[170] According to Fortune ("A Residence among the Chinese." London, 1857. Murray), the various sorts of tea have added to them from two to four spoonfuls of a mixture in which the plant ma-ki-holy largely enters, as also indigo and pulverized gypsum, in order to increase the green tinge of the leaves.
[171] A picul, 133 1⁄3 lbs., of these leaves costs on the average 15 to 18 dollars, though it occasionally ranges as high as 30 dollars.
[172] In the year 1859, the exports into England were 30,988,598 lbs. (viz. 22,292,702 lbs. black, and 8,695,896 lbs. green), out of a total export of 55,328,731 lbs. Within the same period 19,952,147 lbs. went to the United States, 1,879,584 lbs. to Australia; to Hong-kong, and other ports along the coast of China, 1,261,347 lbs.; to Montreal, 510,600 lbs., and to the entire continent of Europe 736,455 lbs.
[173] Some experiments on a small scale were made with the Sorgho at Aquileia near Görz, by M. Karl Ritter, a well-known merchant and sugar refiner, of Trieste. We were shown samples of refined sugar, extracted from the Sorgho, which promised the best results. A large quantity of seeds which were sent a year ago to one of the members of the Novara Expedition by M. de Montigny, had been made use of to institute a series of experiments in cultivation, in those parts of the Empire, the climatic conditions of which promised to be most favourable for the growth of the Sorgho.
[174] During our stay at Shanghai we also made inquiries as to an alleged new species of potato, concerning which there have been current for years such contradictory accounts in the European and American journals, that the foreign community of Shanghai was beset with inquiries from all parts of the world, begging for more accurate information as to this newly discovered tuber, which promised to supply a much-needed substitute for the apparently effete, worn-out, disease-smitten potato of Peru. No one, however, could furnish us with the slightest information on the subject, and ultimately it became apparent that the rumours hitherto current were founded on an erroneous impression. It would seem, according to the opinion of Mr. Fortune, that the rumour first arose from mistaking for a new sort of potato, the Calladium esculentum, which is quite commonly exposed for sale in the streets of Shanghai, and the small tubers of which, both in flavour and external appearance, resemble those of the potato, when, without taking the slightest further trouble to inquire into the matter, the pretended new discovery, fraught with such important results for the poorer classes, was duly trumpeted to the entire world. In no part of China hitherto accessible was there at the time of our visit any other description of potato in use than the common Peruvian. Officers of the English and American navies, who at the time of the first Peace of Tien-Tsin were eating potatoes in the Gulf of Petcheli, assured us that they were precisely identical with those that have so long been acclimatized in Europe. Of edible tubers there are at Shanghai, besides potatoes, the yam (Dioscorea sp.) and the Yucca (Jatropha sp.).
[175] The following is the process as we observed it: the bamboo strips are first soaked for a considerable period in water, after which they are peeled, and again saturated with lime-water, until they are perfectly flexible. After this, they are converted, according to the method in use at that special locality, either by water power or hand labour, into a fluid of a pap-like viscosity, after which it is boiled till it has attained the requisite fineness and consistency for conversion into paper.
[176] These consist chiefly of cotton and woollen goods of every description, steel cutlery, iron-ware, glass, clocks, watches, musical clocks, tin-ware, &c.
[177] The quantity of home-grown opium, chiefly produced in the province of Yun-nán, cannot be accurately ascertained, as the returns are not made at certain points; but the quantity must fall far short of the amount imported from India.
[178] According to MacCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, opium had been introduced into China and India by the commencement of the 16th century by Mahometan merchants, and it sounds like an apology when the learned and patriotic author, in treating of the part taken by England in the much-to-be-lamented traffic in this noxious drug, adds by way of palliation—"A century and a half before the English had anything whatever to do with its cultivation."—(Latest edition, p. 939.)
[179] Only a certain number (originally twelve) of wealthy Chinese merchants, "Hong," were permitted by law to trade with foreigners at Canton. They had not only to account to Government for all duties and taxes, but were likewise responsible for the good behaviour of the strangers!