In woollen goods there was, in 1890, an importation of 3½ million taels worth—a slight falling off compared with the previous year, mainly in English camlets and lastings.

Export of Silk

33.—Nothing, perhaps, more eloquently exhibits the importance of China as a commercial factor in the world, and the necessity of foreign trade to her people, than the silk industry, which employs many tens of thousands of persons. Fifty years ago not a bale was exported, at least to England; but last year over 30¼ million taels' worth were sent abroad. Even that large quantity showed a falling away, owing to transient circumstances, of 16 per cent. over the previous year.

The Tea Trade

34.—The staple export of China, and the one with which the Celestial Empire is most closely identified in the popular mind, is, of course, her tea.

In 1670, eighty pounds of China tea were exported into England, and, despite export duties, varying in China and in the United Kingdom from 400 per cent. on the productive cost to 100 per cent. at the present time, the trade increased to 108 million pounds in 1880.

India Tea

35.—Since then there has, however, been a serious decline, increasing so much, from year to year, as to jeopardize the entire industry. This is declared to be mainly owing to the fortuitous development of tea-planting in India and Ceylon, and to the preference shown by the English consumer for tea of British growth.

Twelve months after the Queen's accession, 400 lbs. of Indian tea were sent to England as an experiment. In 1890 the consignment was over 100,000,000 lbs., and Ceylon sent nearly half as much. The effect has been that, while, in 1865, out of every 100 lbs. of tea sold in England 97 lbs. were Chinese and only 3 lbs. Indian, in 1890 the Chinese proportion had fallen by about 50 per cent., and the cost to the British tea drinker was also in like degree reduced.

One reason put forward by the experts, consulted by the Maritime Customs, is that "a good stout tea, that will stand several waterings, is what suits the mass of English consumers, and this India provides much better than China." The English merchants at Shanghai and Foochow affirm, however, that this greater strength is purchased by the retention of deleterious properties.

Apathy of the Chinese

36.—It is in vain that the attention of Chinese cultivators has been called to the condition of the tea industry by all concerned. Moreover, four years ago, the Inspector-General of Customs thus addressed the Imperial authorities:—

"To a government, its people's industries must be of higher importance than revenue. I would, therefore, advise that taxes be remitted, in order that industries may be preserved. Think for the people, and forego revenue. Export duties ought to be light, in order that the surplus production of a people may go for sale elsewhere. Import duties, on the contrary, are the duties which ought to be retained; but the use to be made of each commodity ought to be well weighed. If it is something people cannot do without, it ought to be exempt from duty; but if it is a luxury, it ought to be heavily taxed. On the right application of these principles depend the nation's wealth, and the people's too."

Nothing whatever has been done. From Foochow the export has declined by one-half in ten years, and deprived the revenue of a million taels a year, and the people of five million taels in wages. The opinion is indeed general "that the gradual extinction of the China tea trade is practically assured, unless something retards Indian and Ceylon production, or drastic measures are adopted."

The "Shanli," or hill tax; the "Likin," or war tax, and the export duty, are all maintained intact, and the unfortunate Chinese growers have to compete with the untaxed tea of India and Ceylon. What distress is likely soon to ensue may be gathered from the fact that the production of one-half only of the output of the Assam Company, with its few hundred employés, affords the main sustenance of 4500 Chinese families, or, say, about 20,000 persons. They are themselves, moreover, so apprehensive that the introduction of the machinery in vogue in India and Ceylon will diminish employment that the Government has not felt itself strong enough to protect its use.

Foreign Opium Traffic

37.—The opium question excites much interest in England. Some philanthropists have feared that the revenue of over 5,000,000l. a year, derived by the Indian Government from the licensed and carefully-restricted cultivation of the raw material of the valuable drug, is in major degree responsible for the reported influence upon the Chinese of opium smoking. They may be somewhat reassured by the result of a careful European inquiry, officially instituted throughout the Empire. It shows that imported opium is only smoked by the affluent, the luxurious, and well-to-do, or, at most, by one-third of one per cent. of the population; that is, by about three per thousand.

The annual importation used to amount to an average of 100,000 chests, yielding, for smoking, about 4000 tons of boiled opium. They cost the consumers upwards of 17,000,000l., of which 3,000,000l. went to the Chinese revenue. But it is a rapidly declining element in Chinese finances, and the deficit may, before long, have to be made up by increasing the duties upon other imports.

Native Opium

38.—Native opium was known, produced, and used in China long before any Europeans began the sale of the foreign drug. The records of the 10th century prove this; and opium figures as an item in the tariff of 1589, and again in a customs list of the 17th century. Hundreds of square miles are devoted to the cultivation of the poppy, which, according to the late Dr. Williams, "is now grown in every province, without any real restraint being anywhere put on it." Native opium sells for half the price of the foreign article, and its smokers are consequently more numerous among the people and younger practitioners (i.e., those from 25 to 35 years of age). It is, in short, say the latest reports, "forcing foreign opium out of consumption with triple energy."

