The Republican journal., 1899-07-27
A Declining Tea Port.
Hankow and its Waning Trade y Russian
Influence Supplanting English.

Hankow and its Waning Trade : Russian
Influence Supplanting English.
In an article entitled, ''The River of
Tea" Miss E, r. Scidmore, an entertain
ing and authoritative writer on China,
Japan, and Java, tells the readers of the
August Century good deal about the
trade that t1ourshes on the banks of the
Yangtsze- kiang, and incidentally of the
loss of English influence at the great tea
port, Hankow.
Hankow, so long the chief source of
supply of British tea drinkers, with fifteen
or twenty tea steamers in port at time
loading for London, has undergone a
change in this decade. AS Chinese teas
deteriorated in quality and tea farmers be-
came more careless and dishonest, India
and Ceylon teas began to win favor, and
with the enormous increase of production
in those two British dependencies, Chinese
tea has lost its place in the British market,
furnishing only one ninth of England S
import in 1895. At that same time be-
gan the general awakening of Russia. At
Hankow the Russian has come, and to stay,
and the shadow of the Muscovite is over
| it all. The Russian is not only establish
ed at the gates of China, but also at it's
very heart, the invasion and absorption
D6luG DIS TeIudIkdDl6 Ill lulS DIlllSu S6lIl6-
ment at Hankow as anywhere in Korea or
| Manchuria. Hankow is fast becoming a
Russian city or outpost, foothold soon
| to be a stronghold in the valley of the
Yangtsze, which China has given her
word shall never be alienated to any
power but England. Some alarmists may
| even view the Siberian merchants at Han
kow as emissar;es, like those armed Rus
sian monks who first established them
selves in the Caucasus and Asia Minor in
stronghold monasteries. Although the
| Russians have their own concession ATTAIN
kow, they do not care TO build upon it and
| live there, amenable then to Russian laws
and consular jurisdiction, to Russian re-
strictions and espionage; and the consulate
and few warehouses were the only build
! ings on the Russian concession in 1896. The
Russians prefer the laws and the order of
the British concession, crOwding in upon
it at every opportunity, competing for any
house that comes into the market, and
building closely over former lawns and
garden space. They compete with and
outbid the few British tea merchants who
remain in these days of active Russian
trade aggression. Only one tea steamer
took cargo to London in 1896; two more
British firms closed out and left HankoW
| that year; and, Stlll more slgnlncant, only
one pony showed the colors of the one
British racing stable at the autumn races.
In the retail shops prices are quoted and
bills made out as often in rubles as in taels
or dollars, and the Russians have gradual
ly assumed an air of ownership, of seign
iorial rights, as complete as if they held
the lease or diplomatic deeds to the place
for ninety nine years.
This great tea market of foreign Han.
kow is a city of six weeks only, the heads
Of the great hongs, or their managers, oc-
cupying their residences from the first Of
May to the middle of June each year
Leaf teas are fired and shipped until Sep
TENDER and even later, and brick-tea is
made until January, but the choice tea is
all looked to in those few weeks. !.
With all the machines invented and used or
tea plantations in India and Ceylon, a
drier has only once been used in China.
All attempts toward greater care anc
cleanliness in preparation have been in
vain as attempts toward introducing ma
chi nery at the tea farms themselves. Not
ldeclining trade or prices--for the tes
trade is not nearly what it was eight
years aegean stimulate the tea growers