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“...........................................................................................................................................10
Customs ..................................................................................................................................................................10
Currency ..................................................................................................................................................................11
South Manchuria Railway Company ..........................................................................................13
History of the line....................................................................................................................................13
Antung-Mukdeu line..............................................................................................................................13
Capital .............................................................................”
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“...SKETCH MAP of part of MANCHURIA
Ordnance Survey Office. SoictJuurifjton. 1913....”
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“...churia, and in the same manner return to their homes in the autumn.
Their migrations may add a little to the receipts of railway and steam-
ship companies, but otherwise their presence or absence does not
materially affect the prosperity of the ports through which they pass,
their savings being spent not in the country where they make them
but in China proper. It is, however, asserted that instead of returning
to their native provinces many of these people are now beginning to
settle down in Manchuria.
Land under cultivation.—With the increase of the Chinese popula-
tion in the leased territory there has been a corresponding increase
of land brought under cultivation. Though it is not pretended that
the figures given in official returns are absolutely correct, it would
seem that whereas in 1907 the area devoted to cereals, always the most
important item in Manchurian harvests, was about 680,000 acres,
in 1910 it had increased to over 800,000 acres. Part of this increase
is probably to be...”
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“...5 ' liaotung peninsula.
whether any of them can be worked at a profit remains to be seen.
Other natural resources the territory does not appear to possess.
History.—During the days when this part of Manchuria was an
integral part of the Chinese Empire its importance was strategical,
not commerical. History, as well as the vestiges of forts along the
shore and among the hills, and the names of places prove that in
ancient times considerable bodies of troops must have been kept
here by the Peking Government, mainly, so it is said, to repel the
attacks of Japanese pirates. It was not, however, till the days of the
China-Japan war that the name Liaotung became familiar to the
world at large. From that time history was made rapidly for the
peninsula. In November, 1895, after having been captured by the
Japanese, it was on the advice of certain of the great Powers retroceded
to China; in 1896 the Russo-Asiatic Bank was conceded the right
to run a line of railway down it as far as Port Arthur;...”
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“...cake industry. It
is only quite recently that the former has found its way into the
markets of Europe; but in China, where it is in general use for
cooking purposes, the demand for it is steady and of long standing.
Japan, too, has for many years past been an excellent purchaser
of bean cakes. Quantities also find their way into the markets of
South China. It can hardly, however, be said that anything con-
nected with beans is at the present moment in a satisfactory condition
in this part of Manchuria.
The oldest mills in existence in the leased territory are at Pitzuwo.
Those at Dairen are quite new, the first having been built in 1906.
They were then worked in the primitive Chinese method; but in
1908 improvements were introduced, iron pressers or crushers being
substituted for stone rollers, and steam or oil taking the place of
donkeys. Since then there has been a great increase in the number
of the mills, and it is estimated that in Dairen, which has become
the centre of the industry...”
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“...Cement Company, which has its main office at Chofu, in
Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The Liaotung branch factory is
situated near Choushuitzu, about 5 miles from Dairen, and it turns
out practically all the cement required for use in the leased territory.
There is even a surplus which finds its way to the neighbouring ports
of China and into Manchuria as far north as Harbin. The average
output per diem is about 600 casks of 380 lbs. each.
Minor industries.—These represent the more important industries
of the territory. Others still in their infancy or the subject of
investigation, with a view to their possibilities, by the experts of the
South Manchuria Railway Company's laboratory are glassware,
soap, candles, soy, the production of alkali and artificial fertilisers,
kerosene refining, the distilling of kaoliang spirit, viticulture and the
production of wine, the weaving of willow baskets and the manufacture
of pottery. Experiments in silk weaving have not so far been crowned
with success...”
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“...duty at their port of shipment, in which case that duty is
levied too.
Native produce brought from Manchuria pays no dues as long as
it remains in the territory, but is subject to the usual export duty
if shipped to China or abroad.
Produce raised in the leased territory or goods manufactured there-
from or from materials brought from abroad pay no export duty at
The customs office at Dairen was established in 1907 with
branches and out-stations at Port Arthur (1908), Chinchou, Pulantien
and Pitzuwo. The methods of procedure with regard to goods passing
through its hands are briefly as follows:—In the case of articles
destined for consumption in the leased territory the declaration of
the importer as to their value, quantity and description is, as a rule,
taken as correct without subjecting the articles themselves to examina-
tion ; but should they be destined for the interior of Manchuria, a
careful and detailed investigation is carried out and duty levied
according to the tariff. Practically...”