Number of Opium Smokers

39.—The best authorities concur that the whole of the smokers, of either foreign or native opium, do not exceed two-thirds of one per cent. of the population, or adding a margin, say, seven per thousand (Replies to Circular No. 64, Second Series, Inspectorate General of Customs)—a state of affairs which is corroborated from the great town of Tientsin, with its million of inhabitants. The Commissioner of Customs reports "that but little opium is consumed, owing to the growing influence of Abstention Societies, the 40,000 members of which neither smoke the drug or tobacco, nor drink liquors of any kind."

Effect of Opium-smoking

40.—The effect of opium-smoking, injurious and wasting of vital power though it may be, is certainly not apparent to the ordinary traveller; and the American clergyman, whose work on China, founded on the experience of a life-time, aided by keenest judgment, has been adopted by every foreign legation as the Text Book for aspiring Consuls, thus records his opinion:—

"A dose of opium does not produce the intoxication of ardent spirits, and, so far as the peace of the community and his family are concerned, the smoker is less troublesome than the drunkard. The former never throws the chairs and tables about the room, or drives his wife out of doors in his furious rage; he never goes reeling through the streets or takes lodgings in the gutter, but, contrariwise, he is quiet and pleasant, and fretful only when the effects of the pipe are gone."

Missionary Work in China

41.—The missionary work of endeavouring to reclaim China from the faith which was first introduced 65 years before Christ, and whereof the leading principles are stated as the worship of ancestors and of sky and earth, has become, during the last 30 years, of political as well as of religious importance, for it constantly gives rise, and has done so very lately, to serious international difficulties.

Although there are many who regard the missionaries as doing valuable secular service in accustoming the native population in remote districts to the sight of European faces, and in prompting inquiry as to the source of their evenly balanced and steady lives, constituting them thus as pioneers of trade, it is undoubted that the great majority of foreign residents are openly sceptical as to the fertility of the missionary field. They are especially apprehensive of the effect when the ground is tilled by fragile mothers and young ladies in the teeth of deep and apparently ineradicable prejudice against the public work of women, and particularly in conjunction with the opposite sex, for as an incendiary proclamation, calling on Wuhu "to chase out all the barbarian thieves," ran, "This breach of morality and custom is in itself a violation of the fixed laws of the State."

Roman Catholic Missionaries

42.—The first missionary labourers were the Italian Jesuits. They came to China three centuries ago, and by toleration some of the least objectionable tenets of Buddhism, and a malicious employment of their European learning, obtained such imperial favour as to be put at the head of the Astronomical Board, and to be employed to build the celebrated summer palace. There seemed, indeed, every possibility, at one time, of the wholesale conversion of the Chinese to the Roman Catholic Church, termed by the Emperor, K'anghi, "the Sect of the Lord of the Sky." But then came Christian dissension, and following it soon, as in Japan, their persecution, slaughter, and expulsion.

Now the Church of Rome is stated to have, in China, 60 Bishops or Vicars Apostolic, some 600 European Priests (of whom 65 per cent. are French), and about 400 Chinese clergy. It claims, also, close upon 700,000 adherents (in Japan the proportion is one in every 905 persons)—a calculation which should, however, be read probably in conjunction with the officially published fact, that of 13,684 baptisms in the metropolitan diocese between August 15th, 1891, and August 14th, 1891, 11,583 were "baptismi puerorum infidelium in articulo mortis."

At the same time recognition should be given to the general respect entertained by foreigners of opposing Christian creeds for the life-long devotion to their task, on the slenderest stipend, of the Roman priesthood. Their success as to numbers is also said to be much aided by their care of the mundane interests of the converted, who, loath to continue subscribing to family memorial halls for communication with ancestors, and to extravagant funeral rites, if not also to that support of aged parents which is obligatory on Chinese Buddhists, are shunned by their kindred, and often find private employment, even in foreign families, as impossible to obtain as a public office.

Protestant Missions

43.—Nor have the Protestant Churches, although later in the field, been backward in sending out representatives. A considerable proportion of the thirteen hundred thousand pounds, which is on an average annually subscribed in the United Kingdom for the support of Foreign Missions, goes from "Darkest England" to China. The United States are even more liberal, and school buildings have been erected by Americans, on an extensive scale, in many places.

Forty-one Protestant Societies were represented in 1890, by 589 men, 391 wives, and 316 single ladies,—a total of 1296 persons, of whom 724 were British, 513 American, and 59 Continental,—assisted by 1660 natives. These numbers may now be slightly larger.

