Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/703

Rh of the various oil companies and the railway company, give the district a very prosperous appearance. The several albumen factories, to which indirect reference has already been made, are doing fairly well in spite of Chinese competition at Chinkiang. The process in these factories is to separate the white from the yolk of the egg and by steam-heat to reduce it to a thin gelatine sheet for industrial purposes. The yolk, also, is made up for use in dressing leather and for mixing with certain kinds of varnish, &c. The principal industrial enterprise in the vicinity, however, is the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, situated on the Han River, and owned and operated by a Chinese company, headed by Sheng Kungpao. They were established by Viceroy Chang Chih-Tung. whose idea it was that China should make her own railway materials from Chinese ore on Chinese territory. For some time the undertakings proved anytTiing but a success, and were eventually leased by His Excellency Sheng. He failed to make them pay, but two years ago the re- construction of the works was commenced, and modern machinery installed, with the result that they will soon be capable of turning out all kinds of iron and steel- work for railways, ships, and other purposes. During 1907 the blast furnaces produced some 37,000 tons of pig-iron, a large portion of which was exported to Japan, while some went to the United States. A new furnace has just been completed which will add to the output by some 250 tons a day, and for the present year the output of the furnaces is estimated at 160,000 tons of pig-iron. The aim of the management is to produce a class of work capable of passing all recognised standards. The coal and coke required come from the Ping-hsiang mines, and the iron ore from mountains some 30 miles down the Yangtsze. Connected with this enterprise is a Government steam brick factory capable of turning out 60,000 bricks a day. The adjacent arsenal is another undertaking owned by the Government. It situated in the German Concession, This will have a daily output of several million cigarettes. Several oil-press and bean-cake factories, Chinese and Japanese, are at work inside and outside the Concessions. In the vicinity of Hankow there are four Hour mills. One of these is carried on by a European, and makes flour from wheat imported from home ; the others are in the hands of Chinese. Opposite to the British Concession are Messrs. Carlowitz's large ore-

retining works, at which antimony, lead, and zinc ore are crushed ; and on the Wuchang side there are Government glass mills, and cotton and hemp mills. The cotton and hemp mills, together with a silk filature,

THE RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT AT HANKOW. GKOri' OF RKSIDKN'I'S AI' THK Oi'KMNC. Ckrkmoxv. KUSSI.AX MUMCIP.^L Cot'N'CIL OKFICKS. SOMK OF THK RUSSI.AX COM>U'NnY.

consists of a small-arms factory, under foreign nianagement, and powder, chemical, and ammunition factories. The arsenal, however, at the present time is in a moribund con- dition owing to want of funds, and half the machinery is idle. Rifles in small numbers, cartridges, and some quick-firing ammunition form the principal output at the moment, but it is said that equipment is to be provided shortly for the manufacture of heavy ordnance. In the Japanese Concession there is a Chinese- owned match factory capable of turning out half a million boxes of matches a day, while another notable industrial enterprise which has just been placed in working order is that of the British-American Tobacco Company, were leased by the Viceroy in 1902 to a company of Chinese capitalists for Tls. 100,000 a year for twenty years, and, apart from the hemp mill, the concern is doing a flourishing business. Satisfactory progress, also, is being made by the Hupeh Cotton Mills established by the Government. A tannery on an exten- sive scale, and under European supervision, has recently been started, and there are several brick and tile factories, as well as numerous minor industries. The financial position of Hankow is, to say the least, remarkable. The ci;y is in a large measure the financial centre of the interior of Northern Cliina, and in the foreign settle- ment are to be found large branches of six