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“...400,000 yen in Chiao
Piao, or paper notes, issued by the Taching Bank at Newchwang.
Banks.—Five banks are established in Dairen—the Yokohama
Specie, the Taching, the Chenglung, the Russo-Asiatic and the Hong-
Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
The first mentioned has been in Manchuria for many years, with
its chief office at Newchwang until 1910, when the Dairen branch
was given control over all other branches in this part of China. It
is hardly necessary to say that this is a semi-official institution and
that it works hand in hand with the authorities. It was at tbeir
instance that it started in 1910 the special loan service for the benefit
of its nationals and Chinese interested in enterprises in Manchuria.
The loans in question were supposed to be advanced on shipping,
agricultural, industrial, manufacturing and other businesses.
The Taching Bank (now called the Chungkwo) opened here in 1906,
but only as a customs bank, and it was not till the middle of 1910 that
it began ordinary...”
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“...13 ' liaotung peninsula.
The Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is repre-
sented by an agency working through the local British firm of Cornabe,
Eckford and Co. It has not yet started ordinary banking business.
South Manchuria Railway Company.—Among the many enter-
prises in which Japan is interested in Manchuria none can compare
in size or importance with the South Manchuria Railway. A feeder
in the first place for the markets of the interior, it is in the second
the nucleus of the Japanese colonies, small and large, scattered up
and down the country; and to it they are indebted not only to a great
extent for their means of subsistence, but also for most of the amenities,
and conveniences of life. It is the railway that erects hospitals,
establishes and maintains schools, interests itself in road making,
public works, sanitation, in fact virtually everything that concerns
the public in its settlements except the protection of life and the
administration of justice. Such are...”
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“...(Article VI of additional agree-
ment of December 22, 1905). The work of reconstruction was, as a
matter of fact, not completed till the autumn of 1911.
In addition to its ordinary functions as a means of communication
between the markets of Manchuria and the sea, the line had from
its inception been destined by its constructors to form part of the
great trans-continental railway system which links the Far East
with Europe, and in pursuance of this plan the Japanese on coming
into possession immediately began to make overtures to the Chinese
Eastern Railway for the establishment of a through passenger traffic.
The negotiations were somewhat protracted, but in the end the South
Manchuria Railway Company gained its object and a regular service
of express trains was established enabling passengers travelling via
Dairen or Antung to connect without difficulty or inconvenience
with the Chinese Eastern Railway trains and the general trans-
Siberian service. The last link was forged by the through...”
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“...accounts
for the last five years may be of interest:—
Railway.
Year. Revenue. Expenditure. Balance.
£ £ £
1907 997,241 622,873 374,368
1908 1,279,833 526,893 752,940
1909 1,532,904 593,956 938,948
1910 1,599,810 667,894 931,916
1911 1,789,142 705,227 1,083,915
* Of the administrative board, three were originally Government officials,
three came from banks, one was a university professor and two were in the
employ of the Mitsui Bussan Kwaisha, a Japanese firm having great interests in
Manchuria....”
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“...Vitzuwo.—Pitzuwo, close to the eastern boundaries of the territory,
is a good junk harbour as far as protection from the winds is con-
cerned ; but unfortunately the water in the neighbourhood is so
shallow that the place can never be of any real commercial import-
ance. Here, as in other places, are traces of martello towers built
against piratical incursions.
Port Arthur.—Port Arthur was in ancient times a harbour of refuge
and an important landing place for supplies destined for the troops
in Manchuria. It was also fortified against pirates, and at the end
of the seventeenth century a squadron of war junks was stationed
there and a detachment of marines posted at the village of Shuishiying...”
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“...ransacked by marauders, Russian,
Japanese and Chinese; the greater part of the administrative quarter
was used as barracks for the troops returning to Japan from the seat
of war; about the streets, deep in dust in dry weather, quagmires
in wet, were scattered hovels and lath-and-plaster shanties, and the
place generally was a refuge for the scum of North China and Japan.