As regards persuasions, 7 per cent. of the Protestant Missions belong to the Church of England, 20 per cent. are Presbyterian, 14 per cent. Methodist, 12 per cent. Congregational, 9 per cent. Baptist, and the larger number, or 38 per cent., unclassified.

There are upwards of 550 Protestant Churches, distributing, in 1889, 700,000 Bibles and 1,200,000 tracts, and over 60 hospitals and 50 dispensaries.

The result of the work since 1842, reported to the Protestant Conference, held in 1890, was, in round numbers, 37,300 communicants (of whom over two-thirds are stated to be Nonconformists), or about one in ten thousand of the population; 19,800 pupils; while 348,000 persons were returned as having received medical aid, or at least to have visited a missionary dispensary—a work which is acknowledged by all to be of the utmost value, to be of real national benefit, and to be appreciated by the people. It is much encouraged by the Rev. Hudson Taylor, himself a surgeon and native of Barnsley, who from Shanghai directs, with great tact, the undenominational China Inland Mission, the members of which adopt, like the Roman Catholics, the Chinese costume, and, like them, are smally remunerated, the expenses of the Mission, exceeding £38,000 a year, being met by unsolicited contributions.

The Recent Disturbances

44.—The disturbances on the Yangtze in 1891, like those at Tientsin in 1870, had for ostensible cause the fixed popular suspicion that the succour of foundlings by the Roman Catholic sisterhoods is for nefarious medicinal purposes. Many of the female children, purposely exposed to die, are necessarily, as indeed in Europe, in a moribund condition when brought in, and the mortality is very high. This is confirmed by the baptismal figures above quoted. The freedom of access, anywhere and to anybody, which is inseparable from Chinese life, and is tolerated, however disagreeable, by the most experienced missionaries, has also sometimes been attended, it is alleged, with difficulty, especially from native converts, and irritation has resulted.

The facts disclosed in the British Parliamentary Paper (C. 6431) appear to be that, on May 9th, 1891, two Chinese nuns were visiting a sick family at Wuhsueh, on the river Yangtze. As the disease of the parents was infectious, they removed the children. On the way to the Mission they met a relation, who demanded their restoration. This being refused, the nuns were taken before a magistrate, who, however, on the requisition of the fathers, immediately released them.

This excited much popular agitation, and three days afterwards, a woman came to the Mission to claim a child alleged to have died therein. As she was accompanied by a small crowd, which assembles in the narrow teeming streets of China on the slightest pretext, admission was apparently refused. Then commenced the work of destruction, costing two Englishmen, who gallantly went from some distance to render help, their lives, and imperilling many others, not only in the locality itself, but, later on, elsewhere on the river. Much foreign property was destroyed, and a very serious state of affairs seemed likely to supervene, for, as The Times recently wrote, and experience has often shown, "Native feelings of hostility, once roused against the white man and whetted by the intoxication of success, cannot be expected to take account of an imaginary dividing line between two spheres."

Anti-Foreign Feeling

45.—In attributing the outbreak to Chinese hatred of the foreigner, two observations appear in this instance to claim consideration. The first is by Mr. Consul Gardner, in his despatch of June 9:—

"The mob was composed of many hostile from mere ignorance, many from the force of contagion, some from fear of others, a few really friendly, who, like the soldiers, led a lady to a place of safety under pretence of robbing her of a ring, and others who sheltered them from blows, while very few deliberately meant mischief."

The other is by the Rev. David Hill, a Wesleyan missionary of much experience, who was officially employed to inquire into the facts. Under date June 12th. 1891, he writes:—

"One thing which the sight of the house impressed on me was the evidence which it gave of the hold on the people's mind which the rumours as to the destruction of infant life have gained. On the upper story, the ceiling had been inspected by means of a ladder, which evidently had been brought up for the purpose. On the ground floor the boards of one of the rooms had been fired, and a large aperture made. Below the ground floor the ventilators outside had been torn open, as though search had been made for missing infants, and, of course, the lath and plaster walls in all the rooms where they might be found were pierced."

This latter view is confirmed by the Rev. Father de Quellec, who, writing in the Missions Catholiques, describes how, at another place, on the night of May 23rd, a dead child, from whom the eyes had been removed, was placed on vacant land near the Mission. A crowd assembling next morning, cried out, "It is the European devil who has torn out the eyes and heart of this child!" The house was stormed, but fortunately a magistrate arrived with troops more under command than is usual in China, and the mob was dispersed. "But," adds the Father, "eight out of ten believe that we take out the eyes and store them in the cellars of the Mission."

It is contended that, under such antagonistic circumstances, rescue work should be guided by the greatest care, for otherwise its use, to the prejudice of both missionary efforts and European trade, by reactionaries, is inevitable. Their sinister influence, once asserted, may at any moment call into fatally destructive play, as indeed recently, the anti-foreign feeling entertained by a large proportion of the Chinese.