Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/828

820 port was opium, and the chief article of export was Amoy tea. It is a curious fact—pathetic almost, considering that Amoy is the first of the old Chinese tea-ports entirely to lose the trade—that the word tea should be derived from the word te in the Amoy dialect, and not from the ordinary name for tea in most of the languages of China, which is ch'a. The reason no doubt is that tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch, who got if from this region. The trade in these staples, with the ownership or agency of the vessels which carried them and other commodities, such as rice, in which a large coasting trade was done, furnished a lucrative business for the merchants of the time. These were the days of the opium clippers, smartly found craft, which, carrying a valuable cargo paying a high freight, and being also the mail boats of those days, could afford a style and equipment not seen later on the coast. These vessels, schooners at first, and later on fast steamers, lasted into the sixties, until the time, in fact, when the opening of the Suez Canal and the establishment of the telegraph cable revolutionised the China trade.

It was not long also before emigration became an important element in the carrying trade. Emigration from this district to the countries of the Malay Archipelago has existed from time immemorial. The unproductive nature of the soil has never been able to provide more than a slender list of exports, and the heavy excess of imports has been balanced by the output of human labour and the savings which those labourers have remitted to their native place. The establishment of steam communication with the Straits gave an impetus to the movement which has since been steadily maintained. The intercourse with the Malay countries has its reflection in the villages near Amoy, where faces of Malay type are seen, and Malay may be heard spoken.

Statistics of trade exist only from the time of the establishment of the Foreign Customs in 1862, from which time on full information is available from the Customs returns and the Consular and Customs trade reports. Space only permits a brief sketch of the subject here. The number of foreign firms engaged in trade was always small, the large establishments probably never exceeding half-a-dozen in number. In 1865, according to the directory of that year, there were three regular Consuls—those representing Great Britain, Spain, and United States—the other Powers having merchants Consuls only. There were two docks (the Amoy Dock Company and the Bellamy Dock), a marine surveyor, eleven "merchant" firms, three medical practitioners, three pilots, two firms of ship-chandlers, and two watchmakers, which, with the missionaries and the Foreign Customs staff, made up the foreign community. In 1862, 394 vessels of 129,677 tons entered at the Customs, the vast bulk of these being sailing-ships. By 1871 the figures had risen to 566 vessels of 215,651 tons. The British flag greatly predominated, and it was fol- lowed next by the vessels of the North German States. Imports in 1862 were valued at Hk. Tls. 3,394,816, and exports at Hk.Tls. 1,498,860, the haikwan tael being equivalent at that time to 6s. 8d. By 1871 the figures had become Hk. Tls. 5,730,078 and Hk. Tls. 3,085,889 respectively. The principal imports were opium, cotton yarn, cotton piece goods, metals, rice, beans, and bean cake (from the northern ports), and exports were chiefly tea, sugar, chinaware, earthenware, paper, bricks, tiles, tobacco, and vermicelli.

The modern history of foreign trade in Amoy divides itself into three periods—the period of the Amoy tea, the period of the Formosa tea, and the period through which the port is now, unfortunately, passing, when the tea trade is extinct and nothing has risen to take its place. In the early days, the export of Amoy tea was quite considerable. Between 1858 and 1864 the exportations varied annually from four to seven million pounds. In 1874 75, 7.645,386 lbs. of Amoy Oolong were shipped to the United States. But the trade did not last long. From 1875 the figures steadily fell away; the quality of the leaf deteriorated so seriously and the tea was so adulterated and so badly prepared that, finally, the American Consul advised his government to forbid the importation. In l899 the last shipment—31.705 lbs. was made. The failure in quality, the general inferiority of the leaf as compared with the products of Formosa and Japan, and unduly heavy taxation, are the causes of the ruin of this once fine industry.