All this was, of course, inevitable. With the substitution of a purely
civil administration and the appearance of the South Manchuria
Railway Company on the scene, order was slowly restored, and, as
peaceful and regular trade gradually brought prosperity to the town,
its appearance began to improve. Handsome macadamised streets
were laid down, the marshy parts were drained, filled in and built
upon, and, though conditions did not at first permit of a drastic
enforcement of the building regulations, the lath-and-plaster buildings
slowly disappeared and more solid structures of brick took their
place. To-day the port, with its...”
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“...19 ' liaotung peninsula.
from 16 to J 8 feet, an east breakwater 1,400 feet long in the first stage
of construction and a north breakwater 2,850 feet in length (but
uncompleted). There were also three warehouses covering an area
of about 4,500 square yards, and probably about 13 ships, from 2,000
to 3,000 tons buiden, could be berthed at the piers.
Harbour improvements undertaken by South Manchuria Railway.—
The work contemplated by the railway company* and immediately
taken in hand comprised the following items :—
The frontage of the west pier to be extended to 4,286 feet with
a depth ranging from 25 to 30 feet.
The east pier to have a frontage of 2,534| feet with a depth of
30 feet throughout and to be prolonged by a sea wall for another
1,220 feet, with a lighthouse at the end (this is the Russian east break-
water).
The Oyama pier at the west end of the harbour to be made 420
feet long and 132 feet broad, and an oil jetty to be built to the east
of the east pier.
The unfinished...”
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“...even to the kerosene tanl^s
and bean mills beyond, it will be evident that merchants and shippers
do not lack for conveniences.
Nature of trade of Dairen.—Speaking roughly, it may be said
that Dairen is at present rather a port of export than of import,
though the difference between the respective values of the two branches
of trade is by no means overwhelming. Exports are mainly cereals,
with beans and their by-products leading easily, and coal, the latter
of primary interest to the South Manchuria Railway Company.
Among imports the chief are railway and engineering material generally,
cotton piece-goods, cigarettes, kerosene oil, sugar, glass, alcohol and
flour. At least these are the imports that chiefly interest the foreign
merchant. It is impossible in the absence of statistics on the subject
to determine what share the United Kingdom and her colonies have
in these articles, but without a doubt a considerable proportion of
the railway and engineering material comes from the United...”
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“...trade revived, with a general increase in most
articles, but particularly in native boots and shoes. This was taken
to mean an increase in the number of settlers in Manchuria. Exports
were still on an unsound basis, and there was a marked shrinkage
towards the end of the year in the quantity of beans leaving the port.
The reasons for this, in addition to those already existing, were a rich
cotton crop in India, a rise in freights to Europe, high silver quota-
tions and " the delayed arrival of the staple from the interior, due
to the holding back of stocks on the part of the farmers, who, having
been the sole gainers on the bean business in 1909, found no necessity
to dispose of their crops speedily." The export of bean oil this year
was fifteen times that of 1909. At the close of the year an epidemic of
plague broke out in Manchuria, but so late that the year's trade was
not appreciably affected by it.
In 1911, notwithstanding various troubles, such as plague, floods,
cholera and the revolutionary...”
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“...4876 Bahia. Trade, 1911 ......
4900 Sao Paulo. Trade, 1911
4918 Pernambuco. Trade, 1911 ...
4817 Bulgaria. Trade, 1910
4952 Iquique. Trade, 1911......
5007 Valparaiso. Trade, 1910-11 ...
4935 Tsinan and Taingtau. Trade,
1911 ............
4950 Mengtsz, &c. Trade, 1911 ...
4Manchuria and Harbin.
Commercial Conditions and
Trade, 1911 .........
4904 Antioquia. Trade, 1911
5025 Santa Mal ta. Trade, 1911 ...
4924 Katanga. Trade, &e„ 1911 ...
4899 Corea. Trade, 1911 ......
■1919 Costa Eica. Trade, 4c„ 1911
■1982 Crete. Trade, 4c., 1911
•1905 Cuba. Trade, 4c., ended June
30, 1911.,
4962 Denmark. Finances, 1911-13
4977 Faroe Islands. Trade, &c., 1911 2id
5031 Denmark. Trade, &c., 1911... 4j
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