Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/124

80 year,—a matter of no small import to the people of the premier commercial and manufacturing nation.

But if delay in transportation proves a hindrance to commerce, high freights still further exaggerate the difficulty, and the freight charges ruling on the Yang-tsze are excessively high. Let me give examples. The freight recently paid on a ton (measurement) of English grey shirting from Shanghai to Chung-k'ing was £5, 12s.—considerably more than double the freight paid on the same consignment from Manchester to Shanghai, and that on a picul (133½ lb.) of soda ash valued at 3 taels 55 cents at Shanghai, 1 tael 40 cents, or 40 per cent of its value. Again, "on a shipment of 600 boxes of soap the freight was Tls. 1225, and the insurance and other charges Tls. 486, making the cost of the consignment about 40 per cent of its original value"; and £1, 4s. was given me by a Chinese retail merchant as the cost of bringing a bale of cotton Italians from