Shanghai must be a place of immense commercial importance, not only as regards the internal traffic of the country, but also in respect to its foreign commerce, or at least its trade with the remoter parts of China, and even with Siam and Cochin-China. It is said to rank second only to Canton in commercial importance, particularly as the junks belonging to the southern provinces are prohibited from trading further north than this city, which therefore, in a certain degree, enjoys a monopoly. During Mr. Medhurst's visit to it, he reckoned that there were a thousand large junks in the river; and on visiting it, not long after it was taken, and when the trade was almost entirely stopped, I was myself much struck with the large size of the junks, which crowded both sides of the river.
Mr. Gutzlaff states that the imports of Shanghai already far exceed the exports; and, therefore, the difficulty again arises as to the mode of payment for the additional imports, which will soon find their way to Shanghai since the opening of the port. The Americans look forward to getting a large supply of green tea at Shanghai in exchange for their cotton, green tea being in extensive use among them.
Shanghai has immense internal communication with all the central parts of China; it is situated in the richest and most productive part of the country, and the adjacent district has been called the Chinese Arcadia. The country is one fertile flat, occasionally subject to ravages by inundations, but generally drained and cultivated with great care. In some parts, the land, lying below the level of the rivers, is only maintained by strong and extensive embankments. The whole country is covered with hamlets and villages, and cotton is cultivated in great quantities.
The inhabitants of Shanghai have, on all occasions, shewn a friendly disposition towards foreigners; and where the latter have been treated with rudeness, it has been solely by the orders of the mandarins, or at their instigation. Both Mr. Medhurst and Mr. Gutzlaff bear testimony to this fact, during their early visits; on which occasions the people eagerly asked to receive books, of which several thousand copies were distributed. So important is the trade of this place, that the appointments in the public service are anxiously sought for, and the office of superintendent of customs is considered extremely lucrative.
Mr. Gutzlaff's testimony respecting this place is curious. Speaking of his visit, in 1832, he says, "the mandarins never directly interfered with my distributing books or conversing with the people; and after issuing the severest edicts against us, they gave us full permission to do what we liked. They afterwards praised our conduct, but gave the people their paternal advice to have nothing to do with us. An imperial edict arrived, ordering us to be treated with compassion, but not to be supplied with rice or water. But they sent us quantities of live stock and flour, upon the sole condition that we would not pay for them." It is, in fact, a curious thing to observe how easily the Chinese evade all regulations when their interest leads them to do so, and how readily they adopt every subterfuge.
I chanced to pay a visit to Shanghai the very day after the conclusion of peace was first made known in the town. We landed from our boat, at a little stone jetty in front of a deserted temple, before which there was an open paved court, or square, crowded with people. Nothing could surpass the good order which prevailed; not a noise or groan was heard, or inconvenience of any kind experienced. Curiosity seemed to be the sole absorbing feeling, and one could hardly imagine that this was only the first week of peace, and that a hostile force had a short time before occupied the city. A Chinese crowd is the most orderly in the world; and, if we may judge of civilization by the quiet, sober, deferential bearing of a large body of people crowded together in narrow streets, certainly the Chinese deserve to bear the palm. A few soldiers were appointed to attend us through the town, who, instead of arms, carried a fan-case, tied round their waist, and a whip in their hand, with which they cleared the way with apparent good will, as we proceeded along the streets of the suburbs.
It was a curious sight to look down the long, narrow, paved street, on each side of which were crowds of shaved heads, each trying to raise itself an inch or two higher, to catch a glimpse of the passing strangers. The steps and doorways were crowded, and also a few of the windows; but most of the shops being shut, and the houses having generally only one story, there were none of those groups of figures, men, women, and children, rising in stages, one above the other, such as are seen in Europe from the bottom of the house to the top, when anything remarkable is to be seen.
The greatest contrast, next to the immense collection of bald heads, and brown, roundish, ugly-looking features, consisted in the total absence of women, which, in any part of Europe, would have formed perhaps the most numerous and noisy part of the assemblage. There was no appearance whatever of rudeness or hostility; and when the people were warned out of the way, or pushed aside, and reminded, by a gentle touch of the whip, that they must move out of the way, they did so in apparent good humour.
The inner town appeared to be only separated from the suburb by the actual wall, there being little difference in the houses on one side or the other. Two or three additional soldiers turned out of the guard-house as we passed, and joined our escort, certainly a shabby-looking set.