Travels in China Part 28

The province of _Shan-tung_ extends in lat.i.tude from thirty-four and a half to thirty-eight degrees. The mean temperature, from the 19th of October to the 29th of the same month, was about fifty-two degrees at sun-rise, to seventy degrees at noon. A constant clear and cloudless sky.

The numerous ca.n.a.ls and rivers, that in every direction intersect the province of _Kiang-nan_, and by which it is capable of being flooded to any extent in the dryest seasons, render it one of the most valuable and fertile districts in the whole empire. Every part of it, also, having a free communication with the Yellow Sea by the two great rivers, the _Whang-ho_ and the _Yang-tse-kiang_, it has always been considered as the central point for the home trade; and, at one time, its chief city Nankin was the capital of the empire. That beautiful and durable cotton of the same name is here produced and sent to the port of Canton; from whence it is shipped off to the different parts of the world. The Chinese rarely wear it in its natural colour, except as an article of mourning; but export it chiefly, taking in return vast quantifies of unmanufactured white cotton from Bengal and Bombay, finding they can purchase this foreign wool at a much cheaper rate than that at which the nankin sells. For mourning dresses and a few other purposes white cotton is made use of, but in general it is dyed black or blue: among some of our presents were also pieces of a beautiful scarlet. Near most of the plantations of cotton we observed patches of indigo; a plant which grows freely in all the middle and southern provinces. The dye of this shrub being no article of commerce in China is seldom, if ever, prepared in a dry state, but is generally employed to communicate its colouring matter from the leaves, to avoid the labour and the loss that would be required to reduce it to a solid substance. We observed that, in the cotton countries, almost every cottage had its garden of indigo. As in ancient times, in our own country, when every cottager brewed his own beer; kept his own cow for milk and b.u.t.ter; bred his own sheep, the wool of which being spun into yarn by his own family was manufactured into cloth by the parish weaver; and when every peasant raised the materials for his own web of hempen cloth; so it still appears to be the case in China.

Here there are no great farmers nor monopolists of grain; nor can any individual nor body of men, by any possibility, either glut the market, or withhold the produce of the ground, as may best suit their purpose.

Each peasant is supposed, by his industry, to have the means of subsistence within himself; though it often happens that these means, from adverse circ.u.mstances which hereafter will be noticed, fail of producing the desired effect.

In the province of _Kiang-nan_ each grows his own cotton; his wife and children spin it into thread and it is woven into a web in his own house, sometimes by his own family, but more frequently by others hired for the purpose. A few bamboos const.i.tute the whole machinery required for this operation. Money he has none; but his produce he can easily barter for any little article of necessity or luxury. The superfluities of life, which those in office may have occasion to purchase, are paid for in bars of silver without any impression, but bearing value for weight, like the Roman _as_ or the Hebrew _shekel_. The only coin in circulation is the _tchen_, a piece of some inferior metal mixed with a small proportion of copper, of the value of the thousandth part of an ounce of silver; with this small piece of money the little and constantly demanded necessaries of life are purchased, such as could not conveniently be obtained by way of barter. Silver is rarely lent out at interest, except between mercantile men in large cities. The legal interest is twelve per cent. but it is commonly extended to eighteen, sometimes even to thirty-six. To avoid the punishment of usury, what is given above twelve per cent. is in the shape of a _bonus_. "Usury, in China," observes Lord Macartney, "like gaming elsewhere, is a dishonourable mode of getting money; but by a sort of compact between necessity and avarice, between affluence and distress, the prosecution of a Jew or a sharper is considered by us as not very honourable even in the sufferers."

The greater the distance from the capital, the better was the apparent condition of the people. The Viceroy, when he received his Excellency on the entry of the emba.s.sy into this province, happened to cast his eye upon the half-starved and half-naked trackers of the boats; and being either ashamed of their miserable appearance, or feeling compa.s.sion for their situation, he ordered every man immediately a suit of new cloaths.

In the morning, when our force was mustered, we were not a little surprized to see the great alteration that had taken place in the appearance of our trackers: every man had a blue cotton jacket edged with red, a pair of new white trowsers, and a smart hat with a high crown and feather. The natural fertility of the country, its central situation commanding a brisk trade, the abundance of its fisheries on the large rivers and lakes were incentives to industry, for the vast population that seemed to be equally distributed over every part of the province.

Rice being the staple of China was abundantly cultivated, in all such places as afforded the greatest command of water. The usual average produce of corn-lands is reckoned to be from ten to fifteen for one; and of rice, from twenty-five to thirty; commonly about thirty. Those corn-lands that will admit of easy irrigation are usually turned over with the plough immediately after the grain is cut; which, in the middle provinces, is ready for the sickle early in June, about the same time that the young rice fields stand at the height of eight or ten inches.

