THE TRADE OF WESTERN AND SOUTH-WESTERN CHINA.

I felt very highly honoured by a recent invitation, which was addressed to me by the Chamber of Commerce of the great manufacturing city of Manchester, to speak on the subject of trade with China; but I confess that I had the greatest diffidence in appearing before a commercial audience, before men who make trade the business of their lives. A residence of ten years in a country like China does not necessarily imply an acquaintance with its trade, and, were this the only qualification that I possessed, I should have hesitated to accept the invitation. The trade of China, like the Empire itself, is vast and varied, and to examine and discuss it in anything like an exhaustive manner would have occupied far too much time. Instead, therefore, of speaking of the general trade of China, I drew their attention to that part of the country which has of late attracted considerable notice from its proximity to Upper Burmah, now incorporated in our Indian Empire.

South-western China was not unfamiliar to the audience I then addressed, its trade and trading capabilities having been brought before the principal Chambers of Commerce in Great Britain by Mr. Colquhoun and Mr. Hallett, two gentlemen who took great interest in the subject—an interest, too, which they tried to instil into the commercial world. The part of China, then, of which I spoke embraced Ssu-ch’uan, YÜn-nan, and Kuei-chow, and the observations I made were based on a three years’ residence and recent journeys, covering some five thousand miles in these three provinces.

It is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion regarding the trade of a country without some knowledge of the geography of that country; it is therefore necessary, at the outset, to note the physical characteristics of Western China. The hundred and tenth degree of longitude divides China Proper into two almost equal parts. It does more; it divides the level from the mountainous half. YÜn-nan, Kuei-chow, and Ssu-ch’uan, constitute the southern section of the latter or mountainous half. Let us, then, deal with these three provinces in the above order.

YÜn-nan is bounded on the north by the province of Ssu-ch’uan, on the west by Upper Burmah and the Shan States, on the south by the Shan States and Tonquin, and on the east by the provinces of Kwang-si and Kuei-chow. It is the birth-place of several well-known rivers. On the west are the Ta-ping and Shweli, tributaries of the Irrawady; the Salwen and Mekong flow through its whole length; the Song-koi, or Red River, and the Hsi Chiang, or West River, take their rise in the south and east of the province respectively. The Chin Chiang, or Chin-sha Chiang, as the upper waters of the Yang-tsze are called, flows through the north-western corner, and for a considerable distance divides YÜn-nan from Ssu-ch’uan. In the north-east there is one small river, the Ta-kuan, or HÊng Chiang, a tributary of the Yang-tsze. Of all these rivers, the only two that are navigable into YÜn-nan are the Song-koi and the Yang-tsze, with its tributary the Ta-kuan, and these not without some difficulty.

Here, then, we have two water-routes into YÜn-nan, one in the south and the other in the north. But the West River is navigated from Canton to Pe-sÊ, close to the south-eastern frontier of the province, and is a very important trade highway to southern and eastern YÜn-nan. In default of a waterway in the west, communication is kept up by the Bhamo-Ta-li Fu route, which, being now partly within our Indian Empire, has attracted no little attention, and raised considerable expectations for British trade.

It is indeed a pity that these expectations are doomed to disappointment. The total import and export trade by this route three years ago did not exceed half a million sterling. I entered very minutely into the question of this trade when I visited Ta-li Fu in 1883, and I am thus well acquainted with the area which this route supplies. Ta-Li Fu and Yang-pei T’ing form its eastern and northern boundary respectively, and it is from it that the Ta-ping valley draws its requirements. The country east of Ta-li Fu is supplied from YÜn-nan Fu, the capital of the province, which again draws both from Canton by the West River, and from Shanghai by the Yang-tsze. The difficulties of the Bhamo route are so great that no great improvement is possible, and no great development of trade can result. YÜn-nan has been described as a rich province. I have no hesitation in saying that it is; but it contains a poor population, and, until the condition of the latter is improved, no great development of trade need be looked for in that direction. It is estimated to contain a population of from five to six millions, the great mass of which is engaged in agricultural pursuits. True, there are copper mines in the north and east, and tin and lead mines in the south of the province; but mining industries are so hampered by official interference as to profit little the owners or the workmen. Agriculture, too, is carried on under a system of small farms, and the absence of good roads and the impossibility of greatly improving those that exist, owing to the mountainous character of the province, do not tend to the enrichment of the peasantry. Nor is this all; immense tracts in the north and west of the province have lain waste since the Mohammedan rebellion, and owing to the antipathy of the Chinese to settle on lands which they look upon as the property of people who may still be living, or whose descendants may still be living, it must be many years before the agriculture of the province is properly developed. It will be said that I take a gloomy view of the south-western corner of China; and I am indeed sorry, for the sake of our own commerce, that I cannot present a brighter picture.

