Here, then, we have two water-routes into Yün-nan, one in the south and the other in the north. But the West River is navigated from Canton to Pe-sê, close to the south-eastern frontier of the province, and is a very important trade highway to southern and eastern Yün-nan. In default of a waterway in the west, communication is kept up by the Bhamo-Ta-li Fu route, which, being now partly within our Indian Empire, has attracted no little attention, and raised considerable expectations for British trade.
It is indeed a pity that these expectations are doomed to disappointment. The total import and export trade by this route three years ago did not exceed half a million sterling. I entered very minutely into the question of this trade when I visited Ta-li Fu in 1883, and I am thus well acquainted with the area which this route supplies. Ta-Li Fu and Yang-pei T’ing form its eastern and northern boundary respectively, and it is from it that the Ta-ping valley draws its requirements. The country east of Ta-li Fu is supplied from Yün-nan Fu, the capital of the province, which again draws both from Canton by the West River, and from Shanghai by the Yang-tsze. The difficulties of the Bhamo route are so great that no great improvement is possible, and no great development of trade can result. Yün-nan has been described as a rich province. I have no hesitation in saying that it is; but it contains a poor population, and, until the condition of the latter is improved, no great development of trade need be looked for in that direction. It is estimated to contain a population of from five to six millions, the great mass of which is engaged in agricultural pursuits. True, there are copper mines in the north and east, and tin and lead mines in the south of the province; but mining industries are so hampered by official interference as to profit little the owners or the workmen. Agriculture, too, is carried on under a system of small farms, and the absence of good roads and the impossibility of greatly improving those that exist, owing to the mountainous character of the province, do not tend to the enrichment of the peasantry. Nor is this all; immense tracts in the north and west of the province have lain waste since the Mohammedan rebellion, and owing to the antipathy of the Chinese to settle on lands which they look upon as the property of people who may still be living, or whose descendants may still be living, it must be many years before the agriculture of the province is properly developed. It will be said that I take a gloomy view of the south-western corner of China; and I am indeed sorry, for the sake of our own commerce, that I cannot present a brighter picture.
I turn now to the province of Kuei-chow, which, owing to its proximity to the great waterway of China, is better situated for trade than Yün-nan, but which, from causes which I shall presently describe, is even less developed than that province. Kuei-chow has not inaptly been called the “Switzerland” of China. The greater part of the province, which is exceedingly mountainous, was formerly peopled by a non-Chinese race, called by the Chinese, Miao-tzŭ; but some twenty years ago a struggle arose between the aboriginal tribes and the Chinese, in which the latter from their superior equipment proved victorious, and drove the conquered into the southern half of the province, although even in the northern half scattered families may still be found. The struggle, which lasted for years, was a desperate one; and, at the present time, traces are everywhere to be seen in the shape of ruined towns and villages and lands lying waste and desolate. The waterways that lead to the province of Kuei-chow, with one exception, flow through Ssŭ-ch’uan. That exception is the Yuan River, which, rising in the east of the province, flows east and north-east into the Tung-t’ing Lake, which debouches into the Yang-tsze, one hundred and twenty-three miles to the west of Hankow. This river, which, although obstructed by numerous rapids, is navigated to within one hundred and thirty miles of Kuei-yang Fu, the capital of the province, is the trade highway to Eastern Kuei-chow.
A PROSPEROUS PROVINCE.
The trade of the rest of the province is intimately bound up with that of Ssŭ-ch’uan, through which, owing to its remaining waterways, it naturally passes. The population of Kuei-chow is estimated to equal that of Yün-nan. It consists of immigrants from other neighbouring provinces, who seem to have left behind them whatever energy they may have at one time possessed. Like Yün-nan, Kuei-chow is rich in the variety of its mineral wealth. Coal, iron, copper, and quicksilver exist in large quantities; but they are very imperfectly worked. What it lacks is salt, a necessary which binds it and its trade to Ssŭ-ch’uan, which is able to supply not only its own wants, but those of the southern province, the north of Yün-nan, and parts of other eastern provinces.
I am happy to be able to pass from these two provinces, half depopulated by internecine struggles, only partly cultivated and partly developed, to a brighter picture. Ssŭ-ch’uan is really a picture of what peace, contentment, industry, and consequent trade are able to accomplish. When Yün-nan and Kuei-chow were convulsed by civil wars, the Ssŭ-ch’uanese were peacefully journeying up and down the Great River, as the section of the Yang-tsze in the east of the province is called, disposing of their surplus produce, and bringing back not only what they required to satisfy their actual wants, but also luxuries in the shape of goods of foreign manufacture. There have been, and still are, skirmishings in the far west of the province; but rebellions have been short-lived, and have little affected the commercial section which lies to the east of the Min River. It is of the trade of this province, itself as large as France, and as populous, that I wish particularly to draw attention. I shall endeavour to point out the value of that trade, the conditions under which it is carried on, and the means that should be taken for its development.
Although Ssŭ-ch’uan is hilly in the east and centre and mountainous in the west, cultivation has been carried to a state bordering on perfection. The dense population of the province has no doubt largely contributed to this end; but its fine waterways have greatly helped the energy of the people. The river Yang-tsze, which flows through the province, is the great trunk, having for its northern branches the Min with its tributaries, the T’o, and the Chia-ling with its affluents. On the south are the Ta-kuan, the Nan-kuang, the Yung-ning, the Jên-huai or Ch’ih-shui, the Ch’i-chiang, and the Kung-t’an Rivers.
On all these rivers there is one constant stream of traffic, and it will be asked, in what does that traffic consist? No other province in China can vie with Ssŭ-ch’uan in the richness and variety of its products, and I will refer only to those of them which constitute the chief articles of eastern export. They are, in the order of their value, opium, silk, salt, sugar, and medicines. Of these, silk is the only article that reaches Europe; but, amongst the minor exports, tobacco, hides, musk, and rhubarb are well-known in this country. The total value of the export trade of Ch’ung-k’ing, which is situated on the north bank of the Yang-tsze, at the mouth of the Chia-ling River, and is the great trade emporium of the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, amounts to more than five million sterling annually. This must not be assumed to represent the total value of the surplus produce of the province. There are several important trade centres that lie between Ch’ung-k’ing and the western frontier of the province of Hupeh, such as Fu Chou, Fêng-tu Hsien, Wan Hsien, and K’uei Fu, each of which contributes its quota to the large export trade of Ssŭ-ch’uan. Moreover, the west of the province supplies Tibet with brick-tea, and the south-western corner, known as the valley of Chien-ch’ang, sends its silk into Yün-nan and even into Burmah.
THE COTTON TRADE.
What, then, does Ssŭ-ch’uan purchase with these surplus millions? What does this rich province lack? The answer is easy. Cotton will not flourish in Ssŭ-ch’uan, and the greater part of her surplus wealth is consumed in the purchase of raw cotton, native cottons, and, what is of great importance to British commerce, foreign cotton and woollen goods. But what proportion do these imports bear to each other? Raw cotton exceeds, while native cottons and foreign piece goods range, each about one million sterling. I should state, however, that all this cotton is not consumed in the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan. The Ssŭ-ch’uanese are a great manufacturing people, and cottons manufactured from the imported raw material form an important export from Ssŭ-ch’uan to Yün-nan and Western Kuei-chow.