Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/671

 TRADE AND COMMERCE.

6 35

a total of 117,525,268 taels, or 83*8 per cent, of the whole com- merce of China, and leaving only 16-2 per cent, for all the other foreign nations. Among the latter the United States take the first rank, with a trade, in 1868, of 7,416,069 taels, or 53 per cent, of the commerce of China.

The first attempt on the part of Great Britain to open a trade with China was made in 1637, when four merchant vessels arrived at Macao; but through the intrigues of the Portuguese there established, the enterprise failed. Afterwards the East India Company carried on a small traffic at the different maritime ports, and chiefly at Canton. In 1792, Lord Macartney's embassy attempted to put the trade on a more liberal basis, but with little success. In 1816, Lord Amherst's mission for a similar purpose also failed, though the English trade continued for the next twenty years. In 1834 the exclusive trade of the East India Company with China terminated, and the country was thrown open to general traders. The opening thus made was followed by a commercial treaty, signed on August 29, 1842, by the plenipotentaries of the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China, by the terms of which five ports of the empire were opened to European trade. The five ports comprised those of Canton, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, Ningpo, and Shanghae. To these five ports were subsequently added nine others — namely, Swatow, Tientsin, Che-foo, Hankow, Kiu-kiang, Chin-kiang, Newchwang, Takow, and Tamsuy.

The relative importance of these fourteen gates of Chinese com- merce is shown in the following table, which gives the total value of the imports and exports of each, during the years 1867 and 1868 :

Ports

1867

1868

Imports and Exports

Total Commerce

Imports and Exports

Total Commerce

Shanghae : —

Foreign imports. Chinese imports. Exports

Hankow : —

Foreign imports. Chinese imports. Exports

Canton : —

Foreign imports. Chinese imports. Exports

Foo-chow : —

Foreign imports. Chinese imports. Exports

Taels

12,872,525

5,626,675

19,593,901

Taels 38,093,101

30,537,026

24,296,136

23,457,792

Taels

12,454,880

6,657,875

27,710,516

9,852,797

5,135,817

15,481,567

Taels 46,823,271

30,470,181

23,460,665

22,338,997

10,294,656

7,836,038

12,406,332

7,812,994

2,695,971

13,787,171

6,946,711

2,672,838

13,841,116

4,027,118

3,850,718

15,579,956

3,902,691

2,318,576

16,117,730