I turn now to the province of Kuei-chow, which, owing to its proximity to the great waterway of China, is better situated for trade than YÜn-nan, but which, from causes which I shall presently describe, is even less developed than that province. Kuei-chow has not inaptly been called the “Switzerland” of China. The greater part of the province, which is exceedingly mountainous, was formerly peopled by a non-Chinese race, called by the Chinese, Miao-tzu; but some twenty years ago a struggle arose between the aboriginal tribes and the Chinese, in which the latter from their superior equipment proved victorious, and drove the conquered into the southern half of the province, although even in the northern half scattered families may still be found. The struggle, which lasted for years, was a desperate one; and, at the present time, traces are everywhere to be seen in the shape of ruined towns and villages and lands lying waste and desolate. The waterways that lead to the province of Kuei-chow, with one exception, flow through Ssu-ch’uan. That exception is the Yuan River, which, rising in the east of the province, flows east and north-east into the Tung-t’ing Lake, which debouches into the Yang-tsze, one hundred and twenty-three miles to the west of Hankow. This river, which, although obstructed by numerous rapids, is navigated to within one hundred and thirty miles of Kuei-yang Fu, the capital of the province, is the trade highway to Eastern Kuei-chow.

The trade of the rest of the province is intimately bound up with that of Ssu-ch’uan, through which, owing to its remaining waterways, it naturally passes. The population of Kuei-chow is estimated to equal that of YÜn-nan. It consists of immigrants from other neighbouring provinces, who seem to have left behind them whatever energy they may have at one time possessed. Like YÜn-nan, Kuei-chow is rich in the variety of its mineral wealth. Coal, iron, copper, and quicksilver exist in large quantities; but they are very imperfectly worked. What it lacks is salt, a necessary which binds it and its trade to Ssu-ch’uan, which is able to supply not only its own wants, but those of the southern province, the north of YÜn-nan, and parts of other eastern provinces.

I am happy to be able to pass from these two provinces, half depopulated by internecine struggles, only partly cultivated and partly developed, to a brighter picture. Ssu-ch’uan is really a picture of what peace, contentment, industry, and consequent trade are able to accomplish. When YÜn-nan and Kuei-chow were convulsed by civil wars, the Ssu-ch’uanese were peacefully journeying up and down the Great River, as the section of the Yang-tsze in the east of the province is called, disposing of their surplus produce, and bringing back not only what they required to satisfy their actual wants, but also luxuries in the shape of goods of foreign manufacture. There have been, and still are, skirmishings in the far west of the province; but rebellions have been short-lived, and have little affected the commercial section which lies to the east of the Min River. It is of the trade of this province, itself as large as France, and as populous, that I wish particularly to draw attention. I shall endeavour to point out the value of that trade, the conditions under which it is carried on, and the means that should be taken for its development.

Although Ssu-ch’uan is hilly in the east and centre and mountainous in the west, cultivation has been carried to a state bordering on perfection. The dense population of the province has no doubt largely contributed to this end; but its fine waterways have greatly helped the energy of the people. The river Yang-tsze, which flows through the province, is the great trunk, having for its northern branches the Min with its tributaries, the T’o, and the Chia-ling with its affluents. On the south are the Ta-kuan, the Nan-kuang, the Yung-ning, the JÊn-huai or Ch’ih-shui, the Ch’i-chiang, and the Kung-t’an Rivers.

