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“...NEWCHWANG. .4
The sterling total for 1906 was about 1 per cent, higher than
that for 1910, the following years, 1907-08, showing considerably
smaller amounts. No later year has approached the total, 10,982,329?.,
recorded for 1905, but 1905 cannot be accepted as a fair standard of
comparison, both because its import trade was unnaturally swelled
by a partly speculative demand which followed the war between
Japan and Russia, and because Newchwang was still practically the
only point of entry into Manchuria, instead of being, as it now is,
only one of several ports. One of its rivals, viz., Dairen, has, moreover,
advantages, both natural in respect of climate, and artificial in respect
of more favoured treatment by a powerful railway corporation and
the fostering care of an active and intelligent administration, which
make it a very formidable competitor.
The over-stocking of the market with imported goods in 1905 and,
to a less degree, in 1906, was directly accountable for the reduction
observable...”
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“...months the agriculture and industry of
Manchuria very largely depend, these inland navigation steamers are
also employed in carrying cargo. The principal exports by them
from Newchwang to Tengchow and Lungkow are beans, cereals and
live-stock, especially donkeys. It is stated that the last are required
in Shantung not only as beasts of draught, but that their flesh is
largely in demand as food.
The passenger traffic is naturally most active at the beginning
and end of the open season. The number of native passengers recorded
in the customs returns as arrived from inland waters places during
1910 was 57,242, of whom 40,479 came during the first half of the year.
The number recorded as having left Newchwang for these places is
35,278, of whom 21,387 left in the second half of the year. The excess
in the number of arrivals may be accounted for by many returning
by rail or road via Tientsin and via Dairen, while some settle per-
manently in Manchuria. I am told that the numbers given in the...”
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“...Formosa enters Manchuria in large
quantities, but chiefly via Dairen ; every effort is made by the Japanese
to compete with Hong-Kong refined sugar by dumping on this market
cheap sugar fostered by bounties.
The trade in Chinese sugar from Amoy and Swatow is stated to
have suffered from low prices obtainable for it in Manchuria and also
from the fact that cultivators in the south are finding it more lucrative
to grow oranges on land hitherto devoted to sugar cultivation. But
the figures for 1910 do not point to any decline in the quantity im-
ported, at least as far as imports through Newchwang are concerned.
Flow.—In 1907 and 1908, 477,170 and 171,991 cwts. respectively
of foreign, i.e., American, flour appeared in the customs returns of
imports. In 1Q09 no foreign flour at all, and in 1910 only 321 cwts.
were imported. This trade was killed by the low exchange of silver
in 1909, and has now been ousted beyond recall by the products of
mills in Shanghai and in Manchuria itself. The last...”
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“...u).
Exports.—As already mentioned, the value of the exports by
steamer in 1910 slightly exceeded those of the previous year, though
the considerable reduction in the junk trade resulted in a diminution
of the total.
The principal items for the years 1908-10 are tabulated in the
annex.
Beans and bean products.—Beans, bean cake and bean oil are the
mainstay of the business of Newchwang. Bean cultivation ranks
next to that of millet as the principal agricultural activity of the
interior of Manchuria, bean cake is its most valuable export.
Seven principal varieties of beans are recognised articles of
commerce in this market. Of these, three, known as green, yellow and
white (or white and yellow), are used for oil extraction.
Beans and bean cake are for the most part sent to other Chinese
ports and to Japan, though in the year under review 75,952 cwts. of
beans were shipped to the Dutch Indies and 66,000 cwts. to Denmark.
The shipment to the United Kingdom that appeared in the 1909
returns...”
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“...Melon seed ... 14,988
Other exports ... 48,229
Total 1,612,570
One very considerable item in the export business of Newchwang
does not appear in the customs records at all, but perhaps deserves
a passing notice, namely, Chinese Government salt. During 1910 some
20 ship-loads, or 31,080 tons, of salt left this port for Vladivostok.
It is collected chiefly from Fuchou Bay on the coast of the Liaotung
peninsula, about 70 miles south of Newchwang, and is destined for
consumption in Northern Manchuria. Although some is conveyed
inland by rail, it is found more economical to ship it as far as Vladi-
vostok by sea. The'trade is, of course, a Government monopoly....”
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“...outbreak of pneumonic plague, which
raged through most parts of Manchuria and North China during the
winter of 1910-11, did not afEect the trade of 1910, but may produce
many and serious results in the present year. Newchwang, fortunately,
escaped contagion, but the quarantine measures deemed necessary for
the protection of the public health caused much delay and interference
with the transport of many kinds of merchandise during the early
months of the year ; for instance, it became wholly impossible to
bring bristles, hides or other animal products into the town, besides
which an embargo was placed on the arrival of the usual swarms of
coolie labourers from Shantung ports and from Tientsin and elsewhere.
Apart from the effects of the plague, which it would be premature
to estimate, the prospects for 1911 should be good. The harvest of
1910 was somewhat unevenly distributed but on the whole favourable.
Throughout Northern Manchuria, as far south as Tiehling, and every-
where east of the Liao...”
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