Sze-chuen sends gold, brass, iron, tin, musk and a great variety of other drugs; and receives in exchange, European cloths, lacquered ware, looking-glasses, &c. Sze-chuen is the largest of the eighteen provinces, and has a population of twenty-one millions.
Yun-nan yields, for the shops of Canton, brass, tin, precious stones, musk, betel-nut, birds, and peacock’s feathers; and receives silks, woollen and cotton cloths, various kinds of provisions, tobacco and books in return. The population is five millions.
Kuang-we has a population of seven millions, and furnishes the provincial city with large quantities of rice, cassia, iron, lead, fans, and wood of various kinds; and takes in return many native productions, and most of the articles that come to Canton from beyond sea.
From Kwei-chow, one of the central provinces, are brought gold, quicksilver, iron, lead, tobacco, incense, and drugs; a few articles, chiefly foreign goods, find their way back to that province. Its population is five millions.
From the two provinces, Hoo-nan and Hoo-pih, come large quantities of rhubarb; also musk, tobacco, honey, hemp, and a great variety of singing-birds; the number of inhabitants is five millions. They make very considerable demands on the merchants of Canton, both for native productions and foreign imports.
Keang se sends to this market, coarse cloths, hemp, china-ware, and drugs; and receives in return woollens and native books. The population is twenty-three millions. Ho-nan has an equal number of inhabitants, and sends hither rhubarb, musk, almonds, honey, indigo, &c.; woollens, and a few other foreign goods are received in return.
OPIUM.
This account of the domestic commerce of Canton, is taken from native manuscript. We have sought long, but in vain, for some official document which would show at once, the different kinds, and the amount of merchandise, which are annually brought from, and carried to, the several provinces of the empire. The account which has been given must be regarded only as an approximation to the truth. Some articles, doubtless, have been omitted, which ought to have been noticed, and vice versa; one commodity in particular, opium, known to be carried into all the provinces, and used to the amount of more than fifteen millions annually, is not even mentioned. Still, the statement which we have brought into view, shows that there is, in every part of the empire, a greater or less demand for foreign productions; a demand which, so long as the commerce is confined to this port, will be supplied very disadvantageously, both for the foreigner and the native; but while it does remain thus restricted, there is reason to suppose that it will, under all its disadvantages, gradually increase; and even if the northern ports of the empire should be immediately thrown open, it will not soon cease to be important.
Though the merchants and factors from the other provinces enjoy a considerable share of the commerce of Canton, yet they do not confine themselves to the domestic trade; they participate largely in that to Tung-king, Cochin-China, Siam, and the islands of the eastern Archipelago. The whole number of Chinese vessels, annually visiting foreign ports south of Canton, is not probably less than one hundred; of these, one third belong to Canton; six or eight go to Tung-king; eighteen or twenty to Cochin-China, Camboja, and Siam; four or five visit the ports of Singapore, Java, Sumatra, and Penang; and as many more find their way to the Celebes, Borneo, and the Philippine islands. These vessels make only one voyage in the year, and always move with the monsoon. Many of the vessels, from Fuh-keen and the northern ports of China, which go south, touch at Canton, both when outward and homeward bound. But the whole amount of trade to foreign ports, carried on by the Chinese merchants of Canton, is not very great; this is not the case with that which is in the hands of foreigners, which we shall notice in the following chapter.