On all these rivers there is one constant stream of traffic, and it will be asked, in what does that traffic consist? No other province in China can vie with Ssu-ch’uan in the richness and variety of its products, and I will refer only to those of them which constitute the chief articles of eastern export. They are, in the order of their value, opium, silk, salt, sugar, and medicines. Of these, silk is the only article that reaches Europe; but, amongst the minor exports, tobacco, hides, musk, and rhubarb are well-known in this country. The total value of the export trade of Ch’ung-k’ing, which is situated on the north bank of the Yang-tsze, at the mouth of the Chia-ling River, and is the great trade emporium of the province of Ssu-ch’uan, amounts to more than five million sterling annually. This must not be assumed to represent the total value of the surplus produce of the province. There are several important trade centres that lie between Ch’ung-k’ing and the western frontier of the province of Hupeh, such as Fu Chou, FÊng-tu Hsien, Wan Hsien, and K’uei Fu, each of which contributes its quota to the large export trade of Ssu-ch’uan. Moreover, the west of the province supplies Tibet with brick-tea, and the south-western corner, known as the valley of Chien-ch’ang, sends its silk into YÜn-nan and even into Burmah.

What, then, does Ssu-ch’uan purchase with these surplus millions? What does this rich province lack? The answer is easy. Cotton will not flourish in Ssu-ch’uan, and the greater part of her surplus wealth is consumed in the purchase of raw cotton, native cottons, and, what is of great importance to British commerce, foreign cotton and woollen goods. But what proportion do these imports bear to each other? Raw cotton exceeds, while native cottons and foreign piece goods range, each about one million sterling. I should state, however, that all this cotton is not consumed in the province of Ssu-ch’uan. The Ssu-ch’uanese are a great manufacturing people, and cottons manufactured from the imported raw material form an important export from Ssu-ch’uan to YÜn-nan and Western Kuei-chow.

But it is the import of foreign goods into Western China that is of paramount interest to the people of this country. Let us, then, look back for a period of years and see how this branch of trade has been conducted. In the various treaties concluded between this country and China, it is agreed that goods of British manufacture may, on payment of the tariff import duty and of a transit duty, be carried into the interior for sale; but the transit certificates which were issued to the owners of the goods on payment of the transit duty were by no means respected. Not only were these certificates not respected, but the rules and conditions under which they were issued differed at each port, and this want of uniformity proved a great hindrance to the development of the trade. It was not till 1876 that the transit pass system was placed upon a solid footing.

In the Agreement of Chefoo concluded in that year, the following clause occurs:—“The Chinese Government agrees that Transit Duty Certificates shall be framed under one rule at all the ports, no difference being made in the conditions set forth therein; and that so far as imports are concerned, the nationality of the person possessing and carrying these is immaterial.” This has proved a new epoch for the transit import trade of China, and I will now point out its effect on Western China, and on the province of Ssu-ch’uan in particular. Before entering into the details of this trade, however, I should mention that Ichang, the nearest port to Ssu-ch’uan, was opened to foreign trade by the Agreement of Chefoo in 1876, and that, previous to that year, Ssu-ch’uan drew its supplies from Hankow, which is four hundred miles to the east of Ichang and six hundred miles from Shanghai.

In 1875, that is to say, when Ichang was not an open port, foreign goods to the value of £40,000 were sent under transit pass from Hankow to Ssu-ch’uan; in 1876, the year in which the Agreement of Chefoo was signed, they rose in value to £160,000, and in 1877 to £290,000.

