boating it up the Yang-tse-kiang from Shanghai to Hang-kow, whence they thought of penetrating viâ Thibet into British India.[160] Already information has been obtained from a variety of these excursions, which were undertaken specially in the interests of commerce, such as justify the most glowing expectations as to the trade with the Yang-tse-kiang and the Pei-ho.[161] Hang-kow promises to be a most important depôt for the exportation of tea, while Tien-Tsin promises to be not less important as an entrepôt for the importation of manufactures of every description. By the opening of these two additional harbours, Shanghai and Canton will fall off in their ratio of increase hitherto, but general commerce will on the whole receive a new impulse.
To the merchant and shipper, the latest intelligence from China as to the enormous development of commerce and trade at numerous spots of the Central Empire, hitherto undisturbed by European civilization, must be positively astounding. It is a rich mine of the most valuable material, which the China Overland Trade Report and the North China Herald presents to its readers, rendered doubly valuable through
the influence of that Freedom of Speech, which makes every mercantile nation participate in the very latest information as to these experiments and their results. For, so far as concerns our present direct intercourse with China, a time must come, when more accurate notions will penetrate into even Austrian commercial circles as to the wants of a population, and the natural wealth of an empire, which embraces a superficial area of 3,000,000 square miles, with a population of 400,000,000 souls, and whose entire foreign commerce already amounts to £36,000,000, apart from the impulse which recent events must lend it.
Notwithstanding the immense variety of natural products of the Chinese Empire, the chief articles of export hitherto have been tea and silk, and we shall therefore confine our attention to a few important particulars as to those two articles.
The introduction of silk cultivation into China, one of the most ancient industrial pursuits of the Empire, is due, if we are to believe a native legend, to the consort of the Emperor Hwang-té, who reigned B.C. 2640. The first mention of the mulberry tree and of silk occurs in the Schoo-kiu,[162] "the
Book of exalted solid learning—the Book of Books," as it were, a collection of the most ancient historical annals of the Chinese Empire, which was compiled B.C. 484, by Confucius, from the memoranda of former writers of history, as well as from the information furnished by ancient monuments. Even empresses in those halcyon times did not deem it beneath their dignity to collect mulberry-leaves and feed the silk-worms, while various treatises were composed by imperial pens, respecting the cultivation of that most useful plant. The interest taken in silk-rearing by these the highest personages in the Empire, has remained unbroken to our own day, and quite recently a Chinese governor enriched the already copious literature upon this subject with a comprehensive work, written with the laudable object of stimulating the inhabitants of the silk-producing districts to a more extensive and improved system of silk cultivating.
The two best species of mulberry, those which are best adapted for the consumption of the worm, are: "Loo" (Morus alba), with long leaves, little fruit, and firm roots, which flourishes chiefly in North China, and "King" (Morus nigra), with narrow leaves, more abundant fruit, and altogether a hardier plant, which grows chiefly in the South.
According to old Chinese notions, there are eight different species of silk-worm, which spin their cocoons at various periods[163] of the year between April and November.
The chief silk districts lie in the northern part of the province of Tsche-Kiang, and the principal silk marts are the following cities: Hoo-chow-foo, Hang-chow-foo, Keahing-fu, Nantsin, and Shoo-hing, which lie in a sort of semi-circle about 150 miles from Shanghai.