Foreign goods, therefore, when landed at Ch’ung-k’ing, have paid an import duty and a transit duty, and, immediately they leave the duty-free area in the hands of the country buyers, they are liable to payment of likin and not unfrequently to additional local taxation. It will naturally be asked, is there no remedy for this grinding taxation, which seriously affects the development of trade and limits the consumption of our manufactures? There is a remedy; but before I touch on it, let us note how the vast trade of Ssŭ-ch’uan, including the trade in foreign goods, is carried on.
The import and export trade of Ssŭ-ch’uan, with the exception of the greater part of the export opium trade, is conducted on the great water highway—the Yang-tsze. This river is navigated by steamers for one thousand miles, as far as Ichang; but west of that port the total trade, with the above exception, is carried on by a fleet of native boats, numbering from five to seven thousand. Few of these native boats or junks have a carrying capacity exceeding one hundred tons, and it will be more intelligible to commercial people if I endeavour to convert this river trade value into tonnage. It is estimated that, on an average, thirty junks arrive at or pass Ichang daily from Ssŭ-ch’uan, and that a like number ascends; and if twelve tons be taken as the average capacity of these junks—a low estimate—it will be found that over twenty thousand tons of cargo are monthly carried to and from Ssŭ-ch’uan. The junks also carry a considerable number of passengers, in addition to the regular passenger traffic which is conducted between Ssŭ-ch’uan and the Lower Yang-tsze in specially-constructed boats. But the conditions under which the navigation of the four hundred miles that separate Ichang from Ch’ung-k’ing is carried on are deserving of special examination.
DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING NAVIGATION.
Ichang lies at the eastern end of a series of gorges, which, with extensive breaks, stretches for a distance of one hundred miles as far as the city of K’uei-chou Fu. It is within this hundred miles that native boats encounter difficulties. These difficulties, which are of two kinds, vary according to the season and according to the state of the river. At low water, that is to say, during the months of December, January, February, and March, the volume of the Yang-tsze, which owing to the contraction of the channel is cooped up in the Gorges, on emerging from them pours into the wider bed of the river, forming races, and in one place a rapid of considerable importance.
This rapid lies at the eastern end of the Mi-tsang Gorge, thirty-three miles from Ichang, and is caused by a sudden declivity of the bed of the river, in the centre of which, at very low water, two ridges of rock appear, leaving a narrow channel between. Besides this narrow passage, however, there are two channels, one on each side, between the central rocks and the banks. Fortunately, at low water the current in the gorges, where there is no possible tracking ground, is sluggish, and the unwieldy native craft are either rowed or sail through them. When the river is high, that is, during the remaining eight months of the year, the races and rapid are altogether obliterated, being covered to a depth of thirty or more feet. The effect of this rise, on the other hand, is to strengthen the current in the gorges, against which the junks, there being no towing path, find it very difficult to make headway. The section of three hundred miles of river that lies between the gorges and Ch’ung-k’ing presents no difficulty to navigation.
The time required to navigate a junk between Ichang and Ch’ung-k’ing depends upon the state of the river. In winter, twenty-five to thirty days are usually required, while at high water, in July for example, six to eight weeks are considered fair passages. The down journey occupies from six to twelve days. The time required, the labour employed, and the risks incurred in navigating a junk on the Upper Yang-tsze, ensure very heavy freights. The sum of seventy shillings is a low estimate for a ton of up-cargo between Ichang and Ch’ung-k’ing, and I notice in the most recent trade report from the former place, that ten to twelve shillings were charged as freight on a bale of piece goods weighing about a hundredweight and a half. It will hardly be matter of surprise, therefore, that trade in British goods is heavily handicapped in the comparatively wealthy province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, when it is borne in mind that these goods, before they reach the hands of the consumer, have paid an import duty, a transit duty, a heavy freight, likin taxes, and in many instances other local exactions.
I come now to the remedy, which, under our existing treaties and engagements with China, can, so far as I am able to judge, afford the only relief to British trade. That remedy is the opening of a port in the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, on the same conditions as any one of the nineteen ports at present open to foreign trade. This is no new scheme. It has been before the mercantile world for some years, and it has received the sanction of the Chinese Government, subject to a condition which has not attracted the attention it deserves. I quote from the Agreement of Chefoo:—“The British Government will further be free to send officers to reside at Ch’ung-k’ing to watch the conditions of British trade in Ssŭ-ch’uan. British merchants will not be allowed to reside at Ch’ung-k’ing, or to open establishments or warehouses there so long as no steamers have access to the port. When steamers have succeeded in ascending the river so far, further arrangements can be taken into consideration.” The opening of Ch’ung-k’ing, therefore, is contingent on steamers reaching that place; in other words, on the navigability of the Upper Yang-tsze.
This, then, is the point upon which the question of the development of British trade with Western China turns, and it is one on which it would be too much to expect unanimity. The great majority of those who have ascended in native boats are of opinion that the river could be navigated by powerful light-draught steamers, and nowhere have I seen an opinion which declares the passage by steamers as impossible. The successive British Agents at Ch’ung-k’ing have repeatedly urged the claims of the Upper Yang-tsze on the attention of British shipbuilders and merchants; but it is to be feared that Blue Books are not perused with that care which they sometimes deserve.
NAVAL REPORT ON THE RAPIDS.
There is one opinion, however, which, because it is the only published nautical opinion, and because it is somewhat adverse, cannot be passed over without comment. In 1869, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce sent two delegates up the Yang-tsze to Ch’ung-k’ing, to collect information on all points bearing on the trade of Western China, and two naval officers were, at the request of the Chamber, deputed by Admiral Keppel, then Commander-in-chief on the China Station, to accompany the expedition. These officers ascended to K’uei-chou Fu, which, as I have already stated, lies at the western end of the gorge and rapid section, and I will now quote from the report of Lieutenant Dawson so far as it concerns this part of the river. He says:—“Having made as detailed a survey between the entrance to the Upper River and Ichang as the nature of the river demanded, and sufficient examination above that port to satisfy me as to the navigability or otherwise of the rapids, I conclude the following:—