In the spring of 1877, Ichang was opened; but, owing to defective steamer communication between that port and Hankow, it was not till 1878 that it began to take its share in the transit trade to Ssu-ch’uan. In that year, it sent up goods of the modest value of scarcely £4,000, against the still increasing transit trade of Hankow of the value of nearly £400,000. It was naturally supposed that the opening of Ichang would attract a considerable share of the transit trade of Hankow; but, curiously enough, the transit trade of both ports with Ssu-ch’uan went on concurrently increasing. In 1879, Hankow sent up £600,000, and Ichang £50,000, a total of £650,000; in 1880, Hankow sent up £500,000, and Ichang £250,000, a total of £750,000; in 1881, Hankow figured for £800,000, and Ichang for £200,000, a total of one million; in 1882, Hankow figured for £350,000, and Ichang for £200,000, a total of £550,000; in 1883, Hankow figured for half a million, and Ichang for £350,000, a total of £850,000; and in 1884, Hankow figured for £340,000, and Ichang for £260,000, or a total of £600,000.

The decline of 1884 was due to several causes, the chief of which were a local drought and the complications with France. The average annual value of the foreign goods sent under transit pass to Ssu-ch’uan for the five years ended the 31st December, 1884, thus amounted to £750,000, a sum in striking contrast to the forty thousand pounds’ worth forwarded to the same destination in 1875.

The following are the figures for 1885-88:—1885—Ichang, £412,000; Hankow, £491,000. 1886—Ichang, £342,000; Hankow, £379,000. 1887—Ichang, £465,000; Hankow, £255,000. 1888—Ichang, £547,000; Hankow, £250,000.

The enormous increase in trade since 1875 says much for the transit pass clauses in the Agreement of Chefoo; but I will endeavour to show that, so far as Western China is concerned, these transit regulations are by no means perfect. Everyone is aware of the conservative character of the Chinese, and of the difficulties that have to be met in inducing them to leave an established groove. The groove in the present instance is the city of Ch’ung-k’ing, where the native merchants of Shanghai and Hankow have established agencies, to which their foreign goods are consigned for sale and distribution throughout the province of Ssu-ch’uan. These goods, having paid the tariff import duty at Shanghai, are carried to Hankow and Ichang, whence, on payment of a transit duty equal to half the tariff import duty, they are conveyed to the province of Ssu-ch’uan. The destination of the goods must be expressly stated in the transit duty certificate under which they are carried, and for Ssu-ch’uan that destination is Ch’ung-k’ing, where, as I have said, the mercantile agencies are established. So rooted is this custom, that goods are frequently carried past their ultimate destination a distance of more than one hundred miles, thus necessitating their paying an up-freight to Ch’ung-k’ing and a down-freight to their destination, and, owing to their being no longer covered by a transit duty certificate, the usual local taxation.

Foreign goods, therefore, when landed at Ch’ung-k’ing, have paid an import duty and a transit duty, and, immediately they leave the duty-free area in the hands of the country buyers, they are liable to payment of likin and not unfrequently to additional local taxation. It will naturally be asked, is there no remedy for this grinding taxation, which seriously affects the development of trade and limits the consumption of our manufactures? There is a remedy; but before I touch on it, let us note how the vast trade of Ssu-ch’uan, including the trade in foreign goods, is carried on.

The import and export trade of Ssu-ch’uan, with the exception of the greater part of the export opium trade, is conducted on the great water highway—the Yang-tsze. This river is navigated by steamers for one thousand miles, as far as Ichang; but west of that port the total trade, with the above exception, is carried on by a fleet of native boats, numbering from five to seven thousand. Few of these native boats or junks have a carrying capacity exceeding one hundred tons, and it will be more intelligible to commercial people if I endeavour to convert this river trade value into tonnage. It is estimated that, on an average, thirty junks arrive at or pass Ichang daily from Ssu-ch’uan, and that a like number ascends; and if twelve tons be taken as the average capacity of these junks—a low estimate—it will be found that over twenty thousand tons of cargo are monthly carried to and from Ssu-ch’uan. The junks also carry a considerable number of passengers, in addition to the regular passenger traffic which is conducted between Ssu-ch’uan and the Lower Yang-tsze in specially-constructed boats. But the conditions under which the navigation of the four hundred miles that separate Ichang from Ch’ung-k’ing is carried on are deserving of special examination.

