Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/70

62 elbow formed by the junction of the Soochow Creek with the Hwang-fu was leased as the site of the British consulate, whilst British subjects generally were authorised to purchase the buildings of native landowners within the limits described; but for several ensuing years there was little encouragement for foreigners to establish themselves at this port and the number of residents remained extremely small. As trade developed in later years a French settlement was established on the south side of the Yang-King-pang Creek, stretching thence to the city walls, whilst later still, a consul was appointed by the United States and a settlement planned for United States citizens upon the bank of the river east of the Soochow Creek. Several years elapsed, however, before the expectations that had been formed of a prosperous commerce at Shanghai were fulfilled. Foreign merchants were slow to remove to so great a distance from their establishments then centred at Canton and Hongkong; whilst the dull apathetic character of the natives of the place disqualified them from the bustle and energy inseparable from European commerce. At the end of the first year of its history as an open port Shanghai could count only 23 foreign residents and families, the consular flag, 11 merchants' houses and 2 Protestant missionaries. Only 44 foreign vessels had arrived during the same period."

"The facilities which the port offered, notwithstanding, for the growing trade in silk gradually attracted more and more residents to the spot, and the marshy waste ground along the bank of the river was bought up at low prices from the Chinese owners, on whose former holdings of reed beds, paddy fields or garden patches, the residences of large British firms were successively erected in a style of mingled solidity and elegance which has almost entitled Shanghai to contest with Calcutta the designation of the City of Palaces. The influx of foreigners other than British within the limits of territory officially assigned as the British Settlement, led at an early date to the necessity of devising some method by which undertakings for the public good, such as the maintenance of a police force and the formation of roads and trams, could be voluntarily conducted by subscriptions which the Consul for Great Britain was not empowered to levy upon subjects of other nationalities than his own, and a committee of residents was elected by the votes of all the renters of land, for the purpose of superintending the interests of the community in respect of the above mentioned necessary matters. From this germ has sprung the complicated system of municipal government which now administers the internal affairs of the vast and heterogeneous city into which the British Settlement at Shanghai has developed."

In the foregoing description we have an admirable summary of the history of the Treaty Port of Shanghai in its earliest days. The successful and entirely harmonious establishment of the settlement was, as we have indicated, in a considerable measure due to the cordial relations which existed between the British and the Chinese authorities. The Taoutai—the chief Mandarin—was a man of honour and good feeling. He frequently exchanged visits with Captain Balfour, and his example was followed by the lesser officials. The native population also were very friendly. The British occupation of 1842 was conducted with such tact that it left no resentment behind. Moreover, the inhabitants were naturally of a more peaceful type than the turbulent Cantonese with whom the foreign element had formerly mainly had to deal. The only interruptions to peace came from an occasional scrimmage between intoxicated foreign sailors and the junkmen from Fokeen—a noisy and irascible class of native visitors who from their readiness to enter a quarrel were given the name of the Irishmen of China. But these incidents were never allowed to interfere with the general course of trade or to become a source of bickering and strife between the British representatives and the Chinese officials.

Mr. (afterwards Sir) Rutherford Alcock, who succeeded Captain Balfour as consul, in a report on the trade of Shanghai for 1847—the first of its kind issued—gave some extremely interesting details relative to the growth of the port. The shipping had increased by one-fourth since the previous year, but it was noted as a rather disquieting feature of the trade operations that there was the large balance of £541,143 in favour of the Chinese. The total imports, however, reached £1,066,172 in value, and of these, goods worth £898,228, were brought out in British vessels, chiefly sailing direct from England. The export trade amounting in value to £1,517,299 was also mainly in British hands. For example, of 15,863,482 lbs. of tea exported no less than 13,313,519 lbs. went to Great Britain. The United States stood next in the order of importance in the trade returns. More than a fifth of the total tonnage entering the port sailed under the American flag. The development of the settlement showed even more than the trade returns, the confidence reposed by the mercantile community in Shanghai's future. In the four years which had elapsed since the opening of the port, Mr. Alcock remarked, a little town had sprung up on the banks of Hwang-fu which presented the appearance of a British colony rather than the settlement of foreigners on Chinese territory. "The residences of the principal merchants extend a quarter of a mile along the river front from the consulate site, and backwards twice that distance, with gardens, burial ground and racing ground intervening. There are now located at Shanghai twenty-four mercantile firms within the British limits (three of which are American), and twenty-five private residences have also been built on the ground; five shopkeepers' stores, an hotel and clubhouse have all been erected within the last year, showing a degree of prosperity and activity which I trust each year will make more apparent." Mr. Alcock further mentioned that public jetties and roads had been completed along the whole river front and throughout the settlement by a committee of residents appointed at a public meeting, a church had in like manner been built with assistance from Her Majesty's Government, and a new burial ground had been procured—further removed from the residences. Finally, a beginning had been made of the effective lighting of the port by the erection of a beacon on the most dangerous part of the shoal on the north bank of the Yangtse-Kiang. A return appended to this interesting report showed that at the time British subjects held within the limits of the settlement 140 acres of land, which was purchased at an average cost of £85 per acre. Upon the sites thus acquired buildings had been erected to the estimated value of £131,836. Title deeds were issued in January, 1847, for the land thus disposed of. They were signed by the Taoutai and the British Consul jointly, and copies were placed in the Chinese and British archives respectively for future reference.

A reference must be made in dealing with the establishment of Shanghai to the important part that the tea and silk trade played in building up the early prosperity of the settlement. In 1844 the export of the former amounted to 1,558,453 lbs. The next year saw an extraordinary advance to 9,338,422 lbs. In 1846, owing to a native bankruptcy which dislocated business, a check was given to the trade, but the export, nevertheless, amounted to 10,073,578 lbs. By 1847 the consignments of the commodity reached, as we have already noted, the high figure of 13,313,599 lbs., or about one-fourth of the total export of tea. Such was the recognition of the splendid facilities offered by the port for the trade that native merchants at this time set up in Shanghai premises for the preparation of the leaf for export. Arrangements were also