such aid, cannot be so extensively carried on as it is in those countries in which, there being more available capital, that capital is procurable at a cheaper rate, and accordingly a smaller return of profit is found adequate to the charges of commercial adventure." The internal trade of a vast country like China, governed on such exclusive principles, must of course constitute the principal part of its commerce. The European trade at Canton and the other four ports is not very considerable when compared with the extent of the empire and the amount of its population; and the foreign intercourse that is carried on in native junks is limited by the imperfections of nautical science and skill, as well as by the unfitness of the vessels themselves, and the discouragement to all external adventure. The visits of the junks to neighbouring countries do not extend beyond Japan to the north, the Luconian islands to the east, Batavia to the south, and the Straits of Malacca to the west. To Japan they sail in June and July, taking their departure from Ningpo and Amoy, laden with silk piecegoods, china-ware, and sugar, together with drugs, as rhubarb and ginseng; to which is added the sandal-wood imported before from India and the South-sea Islands, in English and American ships. To Luconia they take a variety of goods, bringing back nothing but rice or dollars. Between China and Batavia, a junk 'never sails either way except in the favourable monsoon, quitting its own shores in February or March, and returning in July. The exports are tea, china-ware, and drugs of various kinds, in return for what is called at Canton "Straits produce," as areca-nuts, rattans, edible birds'-nests, pepper, &c. Within a late period a considerable trade in junks has originated with Sincapore, interfering probably with that formerly carried on with Batavia. It has been remarked that raw produce of all kinds has generally found a better market in China than foreign manufactured goods. Those laws which forbid the use of things not sanctioned by custom, added to the usual pride and self-sufficiency of the people, are a bar in most cases to the extended consumption of European manufactures. It is enacted in the Penal Code, that "the houses, apartments, vehicles, dress, furniture, and other articles used by the officers of government, and by the people in general, shall be conformable to established rules." * The translator observes in a note, "It is certain that, generally speaking, the pleasure which the possessor of superior wealth may be supposed to derive from the display of it, a Chinese, whatever his situation, is in a great measure, if not wholly, prevented from enjoying." It is rather in the necessaries than the superfluities of life that they generally deal, and that great variety of climate within the empire, which makes the northern and southern provinces dependent on each other for supplies, renders the whole country at the same time independent of foreigners. The south provides the great staple of rice, as well as sugar; the east furnishes silk, cotton, and tea; the west metals and minerals; and the north, furs, and a variety of drugs whose growth is unsuited to a warmer climate. The transit-duties on this internal commerce afford a very considerable revenue to the government, and were perhaps first suggested by the expense of constructing the Grand Canal. They now extend to nearly all articles of consumption, and it has been calculated that the addition made to the price of tea, at Canton, by government charges, as well as by the long and laborious carriage from the provinces where it is grown (but from which we were until lately *Leu-lee, sect. 175. interdicted), amounted to 150,0007. on black teas alone. The labour and expense of transport, independently of the duties, may be gathered from the description of the difficulties encountered by the boats of the embassy of 1793, in passing up the river towards the frontier pass of Chě-keang province. "After seven days of tedious navigation," says Barrow, "if dragging by main strength over a pebbly bottom, on which the boats were constantly aground, and against a rapid stream, could be so called, we came to its source near the city of Chang-shan Hien.” The same difficulties are experienced up the other stream, in Keangsy, towards the Mei-ling pass. As we ascended the river in 1816, files of men stood with large iron hoes on each side of the boats, scraping a channel for them through the peb ly bottom. “We are confined at Canton," it was observed before the war, “to a single port of a single province—that single province divided from the rest of the empire by a barrier of high mountains, and chosen purposely by the Chinese government as the point farthest distant from the capital. In order to be consumed at Peking, where the coldness of the climate would render them most useful, our woollens must travel a distance of 1200 miles, and cross the mountainous barrier, at the foot of which they are unladen from boats, and carried on men's shoulders across the pass called Mei-ling. The consequence is, that only one-ninth of our woollen exports is consumed in the northern provinces, including the capital, as proved by Mr. Ball, who, after much minute inquiry, demonstrated the advantages that might accrue to our trade, could the Chinese government be persuaded to admit us to a port farther north, and nearer to the teaprovinces. He clearly proved, what might always have been surmised, that Canton from its geographical situa tion was 'of all other ports the most unfavourable to European trade.' Our metals, as they will not bear the expense of transport, are almost entirely consumed in the province where they are landed; and hence their very limited amount." But the expense of carriage was only a part of the disadvantage, for to that must be added the government-dues. "It is not to be supposed," observed Mr. Ball, "that any reduction can be effected in the transport-duties. The Chinese are unlikely to grant privileges to foreigners which necessarily entail a loss on themselves." * The policy of the Tartar dynasty, in having been the first to confine the European trade with such obstinacy to a point so unsuited to its extension, might be explained on two grounds: first, the desire to remove the danger of external involvements from the vicinity of the capital; secondly, as above, to derive the largest possible revenue from internal transit. The direct annual revenue accruing from Canton was ascertained to exceed 1,200,000 taëls on imports alone; but this bore no proportion to other gains of an indirect nature.† Contributions were exacted from the Hong merchants under various names, as "Uses of the army," "Yellow River," "Imperial tribute," &c.: and the Consoo fund, at first intended as a provision for *It was a stipulation in our treaty that the inland transport or transit duties should not exceed the amount actually existing in 1842; but this, of course, has been the most difficult point to maintain, and even to ascertain. †The true way to estimate the importance of the foreign trade to the Chinese is rather by the quantity of tea and silk exported than by that of imports from abroad. Were the millions of pounds-weight annually taken away of an article like tea, into whose manufacture human labour enters so largely, thrown back on their hands, the consequences would be disastrous. We must include, besides, all the labour and capital employed in transporting it by land from great distances. defraying the debts of bankrupt Hongs, was a rich source of revenue to the Chinese, as well as a heavy loss to our own trade; besides which, the inferior offices of the customs at Canton, being farmed out, were necessarily maintained by irregular charges on European com merce. As the Consoo fund owed its origin to the particular constitution of that set of monopolists called Hong merchants, it is proper to observe that this body and their privileges (now happily extinct) originated as much in the peculiar policy of the government as in the cupidity of the individuals themselves. The pride and jealousy of the rulers of the country kept them studiously aloof from a direct intercourse with foreigners, finding it most convenient to throw the trouble and responsibility of managing persons, of whom they stood in great fear and dislike, on subordinate delegates, and to practise their impositions through this inferior channel. The Hongs consisted of eleven individuals, of very different degrees of wealth and character; they did not form a joint-stock company, but were licensed to trade individually; although the whole body was, until the year 1830, liable for all the foreign debts of each member. This liability was then very much relaxed, as it was found that such a responsibility on the part of the body had given to the poorer members a degree of credit, and a facility in obtaining loans from Europeans, which had been the principal cause of the numerous bankruptcies, either real or fraudulent, among the indigent or improvident Hongs. In the year 1837, as already detailed in the fourth chapter, a fresh claim was raised by the foreigners against two bankrupt Hongs, to the amount of about three millions of dollars; and after much trouble the Consoo became liable for the payment, but with an extended term of between eight and |