Ichang lies at the eastern end of a series of gorges, which, with extensive breaks, stretches for a distance of one hundred miles as far as the city of K’uei-chou Fu. It is within this hundred miles that native boats encounter difficulties. These difficulties, which are of two kinds, vary according to the season and according to the state of the river. At low water, that is to say, during the months of December, January, February, and March, the volume of the Yang-tsze, which owing to the contraction of the channel is cooped up in the Gorges, on emerging from them pours into the wider bed of the river, forming races, and in one place a rapid of considerable importance.

This rapid lies at the eastern end of the Mi-tsang Gorge, thirty-three miles from Ichang, and is caused by a sudden declivity of the bed of the river, in the centre of which, at very low water, two ridges of rock appear, leaving a narrow channel between. Besides this narrow passage, however, there are two channels, one on each side, between the central rocks and the banks. Fortunately, at low water the current in the gorges, where there is no possible tracking ground, is sluggish, and the unwieldy native craft are either rowed or sail through them. When the river is high, that is, during the remaining eight months of the year, the races and rapid are altogether obliterated, being covered to a depth of thirty or more feet. The effect of this rise, on the other hand, is to strengthen the current in the gorges, against which the junks, there being no towing path, find it very difficult to make headway. The section of three hundred miles of river that lies between the gorges and Ch’ung-k’ing presents no difficulty to navigation.

The time required to navigate a junk between Ichang and Ch’ung-k’ing depends upon the state of the river. In winter, twenty-five to thirty days are usually required, while at high water, in July for example, six to eight weeks are considered fair passages. The down journey occupies from six to twelve days. The time required, the labour employed, and the risks incurred in navigating a junk on the Upper Yang-tsze, ensure very heavy freights. The sum of seventy shillings is a low estimate for a ton of up-cargo between Ichang and Ch’ung-k’ing, and I notice in the most recent trade report from the former place, that ten to twelve shillings were charged as freight on a bale of piece goods weighing about a hundredweight and a half. It will hardly be matter of surprise, therefore, that trade in British goods is heavily handicapped in the comparatively wealthy province of Ssu-ch’uan, when it is borne in mind that these goods, before they reach the hands of the consumer, have paid an import duty, a transit duty, a heavy freight, likin taxes, and in many instances other local exactions.

I come now to the remedy, which, under our existing treaties and engagements with China, can, so far as I am able to judge, afford the only relief to British trade. That remedy is the opening of a port in the province of Ssu-ch’uan, on the same conditions as any one of the nineteen ports at present open to foreign trade. This is no new scheme. It has been before the mercantile world for some years, and it has received the sanction of the Chinese Government, subject to a condition which has not attracted the attention it deserves. I quote from the Agreement of Chefoo:—“The British Government will further be free to send officers to reside at Ch’ung-k’ing to watch the conditions of British trade in Ssu-ch’uan. British merchants will not be allowed to reside at Ch’ung-k’ing, or to open establishments or warehouses there so long as no steamers have access to the port. When steamers have succeeded in ascending the river so far, further arrangements can be taken into consideration.” The opening of Ch’ung-k’ing, therefore, is contingent on steamers reaching that place; in other words, on the navigability of the Upper Yang-tsze.

This, then, is the point upon which the question of the development of British trade with Western China turns, and it is one on which it would be too much to expect unanimity. The great majority of those who have ascended in native boats are of opinion that the river could be navigated by powerful light-draught steamers, and nowhere have I seen an opinion which declares the passage by steamers as impossible. The successive British Agents at Ch’ung-k’ing have repeatedly urged the claims of the Upper Yang-tsze on the attention of British shipbuilders and merchants; but it is to be feared that Blue Books are not perused with that care which they sometimes deserve.