These being now thinned, the young plants are transplanted into the prepared wheat lands, which are then immediately flooded. Upon such a crop they reckon from fifteen to twenty for one. Instead of rice one of the millets is sometimes sown as an after-crop, this requiring very little water, or the _Cadjan_, a species of _Dolichos_ or small bean, for oil, requiring still less. Or, it is a common practice, after taking off a crop of cotton and indigo, in the month of October, to sow wheat, in order to have the land again clear in the month of May or June. Such a succession of crops, without ever suffering the land to lie fallow, should seem to require a large quant.i.ty of manure. In fact, they spare no pains in procuring composts and manures; but they also accomplish much without these materials, by working the soil almost incessantly and mixing it with extraneous matters as, for instance, marle with light and sandy soils, or if this is not to be had, stiff clay; and on clayey grounds they carry sand and gravel. They also drag the rivers and ca.n.a.ls and pools of water for slime and mud; and they preserve, with great care, all kinds of urine, in which it is an universal practice to steep the seeds previous to their being sown. If turnip-seeds be steeped in lime and urine, the plant is said not to be attacked by the insect. Near all the houses are large earthen jars sunk in the ground, for collecting and preserving these and other materials that are convertible, by putrefactive fermentation, into manure. Old men and children may be seen near all the villages with small rakes and baskets, collecting every kind of dirt, or offals, that come in their way. Their eagerness to pick up whatever may be used as manure led to some ridiculous scenes.

Whenever our barges halted and the soldiers and servants found it necessary to step on sh.o.r.e, they were always pursued to their place of retirement by these collectors of food for vegetables. It may literally be said in this country, that nothing is suffered to be lost. The profession of shaving is followed by vast numbers in China. As the whole head is shaved, except a small lock behind, few, if any, are able to operate upon themselves. And as hair is considered an excellent manure, every barber carries with him a small bag to collect the spoils of his razor.

The common plough of the country is a simple machine and much inferior to the very worst of ours. We saw one drill plough in _Shan-tung_ different from all the rest. It consisted of two parallel poles of wood, shod at the lower extremities with iron to open the furrows; these poles were placed on wheels: a small hopper was attached to each pole to drop the seed into the furrows, which were covered with earth by a transverse piece of wood fixed behind, that just swept the surface of the ground.

The machine usually employed for clearing rice from the husk, in the large way, is exactly the same as that now used in Egypt for the same purpose, only that the latter is put in motion by oxen and the former commonly by water. This machine consists of a long horizontal axis of wood, with cogs or projecting pieces of wood or iron fixed upon it, at certain intervals, and it is turned by a water-wheel. At right angles to this axis are fixed as many horizontal levers as there are circular rows of cogs; these levers act on pivots, that are fastened into a low brick wall built parallel to the axis, and at the distance of about two feet from it. At the further extremity of each lever, and perpendicular to it, is fixed a hollow pestle, directly over a large mortar of stone or iron sunk into the ground; the other extremity extending beyond the wall, being pressed upon by the cogs of the axis in its revolution, elevates the pestle, which by its own gravity falls into the mortar. An axis of this kind sometimes gives motion to fifteen or twenty levers.

This machine[63], as well as the plough, still in use in modern Egypt, which is also the same as the Chinese plough, have been considered by a member of the French Inst.i.tute to be the same instruments as those employed in that country two thousand years ago; and judging from the maxims of the Chinese government, and the character of the people, an antiquity equally great may be a.s.signed to them in the latter country.

The bamboo wheel for raising water, or something approaching very near to it, either with buckets appended to the circ.u.mference, or with fellies hollowed out so as to scoop up water, was also in use among the ancient Egyptians; and, as I have before observed, continue to be so among the Syrians; from these they are supposed to have pa.s.sed into Persia, where they are also still employed, and from whence they have derived, in Europe, the name of Persian wheels. The chain-pump of China, common in the hands of every farmer, was likewise an instrument of husbandry in Egypt.

[63] See the plate facing page 37.

A very erroneous opinion seems to have been entertained in Europe, with regard to the skill of the Chinese in agriculture. Industrious they certainly are, in an eminent degree, but their labour does not always appear to be bestowed with judgment. The instruments, in the first place, they make use of are incapable of performing the operations of husbandry to the greatest advantage. In the deepest and best soils, their plough seldom cuts to the depth of four inches, so that they sow from year to year upon the same soil, without being able to turn up new earth, and to bury the worn-out mould to refresh itself. Supposing them, however, to be supplied with ploughs of the best construction, we can scarcely conceive that their mules and a.s.ses and old women, would be equal to the task of drawing them.

