The morning call., 1894-05-20

suit will be a great falling eff in China's
imports from Europe and America, and it
will act as a sort of a protective tariff to
stimulate home production.
There are now on foot a number of
schemes for the manufacturing Of foreign
goods in China, and some OF the Chinese
capitalists themselves are seriously con-
sdering how they can take advantage OF
the present situation in the building of
factories. The empire now has foreign
trade OF something like $500, 900, 600 year.
heretofore ore than half of this has con-
sisted of imports. The goods have been
shipped into the open ports of the country
ana from there carried in junks, on
camels. on WheelDarrOws and in Chinese
carts all over the empire. Far beyond the
Chinese wall. on the borders If Thibet and
In the wllds OF Mongolia, you find strange
people wearing English and American cot
tons, and many Of the huts of the Tibet
ans in the HimaIaya Mountains are rooted
with the tin pounded out of American
coal-oil cans. l see our coal oil carted Oh
wheelbarrows through the streets of these
interior Chinese cities and there is a great
oil reservoir at Shanghai, where the Pc
troleum is stored awaiting its shipment
l. into the Interior We have been sending
in the DeghbOThOOd Of 40, 600, 600 gallons OF
. coal oil to China every year for some time
apd many Chinese home along the 7 ang-
-tse-KIang is lighted with the fluid that
flows from the pipes Of the Pennsylvania
wells.
China contains between four and FIVE
hundred millions Of people. With its
tributary provinces IL Is said 10 have the
enormous population of 537 OO0.0 600. Since
1he beginning OF our Government we have
coined all told about 461, O00,0 900 silver
dollars, not including the dimes, halves
and quarters. ana if the whole could be
: gathered together and carried to China
there would not be enough TO give dollar
: TO each OF It's inhabitants. China is gen.
- orally supposed TO be very poor. [ believe,
. on the contrary, that it is q rich country,
aud IL must require vast amount to do lis
business. II IS true there are many mil
lions OF poor, but there also millions of
Weli-to-qO and millions OF comparatively
rich. There are few countries where jew
elry IS mOre commonly worn, and where the
clothes of the better classes are more
costly. l have seen since l came here
thousands Of ordinary citizens dressed in
- long gowns of brocaded silk lined with
furs, and nearly every other woman you
see outside Of the labOTiDg women wears a
SILK coat and silk DaDtaloOns, while her
little pinched toes are covered with silk,
silver or gold embroidered shoes. She has
silver or gold ornaments in her hair and
her silk headdress is often decorated with
rows Of pearls. Both sexes wear gold
rings, and well-tO-dO Chinaman expects
TO fit cut his daughters with gold orna-
ments on the occasion Of their marriage.
lucy look upon the CUdGs 20 IN the DTlceS oil
money as Use 10 gold rather than a fall
in silver. and / hear everywhere the ques-
ton, "Why for makee gold SO dear 2"
They realize the change when they have a
daughter whom they want to marry off,
and the rise is, in fact, so surprising to
many of the people that they are selling
their gold ornaments. They are bringing
out the gold bricks they have boarded and
the country is being drained of its gold.
The Chinese are a great business peoplS.
Their cities are beehiVes of work, and they
require great deal Of money 10 do their
trading The city of Canton absOTbs abuut
three millions Of silver dollars a year. 1t
takes millions to do the business Of Shang-
hal and Tlen tSIn, and there are scattered
over this land thousands of native banks
that do a regular banking business and
some of which issue notes. There are 400
native banks in Peking, 800 in Ten sin and
hundreds in Shanghai, Foo Chow, Ningpo,
HankOw aud Canton. All OF the big cities
have their stock exchanges, and 10 these
the brokers meet daily and buy and sell
like our bulls and bears do in Wall street.
1 saw a thousand such brokers pulling,
hauling and scratching at each other in the
STOCK exchange in Picking, and l am told
that many of them have recently lost great
sums 10 betting on silver. The Taotai or
chinese Mayor OF Shanghai has lost, it is
sald, S6O9,OO0 within the last three months
. IN buying silver, and he has, in fac, spec
Will shortly be filed with a new appointee.
ID all OF the treaty ports. the foreign as
we'll as the native, business is really done
by the Chinese. All of the foreign firms
have Chinese cashiers. aud these men
make all Of the calculations and handle ali
the money. When you 20 into a bank the
English clerk will call a Chinaman TO
figure out your exchange fer him and it
Will be the ChiDaman who will paw Won
your money. Ii you make a deposit or
pay bill it is a Chinaman who handles
every silver dollar. testing it carefully by
ringing A before he accepts it. and esti-
mating the amount ana rate of exchange
with one of these boxes of balls strung on
wires, which form the states and pencils of
the Celestias. 1t is wonderful how fasi
these men can figure in this way. They
push the balls this way aud that
with their lonR-nailed yellow hands,
and In less time than you could
put down the figures they give you
She result. They are always sure of
themselves, and if they make mistake
the firm by whom they are employed ex-