Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/846

 724 CHINA

beans, are chiefly cultivated in the north, and rice in the south. Sugar, indigo, and cotton are cultivated in the south provinces. The area of cotton production is the basin of the middle and lower Yangtse, but the quantity produced cannot be estimated. At the end of 1910 there were stated to be 33 mills in China, of wdiich half were at Shanghai, with a total of 903,416 spindles and 3,805 looms, and their annual output was given as 272,000.000 lbs. of yarn and 45,600,000 yards of sheetings and drills. Under the restrictive measures introduced in 1906 the cultivation of the opium poppy is being gradually contracted. Other decrees followed with the same purpose, and the anti-opium campaign culminated on May 8, 1911 in the signature of an agreement Avith the British Government whereby the import of Indian opium into China was to be reduced in the same proportion as the diminution of the cultivation of native opium, the importation and cultiva- tion to cease in 1917. A clause was inserted providing that Indian opium shall cease to be conveyed into any province which can show that it has effectively suppressed the cultivation and import of native opium. A further important concession to the desire of the Chinese Government to suppress opium was made by the British Government in the provision for ear-marking a restricted number of chests of Indian opium for shipment to China, the number of permits being limited in 1911 to 30,600 and progressively reduced by 5,100 in each successive year during the remaining six years. Tea is cul- tivated exclusively in the west and south, in Fu-Kien, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiang-si, Cheh-Kiang, Nganhwei, Kwangtung, and Szechwen. The expor- tation of tea (especially black leaf), Avhich fell off owing to the com- ])etition of Ceylon and Indian teas, has tended to increase in recent years. In 1911, 1,950,404,000 lbs. (valued at £5,161,300 were exported. The culture of silk is more important than that of tea. Silk culture in China, however, is not in a prosperous condition. Still 27 per cent, of the world's supply of raw silk is from China, the most serious rivals being Japan with 28 per cent, and Italy with 25 per cent. An important feature in the development of the Chinese industries is the erection of cotton and wool mills, and of filatures for winding silk from cocoons in Shanghai, Canton and elsewhere. At Shanghai a new cotton-spinning and weaving factory Avith 20,592 spindles, Avas opened by a Japanese company. It Avas reported that a total of 34 mills Avith 932,506 spindles and 4,635 looms were established in China on January 1, 1912. At the large centres flftur and rice mills are beginning to supersede native methods of treating AAdieat and rice. At Hanyang, near Hankau, are large Chinese iron-works, supplied with ore from mines at Ta-yeh, about 60 miles distant. These works were turning out about 300 steel rails a day, but a large amount of machinery Avas destroyed during the, Revolution, and the Avorks are not yet in proper running order.

Many of the 18 provinces and the 3 provinces of Manchuria contain coal, and China may be regarded as one of the first coal countries of the Avorld. The principal collieries Avorked by foreign methods are the folloAving : — Kaiping-Lanchow mijies (joint British and Chinese), 1,453,546 tons in 1911 ; Fushun mines (Japanese), 830,300 ; Peking Syndicate mines (British), 417,196; Pinghsiang mines (Chinese), 640,000; Hungshan and Fangtze mines (German), 486,553 ; Ching Ching mines (Chinese), 150,000 ; total (1911), 9,897,973 tons. Iron ores are abundant in the anthracite field of Shansi, Avhere the iron industry is ancient, and iron (found in conjunction Avith coal) is Avorked in Manchuria. The Ta-yeh mines have (in consideration of a loan of 3,000,000 yen at 6 per cent.) been mortgaged to a Japanese syndicate for 30 j^ears, the Han-yang foundry engaging to buy from 70,000 to 100,000 tons of ore annually during that period at prices already fixed till 1915. On the Upper Yangtse a