There is one opinion, however, which, because it is the only published nautical opinion, and because it is somewhat adverse, cannot be passed over without comment. In 1869, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce sent two delegates up the Yang-tsze to Ch’ung-k’ing, to collect information on all points bearing on the trade of Western China, and two naval officers were, at the request of the Chamber, deputed by Admiral Keppel, then Commander-in-chief on the China Station, to accompany the expedition. These officers ascended to K’uei-chou Fu, which, as I have already stated, lies at the western end of the gorge and rapid section, and I will now quote from the report of Lieutenant Dawson so far as it concerns this part of the river. He says:—“Having made as detailed a survey between the entrance to the Upper River and Ichang as the nature of the river demanded, and sufficient examination above that port to satisfy me as to the navigability or otherwise of the rapids, I conclude the following:—

“(1)—That the river to Ichang is navigable for steamers of 7 feet draught and powerful steering apparatus, from the beginning of April to the end of September, and probably, if native report is to be believed, for the winter months also.

“(2)—That the rapids and other difficulties of the River above Ichang, as at present known, are so numerous as to preclude the possibility of steamers of any description navigating this part until a thorough detailed survey is made, and the changes of the river at the different seasons watched and noted by competent persons.

“(3)—That such survey could only be made in the winter months when the river is at its lowest, and would, if carried as far as Ch’ung-k’ing, in all probability, occupy two surveyors for two winters.

“(4)—To particularise or describe any one rapid from the month’s changes, under which I saw them, would be useless, as they are continually altering in danger, as rocks cover and uncover, and doubtless what would be a dangerous rapid in summer, would be dangerless in winter, and vice versÂ. In the month of April, the rapids of Tsing-tan and Shan-tou-pien were the worst.

“(5)—As far as my experience on the upper part of the river above Ichang extended, the depth of water is not a difficulty to be apprehended at any time of the year, as the average was seldom less than ten fathoms. Velocity of current, want of anchoring ground, and intricacy of navigation, are the difficulties previously alluded to.”

Since 1869, our knowledge of the upper waters of the Yang-tsze has very much improved. We know that the section between Hankow and Ichang is navigable by steamers all the year round, and we know that the annual rise of the river is not to increase the difficulties of the rapids, but to obliterate them altogether. With respect to the current, it no doubt runs stronger at high water; but, regarding the matter in a practical light, we may say that, if a large heavily-laden junk can be tracked against the strongest current by a hundred men, is it impossible for a full-powered light-draught steamer to follow in its wake? There is one advantage, too, which the upper section of the river has over the lower; its channel never shifts, and, once navigated by a steamer, there is no chance of its being lost. It is not too much to say that, during the winter months, the masters of the steamers running between Hankow and Ichang have to conduct surveying operations every trip, and I have found no one more anxious than these very masters to navigate the river from Ichang to Ch’ung-k’ing, so confident are they of success.

I pass now to the advantages which the opening of Ch’ung-k’ing would afford to British trade. Our manufactures could then be laid down in Ch’ung-k’ing on payment of the tariff duty, and from that point the buyers from the chief cities of the province, as well as from Kuei-chow and YÜn-nan, would be able to carry their purchases under transit pass to their ultimate destination, on payment of the transit duty only. No other tax or duty, likin or octroi, would add to the price which the consumer has to pay, and I have no hesitation in stating that, under such an improved system, Ssu-ch’uan would soon take a very high place in the markets of the world as a consumer of British manufactures. The improvement of communication would cause an enormous development of the products and industries of the province. I need only mention silk as an example. There is really no limit to the possible development of this valuable product. In almost every homestead in the centre and east of the province, silk-culture is carried on by the women and children of the family, and the development of this and other exports, which would arise from the safer, speedier, and cheaper means of communication between the Upper and Lower Yang-tsze, would greatly raise the buying capacity of the peaceful, industrious, and well-to-do Ssu-ch’uanese.

