Three Years in Western China / A Narrative of Three Journeys in Ssu-ch'uan, Kuei-chow, and Yün-nan

by Sir Alexander Hosie

CHAPTER XII.

THE TRADE OF WESTERN AND SOUTH-WESTERN CHINA.

The waterways, trade-routes, condition, and commercial prospects of Yün-nan—Trade-routes to Kuei-chow, and the mineral wealth of the province—The waterways of Ssŭ-ch’uan—General trade of Ssŭ-ch’uan—Foreign trade of Ssŭ-ch’uan and how it is conducted—The defects in the present system and the remedy—The rapids and the difficulties they present—Advantages to be gained from the opening of Ch’ung-k’ing—The Yang-tsze the only route—Trade bound to the Yang-tsze.

I felt very highly honoured by a recent invitation, which was addressed to me by the Chamber of Commerce of the great manufacturing city of Manchester, to speak on the subject of trade with China; but I confess that I had the greatest diffidence in appearing before a commercial audience, before men who make trade the business of their lives. A residence of ten years in a country like China does not necessarily imply an acquaintance with its trade, and, were this the only qualification that I possessed, I should have hesitated to accept the invitation. The trade of China, like the Empire itself, is vast and varied, and to examine and discuss it in anything like an exhaustive manner would have occupied far too much time. Instead, therefore, of speaking of the general trade of China, I drew their attention to that part of the country which has of late attracted considerable notice from its proximity to Upper Burmah, now incorporated in our Indian Empire.

South-western China was not unfamiliar to the audience I then addressed, its trade and trading capabilities having been brought before the principal Chambers of Commerce in Great Britain by Mr. Colquhoun and Mr. Hallett, two gentlemen who took great interest in the subject—an interest, too, which they tried to instil into the commercial world. The part of China, then, of which I spoke embraced Ssŭ-ch’uan, Yün-nan, and Kuei-chow, and the observations I made were based on a three years’ residence and recent journeys, covering some five thousand miles in these three provinces.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

It is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion regarding the trade of a country without some knowledge of the geography of that country; it is therefore necessary, at the outset, to note the physical characteristics of Western China. The hundred and tenth degree of longitude divides China Proper into two almost equal parts. It does more; it divides the level from the mountainous half. Yün-nan, Kuei-chow, and Ssŭ-ch’uan, constitute the southern section of the latter or mountainous half. Let us, then, deal with these three provinces in the above order.

CONDITION OF YÜNNAN.

Yün-nan is bounded on the north by the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, on the west by Upper Burmah and the Shan States, on the south by the Shan States and Tonquin, and on the east by the provinces of Kwang-si and Kuei-chow. It is the birth-place of several well-known rivers. On the west are the Ta-ping and Shweli, tributaries of the Irrawady; the Salwen and Mekong flow through its whole length; the Song-koi, or Red River, and the Hsi Chiang, or West River, take their rise in the south and east of the province respectively. The Chin Chiang, or Chin-sha Chiang, as the upper waters of the Yang-tsze are called, flows through the north-western corner, and for a considerable distance divides Yün-nan from Ssŭ-ch’uan. In the north-east there is one small river, the Ta-kuan, or Hêng Chiang, a tributary of the Yang-tsze. Of all these rivers, the only two that are navigable into Yün-nan are the Song-koi and the Yang-tsze, with its tributary the Ta-kuan, and these not without some difficulty.