In this system as a whole, as in the administration of justice, the Chinese work as far as possible through the leading inhabitants, while retaining a general supervision. They are very greedy for money, but are acute enough to avoid causing too much discontent, and they remove any official who becomes unpopular. In short, although their system may be inefficient and aims at no improvements in administration or communications, it is believed that the natives, with their memory of Yakub Beg’s tyranny, would not care to exchange their Chinese rulers for Moslems.
We come now to the trade of the province, concerning which my remarks refer mainly to the three cities of Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan. Kashgar, the residence of the Governor, is not only the chief town, but the centre of Russian trade. Owing to its favoured position with regard to the railway at Andijan and the wealth of its rich oasis, the city is increasing in population, which is now estimated at 80,000. Land is rising in price and there is hardly a vacant house. Yarkand, with 70,000 inhabitants, is also rich and prosperous, but in a less marked degree, and is the chief centre of the trade with India. Khotan, with a population of 50,000, is the centre of the manufacturing activity of the province, being celebrated for its jade, silk and carpets.
The mainstay of the export trade with India is the drug known as charas in India, prepared from the hemp which is planted round the fields of maize; raw silk is the next most valuable export. The chief articles of import from India are muslins, longcloths, and red cotton prints; while spices from Southern India are in great and increasing demand, and penetrate even to the western provinces of China. Surat brocades are imported for covering caps and for women’s cloaks, and I have seen some good specimens of the beautiful cloth of gold.
In no part of Asia are communications more difficult. The route to India, via Leh, perhaps the highest and roughest trade route in the world, runs across range after range of stupendous mountains, culminating in the Kara Koram, which is crossed by a pass at the immense height of 18,550 feet. This track is open for not more than six months in the year, and the difficulties from storms, avalanches and flooded rivers are increased by the scantiness of the grazing, and for some six stages by the entire absence of villages. This trade with India via Leh is of small amount, showing a total value of about £200,000 for 1913.
By treaty Russo-Chinese trade via Irkeshtam or Narin is free of customs dues. Its value in 1913 was two and a half million roubles, or rather more than the British total at the pre-war rate of exchange, cotton tissues being the most important article. The Russian flowered prints with which the natives are chiefly clothed—only the poorer classes wearing the dingy white native calico—are artistic, and make the crowds in the bazar delightfully picturesque. As may be supposed, the chief articles of export are raw materials, such as cotton, sheepskins, silk and wool; but there is also a considerable trade in the local white cloth, which is worn on both sides of the frontier, and in carpets.
The trade with Afghanistan is local and is mainly with the province of Badakshan, the imports being almonds, pistachio and gall-nuts, and the horses which were famous even in Marco Polo’s day. Opium, too, is smuggled in considerable quantities; the lapis lazuli mines are not worked regularly, but occasional blocks are brought for sale. The Badakshani traders carry back Russian piece goods, carpets and the local white cloth. The route, which runs across the Wakhijir pass, is open during the summer only, and the pedlars—for those who use it are little more—must be a hardy race to withstand its rigours.
CHAPTER XIII
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINESE TURKESTAN:
THE EARLY PERIOD
L’histoire des Turos occidentaux est comme la clef de voûte oû convergent et se rencontrent pendant quelques années les histoires particulières de grandes nations qu’on regarde trop souvent comme isolées les unes des autres; elle nous rappelle que la continuité est la loi de l’univers et qu’il n’est pas d’anneau qu’on puisse ignorer dans la chaine infinie dont toutes les parties sont solidaires.—Chavannes, Documents sur les Turcs Occidentaux.
The history of Chinese Turkestan presents the difficulty that until mediaeval times it filled but a small part on the stage of Asia. On the other hand, it lay on the highway of the nations, and migrations from the Far East to the West, which have so deeply influenced the history of mankind, generally traversed the Tarim basin, the country to the south being almost impracticable, and the country to the north presenting a longer and a more difficult line of advance. Holding firmly to the belief that history should be studied as a whole rather than in watertight compartments, I have attempted in this sketch to give some account, not only of events affecting Chinese Turkestan but also of their connection with, and reaction upon, neighbouring states of Asia.