The failure of Amoy tea, however, did not hit the foreign merchants very hard, for, as it began to decline so the market for Formosa tea began to grow. The Amoy firms had branches in Formosa with a representative or two, but the tea was bought, warehoused and shipped here. This was due partly to the foreign and Chinese merchants having their chief establishments and godowns here, but mainly to the excellence of the harbour and the lack of a suitable haven in Formosa. This trade brought great prosperity to Amoy. The big Pacific liners and many large steamers going to Europe and America viâ the Suez Canal put in to load up with tea, and several small steamers were kept running between Tamsui and Amoy during the season for the tea alone. The great staple brought other business in its train. In 1873 the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank opened a branch here, and, as sugar at the time was also an important article of export, Amoy may be considered to have reached the zenith of its fortunes in the eighties and nineties. In 1880 it was reported that there were 24 foreign firms, of which 17 were engaged in business as general merchants, 4 being agents for banks as well. Many of these, of course, were British-Chinese firms doing business with the Straits. There were 183 native wholesale houses, and 6 native banks. The value of the goods handled by the foreign and native firms was roughly estimated at from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000 a year.

But the Formosa tea, like its predecessor, was to have only a brief reign. The Japanese occupation of Formosa quickly brought about a change in the trade. Matters continued much as they were for some years after 1895; but the improvements made by the Japanese Government—the reconstruction of the railway from Taipeh to Kelung, and, above all, the improvement to Kelung harbour—have concentrated the trade entirely in Formosa and dealt what is, apparently, a death-blow to Amoy. The years 1905-6 witnessed heavy diminutions in the shipments of Formosa tea from Amoy; in 1907 hardly any went at all, and there was almost a complete absence of big ships from the harbour.

As tea went, so did sugar. Here, also, old methods had to give place to modern ones. The local sugar was killed by the superior article prepared and grown under modern scientific methods in Java, and there is now a large importation of Java sugar into Amoy.

At present, therefore, unless the unforeseen happens, it would seem that the career of Amoy as a tea-port is ended. The trade as it now stands has some eleven million taels worth of foreign Imports (of which foreign opium accounts for nearly two million taels), and about three and a half million taels worth of native Imports; while exports amount in value to nearly three million taels. With the exception of opium, in which a couple of Parsee firms are still interested; oil, case and bulk, which is imported by the two tank Installations, the Standard Oil and the Asiatic Petroleum Company; some American Hour, and a small amount of piece goods and other sundries, the imports are entirely in native hands, as, of course, are the native imports and the entire exports. Shipping is still in foreign hands, and owing mainly to the tonnage required for the emigration and passenger traffic still constitutes an Important Interest. The total tonnage employed by the port in 1907 amounted to over two million tons. But so far as the British ship-owner is concerned, his interests have been heavily cut into of recent years by Japanese competition. In 1907, 23 per cent, of the tonnage was under the Japanese flag, and 55 per cent, under the British; a great change from the time, not many years back, when Great Britain had 80 per cent. of the tonnage and Japan was not represented in these waters at all. During the last ten years a small fleet of launches under the Inland Navigation Rules has come Into being. These small craft ply between the port and neighbouring towns, among them Changchow and Chinchew, and do a large passenger-carrying trade. Many of them carry a foreign flag, but they are almost entirely owned and managed by Chinese, who somehow or other have managed to acquire a foreign status.

The Amoy of to-day is thus the shadow of its former self. The loss of the tea trade has sensibly reduced the foreign community, and with the tea have gone the attendant industries. To regain its position as an important centre of foreign trade the port must find some productions wherewith to pay for its Importations and replace those articles of export which have disappeared. Hope for the future lies in a railway which is now being built, entirely with Chinese capital and by a Chinese engineer, from Sungseu, on the mainland to the west of Amoy, to Changchow. This short line, avowedly experimental. Is of interest as the precursor of a proposed large railway scheme, which, it is hoped, will ultimately embrace the whole of Fokien. If any progress is made in railway construction the way is opened for the exploitation of the mineral resources of the province, which are believed to be considerable. Already a beginning has been made in this direction by a Chinese syndicate of capitalists in the An-ch'i district, on ground which is said to contain coal and Iron, besides lead, lime, and stone. Other possible lines of development are the application of foreign machinery to the brick and tile industry of Changchow, which thus handled might rise to considerable proportions. A large industry in salted fish might also be established in the port, the materials being all at hand; and there seems no reason why, if undertaken in a scientific manner with the requisite capital and knowledge, tea and sugar plantations should not be re-introduced into South Fokien. The difficulty in these matters is to secure the necessary capital and co-operation. The Chinese have little money of their own