attention on account of their produce, we shall briefly notice the varnish tree, the tallow tree, and the wax shrub.
The varnish tree (Vernix vernicia), a sort of sumach, which grows in greatest luxuriance in the provinces of Kiang-si, Chi-kiang, and Szechuen, furnishes that varnish which, partly in a semi-fluid, partly in a dry state, comes to market in whitish cakes, and is worth, according to quality and demand, from 40 to 100 dollars per picul of 133 lbs. In the preparation of this lacquer, the reputation of which has extended over the globe, 6 2⁄3 lbs. varnish, 13 1⁄2 lbs. water, 41 2⁄3 lbs. nut-oil, 16 2⁄3 lbs. of pigs' gall, and 33 1⁄3 lbs. of vinegar, are mixed together till the whole assumes the consistence and appearance of a shining black paste. The fact that many Chinese lacquered wares, especially those prepared in Foo-chow, vie with the renowned manufactures of Japan in beauty and lustre, leaves room to suspect that the Chinese workmen have received some instruction from their Japanese fellow-craftsmen.
Vegetable tallow (Schulah, or Schu-káu, tree fat) is obtained from the Stillingia sebifera, the so-called tallow tree, and, judging by the experiments made with it, promises under an extended system of cultivation to become a tolerably profitable article of export. The tallow tree flourishes throughout the southern provinces, but is chiefly found in the island of Chusan and the coasts adjacent. The tallowy substance procured from the seeds, which externally resemble nuts, is sold in cakes of from 90 to 130 lbs. at from 7 to 12 dollars.
Vegetable or tree wax (peh-lah) is a waxy substance, which the coccus pela or flata limitata deposits, apparently as a protection to its eggs, on a sort of ash tree, on whose twigs and boughs it is deposited like snow-flakes. It is gathered after the first frost, and purified by melting it in a cloth held over hot water. Apparently the process is varied by dipping what has been collected in a silken sack into hot water. It melts at 81° Fahr., and in consequence of its unusual stiffness is much used for admixture with bees-wax and other descriptions of fats used in the manufacture of tapers. The candles hitherto made in England of this substance have commanded a large sale, and only the circumstance that as yet but a small quantity has found its way into commerce, prevents its being much more extensively cultivated. The price of Peh-lah is rather high, as it fetches about £11 10s. per 133 lbs.
Passing from the various natural products furnished for export by China to a consideration of those articles[176] of European industry, for which the Chinese market supplies an ample demand, we find that their number is considerable, while they represent a value of upwards of £5,000,000. In these pages, however, we propose to notice only that article which is the most profitable, and undoubtedly forms the chief staple of import in all the harbours opened to foreign commerce, viz. opium. Opium (á-pièn), the solidified sap of
Papaver somniferum, was, as every one knows, up to quite a recent period, a monopoly of the Anglo-Indian Government, by whom it was cultivated under the superintendence of agents in the various provinces of Hindostan, and sold to the trade by public auction in large quantities at a time in the markets of Calcutta and Bombay. It seems to fulfil among the Chinese the function of the various spirituous liquors of Europe; at least every attempt to introduce among the Chinese a taste for ale, whisky, sherry, port, champagne, and claret, has hitherto entirely failed. Indeed there is probably no country of the globe where, in proportion to population, there is so little spirituous liquor introduced as into China, what is imported being almost exclusively for the consumption of foreigners. The Chinese is emphatically a born "tea-totaller," or friend of abstemiousness, for the native drinks, substitutes for wine, which are obtained chiefly from rice and millet, are only used on special occasions, and then only in small quantities. During our entire stay in Chinese waters, we never saw one single Chinese drunk, and heard in every quarter that any such cases are rare and quite exceptional. On the other hand, the consumption of opium is continually increasing, and the quantity of solidified poppy-juice annually imported amounts to from 75,000 to 80,000 chests, which at current rates represent a value of from £7,500,000 to £10,000,000. There are four descriptions of opium that come to the Chinese market, viz. Benares (Ku-ni), Patna (Kung-ni), Malwa (Peh-pi), and Turkish (Kiu-ni
or golden dung). Of these the Patna and Benares are reckoned of finer quality, and consequently are more sought after, than that imported from Malwa, but both descriptions are preferred by the Chinese to the Turkish, and even to that produced at home.[177]
The custom of opium-smoking is of comparatively modern introduction among the Chinese. It was about the commencement of the 18th century,[178] that the practice of mingling opium with tobacco as an antidote against toothache, headache, and pains in the body first began to prevail. Chinese sailors and merchantmen, returning from the islands of the Bornese Archipelago, had learned from the natives to inhale it as an anæsthetic, which, depriving them of all activity, brought the most delightful visions before their eyes. It is unquestionably the prohibition of wine to the believers in the Koran which first directed their attention to this narcotic substance, which the Western Asiatics swallow in pills, the Hindoos chew, and the Chinese smoke. In 1750, there were imported into China from Turkey, Persia, and Bengal, chiefly by Portuguese merchants, some 200 to 250 chests according to official return (of 140 lbs. each), ostensibly for medical use.
Nothing could be more welcome to the entire Empire than a means of passing the intervals of relaxation from the hurry of business, in a state of absolute exemption from all anxiety, rocked in the most delightful slumbers! In 1773 the East India Company sent a small portion of opium to China by way of speculation. Seven years later they founded an Opium Dépôt in Larke's Bay. In 1781 the Company sent 2800 chests (of 140 lbs. each) at one single shipment to Canton, where it was purchased by a "Hong," or Association,[179] for trading purposes. The Company found itself compelled, however, to re-export a quantity, as at that period there was not in China a sufficient demand for such a supply. The first regular shipments began in 1798, when 4170 chests were sent to the account of the Association in China, and then sold at Rs. 415 (about £41 10s.) per chest.[180] Since that period the import and consumption have been steadily increasing at a geometric ratio, and a table now before