Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/792

784 the cognisance of the foreign customs in 1906 was £15,905,539. Compared with the previous year, the net trade showed an increase of nearly Tls. 2,000,000, while in sterling, owing to the high rates of exchange (3/3½), it exceeded that for 1903, which was an abnormally good year. The exports, which consist of silk, tea, matting, cassia, bristles, fire-crackers, canes and preserves, were valued at £7,380,998, and of this sum no less than £6,474,820 was represented by commodities shipped to Hongkong. The ultimate destination of those commodities, however, cannot be ascertained, as no through bills of lading are given by the river steamers beyond Hongkong, and at that port there is no Customs house. One-half the total exports consisted of silk. The trade in China tea, which in days gone by was of such magnitude, has of late years suffered severely from Ceylon, Indian and other competition, and has now shrunk to insignificance. The export of this commodity, which in 1891 amounted to 11,750,000 lbs., declined in 1906 to 3,000,000 lbs. The consignments to the United Kingdom during this period fell from 9,000,000 lbs. to 850,000 lbs.

The total value of Canton's imports during the twelve months under review was £8,524,541, and was distributed almost equally between other parts of China and the rest of the world. To the foreign portion the United Kingdom contributed no less than £3,993,941. The imports consist chiefly of opium, cotton and woollen goods, metals, oils, white sugar, and flour. Amongst these, opium takes the first place, accounting for one-fourth of the total value of the foreign imports. It is interesting to observe that during the last seven years the quantity of opium imported has increased from 6,914 to 11,145 piculs. It is estimated that the average annual import of foreign opium into the province of Kwangtung is 12,000 chests, and that an equal quantity of the native-grown article is received—a fact which is not without significance in view of the anti-opium crusade. It is gratifying to find that fully 90 per cent. of the piece-goods trade consists of British manufactures, and that nearly the whole of the cotton-yarn imported comes from India. British cigarettes of high grade also appear to be growing in favour. But while a new trade in flour is being opened by the recently started Hongkong mill, the sugar refineries in the colony are suffering from the competition of white sugar chemically prepared in Java. In considering these figures it must be borne in mind that they relate only to the cargoes carried in foreign ships, and that in addition, large quantities of both tea and silk are conveyed in junks to Hongkong for trans-shipment.

It is undoubtedly to its splendid facilities for navigation that Canton owes its prosperity. The capital of the province of Kwangtung, it stretches for four or five miles along the eastern bank of the Pearl River, which is here somewhat broader than the Thames at London Bridge and navigable for ocean-going vessels of considerable draught. The river at this point is densely crowded with shipping of all descriptions and of all nationalities. The total tonnage entered and cleared during 1906 was 4,924,031 tons, of which no less than 3,583,538 tons were British. Chinese junks lie huddled so closely together and in such numbers as to create the impression of a floating township; indeed, it is computed that more than 50,000 men, women and children know no home other than these little craft. The total population of Canton is placed at nearly 3,000,000 people by the Customs authorities, and this estimate is probably not far wrong, although a native official report in 1895 placed the number at about one-fifth of this figure. Including the suburbs, Canton has a circuit of nearly 10 miles. The city proper has a circumference of about six miles, and a breadth of about two miles. It is enclosed by massive walls of some 20 feet in thickness and from 25 to 40 feet in height. In these walls there are twelve gates, which are closed at night. A partition wall running east and west divides the city into two unequal parts—the northern and larger division being called the old, and the southern the new city. This wall has four gates.

Although regarded as a model Chinese city, Canton fails to impress the Western eye very favourably. It consists of a labyrinth of some 600 evil-smelling, dimly lighted, stone-flagged streets, packed with a seething mass of humanity, and so narrow that in the widest of them four men would find it difficult to walk abreast. In many parts, indeed, it is only just possible for two Sedan chairs to pass one another. This narrowness and the motley array of shop-signs that