Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/771



HIS, the most northern of the Treaty ports, officially named Yingkow, but erroneously called Newchwang by Europeans, was officially opened to Western trade in the year 1861. The first foreign ship to enter the river was British, and arrived in 1859, and the first merchant to establish himself at the port was an Englishman named Henry E. Bush, the founder of the present-day firm of Bush Bros.

In pre-treaty days it would seem that no European traveller visited this port, the nearest approach being that of Gutzlaff, who got as far as Chin Chow Fu in his enterprising voyage of discovery "along the coast of China to Mautchou Tartary," in 1831, and he gives some account of the junk trade between this port and the southern ports.

The port had practically no trade prior to 1840. At that date it took the place of Tien Chuang Tai, still a considerable mart, twenty miles or so higher up the river, which had supplanted Newchwang proper some time in the latter half of the eighteenth century. These changes were caused by the shallowing of the river, which has shifted its course considerably in recent times. For example, in 1865 Tien Chuang Tai was forty miles distant by river from this port, whereas to-day it is but twenty miles away.

For the first thirty years after the port was opened no conspicuous events occurred, but a very fair foreign trade sprang up at once, the foreign merchants' interest being chiefly confined to the carrying of the merchandise inwards and outwards in foreign bottoms. The year 1890 was marked by a very substantial growth of trade, and the ten years between 1892 and 1901 were remarkable for a series of mercantile developments perhaps unparalleled in the history of the China trade. From a commercial standpoint, Newchwang has become one of the most important of the Treaty ports. The total net value of its trade in 1906 was Tls. 44,482,001, as compared with Tls. 61,752,905 in 1905, and Tls. 41,517,878 in 1904. The decline in 1906 may be attributed in part to lack of facilities on the railways, which were under military control; to obstacles to free access to the interior; and to over-trading whilst the Russo-Japanese war was in progress.

The mud village of the sixties has thus grown into a rich and populous town with many shops, houses, and temples. The tall chimneys of the bean-cake factories and the numerous foreign residences on the river bank fronting the anchorage give the place a busy modern appearance. This rapid commercial progress has been brought about by economic and political causes, and is due largely to the Government encouraging immigration from Shantung. The political factors in the case are the wars between China and Japan, the Boxer outbreak, and the Russo-Japanese campaign, all of which brought Newchwang to the ken of the Western world; the subsequent railway developments; and the high wages offered by those who opened up the country. The population is estimated at 60,000. To this total in 1906 foreigners contributed 7,699, the Japanese alone accounting for 7,408.

In the province (Fengtien) nearly every variety of ore has been found, but very little is worked on modern lines or with machinery. All Manchuria and Mongolia draw their supplies of salt from this neighbourhood. The salt is obtained in enormous quantities by sun evaporation of sea-water along the coast of this province, especially to the south and west of the port, and is a Government monopoly.

The soil is especially suitable for the production of till millet, spiked millet, maize, wheat, and barley. The animal products are pigs' bristles, bees-wax, young deer horns (supposed to be possessed of wonderful medicinal properties), and a great variety of furs.

The principal imports are British, American, and Japanese piece goods, Indian and Japanese cotton-yarn, metals, gunny and hemp bags, coal, American and Australian flour, Japanese matches, seaweed, sugar, and tobacco, for all of which there is a fair market, although at the present time trade is suffering from the depression directly resulting from the Russo-Japanese War.

The principal exports are beans, bean-oil, and bean-cake, which may be said to represent 90 per cent. of the export trade; castor oil, sesamum seed, wild silk, and skins and furs. A fair trade is also done in the export of native medicines and dried prawns and shrimps, which are esteemed by the natives as great delicacies. The carrying trade is almost entirely in the hands of British and Japanese ships, China doing very little except through the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. Business is carried on by British, German, American, and Japanese firms. The largest trade at the present time is in the hands of the Japanese, who have their own Settlement, with special extra-territorial privileges that other powers do not possess.

Great Britain, France, America, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Russia have each a consular representative at the port.

The climate is excellent; for though the cold in winter is somewhat severe, it being