Nor is Ch’ung-k’ing the head of navigation of the Yang-tsze. The section of the river between Ch’ung-k’ing and HsÜ-chou Fu, usually called Sui Fu, a distance of two hundred miles, is as suited to steamer navigation as between K’uei-chou Fu and Ch’ung-k’ing, and it is by this stretch of the river that the trade of Northern and Western Kuei-chow and Northern YÜn-nan is conducted. West of Sui Fu the trade on the upper waters of the Yang-tsze, which I have descended from a point fifty miles higher than P’ing-shan Hsien—the farthest point reached by the Upper Yang-tsze Expedition in 1861—is insignificant, and above P’ing-shan there are several rapids which would present serious obstacles to a steamer, but the trade is insignificant, and steamers will never be required to run west of Sui Fu.

I may state here that, in Western China, coal is abundant and is found close to the Yang-tsze.

I have thus endeavoured to point out the amount and value of the trade of Western China, the conditions under which it is carried on, and the means which should be taken for its development. I propose now to show that, so far as Ssu-ch’uan, Kuei-chow, and Northern YÜn-nan are concerned, there is no possible rival to the Yang-tsze route. The fact that there are half a dozen trade routes to YÜn-nan affords a proof of the inaccessibility of the province. I agree with Mr. Colquhoun when he says:—“The configuration of YÜn-nan is such that no single route can reach or ‘tap’ the whole trade of the province. To propose one route for the whole country is like advocating some quack medicine for a patient who lies ill with half a dozen ailments.” What, then, are we to think of the proposed route, which is to pass through YÜn-nan from south to north, and “tap” Ssu-ch’uan? It is as absurd as the proposal of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce to reach Ssu-ch’uan from the city of Li-chiang Fu in North-western YÜn-nan. Ssu-ch’uan is hemmed in on the west and south by range after range of mountains, which will remain formidable barriers to any feasible trade route until the science of engineering has advanced far beyond its present stage. Writing of the Yang-tsze route to YÜn-nan, Mr. Colquhoun says:—“The Yang-tsze route, there can be no doubt, can only deal with the northern part of the province. The physical features of the northern portion of the country preclude the possibility of trade penetrating beyond that mountainous and barren region.” I am sorry that Mr Colquhoun has designated the part of YÜn-nan, which I claim for the Yang-tsze route, barren. It is exceedingly rich in copper, and contains some of the most fertile plains in the west of China. The plains of T’ung-ch’uan and Chao-t’ung are famous. The admission, however, that Northern YÜn-nan will continue to belong to the Yang-tsze route is important, because, to reach that part of the country, goods are carried through the province of Ssu-ch’uan. There can be no question, therefore, as to the trade-route to Ssu-ch’uan. But I need not rest my argument on the opinions or admissions of others. I have traversed all the existing trade-routes between YÜn-nan and Ssu-ch’uan, and between YÜn-nan and Kuei-chow, and I have very vivid and bitter recollections connected with them. In proof of the difficulties that exist, I may state that it is a common occurrence to see pack animals lying dead on the mountain sides, and this recollection is all the more deeply impressed on my mind by the fact that one of my own horses fell a victim to a vain search after a practicable trade-route.

But, in addition to the physical features of the country, there is another consideration that binds the trade of Western China to the River Yang-tsze. I have already said that the cotton plant does not flourish in Ssu-ch’uan, and that raw cotton and native cottons are largely imported by the province. Whence are they imported? From the Central Provinces of China, through which the Yang-tsze flows.

The only route to Ssu-ch’uan, Kuei-chow, and Northern YÜn-nan, is the Yang-tsze, on whose upper waters a large trade in foreign goods is even now conducted, a trade which is capable of enormous development when the present burdensome taxation is reduced. The opening of Ch’ung-k’ing by the ascent of a steamer—an event anxiously looked for by the native merchants of Ssu-ch’uan—will, as I have pointed out, reduce that taxation, and will enable millions, who at present look upon foreign goods as articles of luxury, to become themselves consumers; and I trust the day is not far distant when the British flag will float over entrepÔts of British manufactures throughout Western China.