The First Step
Suggested Is The Improvement Of Communication By Railways And Steam
Navigation.
So far as railways are concerned, Burmah should be connected
with Tali and Yunnanfoo, Yunnanfoo with Nanning, Canton with Kaulun.
This
would thoroughly open the whole of Southern China lying between Burmah and
the British colony of Hongkong. Yunnanfoo should also be connected to the
northeast with Suifoo on the upper Yangtse, the navigation limit of that
waterway. Steam navigation should at once be extended to Nanning and to
Suifoo, and also, wherever it may be practicable, throughout all inland
waters. Next in importance to the creation of proper communication is the
question of taxation. All travelers, in Southern China especially, dwell
on the obstacles to trade resulting from the collection of so many various
imposts. The British government should insist on its treaty rights,
especially the enforcement, successfully accomplished by the French
government, of the transit-pass system. It is, finally, the conviction of
all competent students of the subject that it is from Burmah, on the one
hand, and from Shanghai and Hongkong on the other, that England must, by
the aid of steam applied overland and by water, practically occupy the
upper Yangtse region, which will be found to be the key to a dominant
position in China.
In some comments on China's prospective commercial development Mr.
Colquhoun, the latest first-hand observer, sets forth some statistics
which are of interest not only to Englishmen but to Americans. He shows
that in 1896 the total net value of imports and of exports was
55,768,500 pounds, and the total gross value 57,274,000 pounds, of which
the British dominions contributed 39,271,000 pounds, leaving for all other
nations 18,003,000 pounds. Of this aggregate Russia contributed 2,856,000
pounds, the rest of Europe 4,585,000 pounds, Japan 4,705,000 pounds, and
other countries, including the United States, 5,767,000 pounds. The
percentage of the carrying trade of the Middle Kingdom under foreign flags
was: British, 82.04; German, 7.49; French, 2.00; Japanese, 1.34; Russian,
0.59; other countries, 5.54. The percentage of dues and duties paid under
foreign flags was as follows: British, 76.04; German, 10.12; French, 2.95;
Japanese, 2.28; Russian, 1.90; all other nations, 6.71. It appears, then,
that Great Britain not only carries eighty-two per cent of the total
foreign trade with China, but pays seventy-two per cent of the revenue
resulting from that trade. Until recently, British subjects were at
liberty to carry on business at but eighteen ports in China. They were
Newchwang, Tientsin, Chifui, on the northern coast; Chungking, Ichang,
Hankow, Kiukiang, Wehu, Chinkiang and Shanghai, on the Yangtse River;
Ningpo, Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Hoihow (Kiungchow) and
Pakhoy, on the coast south of the Yangtse. To these must be now added
Shansi on the Yangtse, between Ichang and Hankow; Hangchow and Souchow,
two inland cities near Shanghai; Woochow and Sanshui on the West River and
Ssumao and Lungchow, in the south. It is also reported that three other
ports have been very recently opened; viz., Yochow, on the Tungting Lake;
Chungwang, on the Gulf of Pechihli, and Funing in Fuhkien.
Let us now proceed to demonstrate how deeply the United States are
concerned in the China question from the industrial point of view.
Inasmuch as, owing to the fact that Americans now manufacture more than
they consume, they are compelled to embark on a foreign policy and to look
increasingly to foreign markets, they cannot but feel that the future of
the Middle Kingdom is a matter of vital importance to themselves. It is
manifest that the Pacific slope, though at present playing but a small
part, is destined to be more profoundly affected by the development of
China than is any other section of the American republic. Our Pacific
States are possessed of enormous natural resources; their manufactures
have quadrupled in twenty years, and will, in the course of time, find a
most advantageous market in the Far East. When the Nicaragua Canal shall
have been dug, the Atlantic States will also be brought into close
connection with China and with the rest of Eastern Asia. The volume of the
United States traffic with China already represented a considerable part
of the foreign trade of the empire in 1896. While the imports from China
received by the United States have increased but slowly, the exports from
the last-named country to the Middle Kingdom have increased 126 per cent
in ten years, and are more than fifty per cent greater than the exports of
Germany to the same market. The export of American cotton cloths to China
amounted to $7,485,000 in 1897, or nearly one-half the entire value of
cotton cloths sent abroad by the United States. The export of kerosene oil
from the States to China now ranks second in importance to that of cotton
goods, and is likely to increase at a rapid rate. The Chinese demand for
the illuminating fluid is quickly growing, and the delivery of it from the
United States to China has more than trebled in value during the past ten
years. That is to say, it has risen from $1,466,000 in 1888 to $4,498,000
in 1897. The Russian oil has hitherto been the only serious foreign
competitor of the American product, but the Langkat oil is coming to some
extent into use. The exports of American wheat flour to China reached a
value in 1897 of $3,390,000, and those of chemicals, dyes, etc.,
$1,000,000. At present, the export trade of the United States to China is
confined mainly to cottons and mineral oils; that is to say, it is largely
restricted to commodities which would be hard to sell in any Chinese port
where the conditions of equal trade did not prevail. It would probably
prove impossible to sell them in any Asiatic port controlled by Russia or
by France.
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Words from 186624 to 187636
of 191255
