The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-13 00:00:00

THE COALFIELDS OF CHINA. .

Glancing at the probable effects on the industries of Europe,
likely to result from the opening of the vast coal fields of
China, The Times of Monday, in a leader, writes :
A short statement appeared in our columns of Friday.
in reference to the measures in course of adoption by'
the Chinese Government to utilise the abundant native '1
supplies of coal and iron, instead of continuing to .'
procure these indispensable commodities from Europe.
Many will have felt that these measures -in several
i ,
ways imply changes which to this country are of no
i -
ordinary importance. It is, however, more obviouff
what effect they will immediately produce on our'
general Eastern trade than how they may ultimately
affect our domestic industries. We are becoming
gradually accustomed to the loss of our. former I
monopoly in the economical working of coal,
and we have 'no reason to anticipate any but
beneficial effects from the opening of the un-
limited coalfields of China. The-result will obviously
be to economize and to cheapen Coal in our ctrmlii
markets, and to stimulate our general steam trade in the
Pacific and Indian Oceans. The present design of the;
Native Administrator under whose commission Mr.
Henderson has arrived in England is, indeed, limited j
to rendering the Chinese Imperial armaments inde-
pendent of foreign supplies; but it is obvious that if
capital and skill are once successfully employed in
working the inexhaustible supplies of Coal and Iron ,
which the soil of China affords, not only will they
speedily go far beyond this point, but it is =possible to
set limits to the development of an industry so likely
to acquire a firm establishment.
Every rumour we hear confirms the impression that
the political system which has so long paralyzed the
industrial forces and cramped the resources of China
is destined soon either to break up or to undergo im-
portant modifications. The exclusiveness of the,
Celestial Empire has for many years been yielding
to that modern world which now hedges it in on
all sides, and there can be little doubt that the
time is coming when its gigantic dormant powers
will be effectually quickened into modern life. It
is notorious that the difficulty of opening China
to commercial intercourse has been solely due to
the weak jealousy of the Government and the.
ignorance and corruption of the Government officers.
The Chinese nation -is really among the most in-
dustrious, and most disposed to general and active
commercial intercourse, in 'the world. Should the
obstacles which have hitherto existed to its commercial
progress be permanently removed, we may expect
nothing less than a Revolution in the trade relations of
the East, and probably of more than the East. In one
respect China is far more favoured than some European
nations. Coat and Tron—in their combination the
sinews of industry and the master key of trade—lie
in abundance ready to hand. Science and practical
experience are to be had from Europe for the asking,
while labour, of unparalleled excellence and cheapness
and simply unlimited in quantity, is ready for so
profitable an opportunity at home instead of spreading
in ill-rewarded profusion over America and Australasia.
China, roughly speaking, includes within its limits
about a fourth of the human race, more homo-
geneous, more industrious, and perhaps hardly. less
enterprising, when the opportunity occurs, than the
inhabitants of any of the more modern nations
which have hitherto outstripped her in the path
of wealth and civilisation. She is no longer a
remote and forgotten corner of the earth. She
lies in the very centre of the modern world, as
Constantinople lay in the centre of the world of fif-
teen hundred years ago. From America, Australia,
Russia, and India, as well as from Western Europe,
modern ideas are now irresistibly impressed on this
slumbering nationality. It is not easy to forecast
exactly. the ultimate result of introducing the vast
industrial forces of China into the general current of
commercial enterprise and competition; but if such
a portentous change should in process of time be made,
the value of labour throughout the world must as
necessarily fall as the value of silver fell with the dis-
covery of the mines of Peru.
For,several years attention has, from time to time,
been drawn in this country, not only to the magnitude
and local importance of the Chinese Coalfields' but
to the remarlcable excellence of the Coal which they
afford. About a dozen years ago among the speci-
mens brought home by .Admiral 'Hope, was found a
steam Coal pronounced by analysts to be fully equal,
if not superior, to the best steam Coal of Cardiff. It
i snot, however, in the locality which produces this
Coal, about 40 miles from the capital, that the first
experiments will be tried. Curiously enough, the
very spot which two thousand years ago is re-
terred to as the place where the loadstone was
discovered le to be the scene of operation' and none,
according to competent opinion, could have been
selected in which the intended trial would be more
likely to succeed. At the present moment there
is not single coal mine in China scientifically worked.
There are no steam•engines, pumps, or tramways ;
and though iron has been immemorially in use, and
the trade is even now represented by very creditable i
productions, it is carried on, from the first to the last
of its process, in the most primitive manner. One
of the first incidents of the present enterprise will be
the construction of a railway some miles in length.
At the present moment there is no railway in
China; and we need not insist on the obvious
consequences which may be expected to follow
this lirrestible pioneer of modern ideas, The