The advantage that large farms in England possess over small ones consists princ.i.p.ally in the means they afford the tenant of keeping better teams than can possibly be done on the latter, and consequently of making a better _tilth_ for the reception of seed. The opulent farmer, on the same quant.i.ty of ground, will invariably raise more produce than the cottager can pretend to do. In China nine-tenths of the peasantry may be considered as cottagers, and having few cattle (millions I might add none at all) it can scarcely be expected that the whole country should be in the best possible state of cultivation. As horticulturists they may perhaps be allowed a considerable share of merit; but, on the great scale of agriculture, they are certainly not to be mentioned with many European nations. They have no knowledge of the modes of improvement practised in the various breeds of cattle; no instruments for breaking up and preparing waste lands; no system for draining and reclaiming swamps and mora.s.ses; though that part of the country over which the grand communication is effected between the two extremities of the empire, abounds with lands of this nature, where population is excessive and where the mult.i.tudes of shipping that pa.s.s and repa.s.s create a never failing demand for grain and other vegetable products. For want of this knowledge, a very considerable portion of the richest land, perhaps, in the whole empire, is suffered to remain a barren and unprofitable waste. If an idea may be formed from what we saw in the course of our journey, and from the accounts that have been given of the other provinces, I should conclude, that one-fourth part of the whole country nearly consists of lakes and low, sour, swampy grounds, which are totally uncultivated: and which, among other reasons hereafter to be mentioned, may serve to explain the frequent famines that occur in a more satisfactory way, than by supposing, with the Jesuits, that they are owing to the circ.u.mstance of the nations bordering upon them to the westward being savage and growing no corn. Their ignorance of draining, or their dread of inundations, to which the low countries of China, in their present state, are subject, may perhaps have driven them, in certain situations, to the necessity of levelling the sides of mountains into a succession of terraces; a mode of cultivation frequently taken notice of by the missionaries as unexampled in Europe and peculiar to the Chinese; whereas it is common in many parts of Europe. The mountains of the _Pays de Vaud_, between _Lausanne_ and _Vevay_, are cultivated in this manner to their summits with vines. "This would have been impracticable," says Doctor Moore, "on account of the steepness, had not the proprietors built strong stone walls at proper intervals, one above the other, which support the soil, and form little terraces from the bottom to the top of the mountains." But this method of terracing the hills is not to be considered, by any means, as a common practice in China. In our direct route it occurred only twice, and then on so small a scale as hardly to deserve notice. The whole territorial right being vested in the sovereign, the waste lands of course belong to the crown; but any person, by giving notice to the proper magistrate, may obtain a property therein, so long as he continues to pay such portion of the estimated produce as is required to be collected into the public magazines.

When I said that the Chinese might claim a considerable share of merit as horticulturists, I meant to confine the observation to their skill and industry of raising the greatest possible quant.i.ty of vegetables from a given piece of ground. Of the modes practised in Europe of improving the quality of fruit, they seem to have no just notion. Their oranges are naturally good and require no artificial means of improvement, but the European fruits, as apples, pears, plums, peaches and apricots are of indifferent quality. They have a common method of propagating several kinds of fruit-trees, which of late years has been practised with success in Bengal. The method is simply this: they strip a ring of bark, about an inch in width, from a bearing branch, surround the place with a ball of fat earth or loam bound fast to the branch with a piece of matting; over this they suspend a pot or horn with water having a small hole in the bottom just sufficient to let the water drop, in order to keep the earth constantly moist; the branch throws new roots into the earth just above the place where the ring was stripped off; the operation is performed in the spring, and the branch is sawn off and put into the ground at the fall of the leaf; the following year it bears fruit. They have no method of forcing vegetables by artificial heat, or by excluding the cold air and admitting, at the same time, the rays of the sun through gla.s.s. Their chief merit consists in preparing the soil, working it incessantly, and keeping it free of weeds.

Upon the whole, if I might venture to offer an opinion with respect to the merit of the Chinese as agriculturists, I should not hesitate to say that, let as much ground be given to one of their peasants as he and his family can work with the spade, and he will turn that piece of ground to more advantage, and produce from it more sustenance for the use of man, than any European whatsoever would be able to do; but, let fifty or one hundred acres of the best land in China be given to a farmer, at a mean rent, so far from making out of it the value of three rents, on which our farmers usually calculate, he would scarcely be able to support his family, after paying the expence of labour that would be required to work the farm.

In fact there are no great farms in China. The inhabitants enjoy every advantage which may be supposed to arise from the lands being pretty equally divided among them, an advantage of which the effects might probably answer the expectations of those who lean towards such a system, were they not counteracted by circ.u.mstances that are not less prejudicial, perhaps, to the benefit of the public, than monopolizing farmers are by such persons supposed to be in our own country. One of the circ.u.mstances I allude to is the common practice, in almost every part of the country, of a.s.sembling together in towns and villages, between which very frequently the intermediate s.p.a.ce of ground has not a single habitation upon it; and the reason a.s.signed for this custom is the dread of the bands of robbers that infest the weak and unprotected parts of the country. The consequence of such a system is, that although the lands adjoining the villages be kept in the highest state of cultivation, yet those at a distance are suffered to remain almost useless; for having no beasts of burden, it would be an endless task of human labour to bear the manure that would be required, for several miles, upon the ground, and its produce from thence back again to the village. That such robbers do exist who, in formidable gangs, plunder the peasantry, is very certain: _She-fo-pao_ was watching his grain to prevent its being stolen, when he had the misfortune of shooting his relation, who had also gone out for the same purpose. They are sometimes indeed so numerous, as to threaten their most populous cities. The frequency of such robberies and the alarm they occasion to the inhabitants are neither favourable to the high notions that have been entertained of the Chinese government, nor of the morals of the people.

Another, and perhaps the chief, disadvantage arising from landed property being pretty equally divided, will be noticed in speaking of the population and the frequent famines.

The province of _Kiang-nan_ extends from about 31 to 34-1/2 of northern lat.i.tude; and the mean temperature, according to Fahrenheit's thermometer, from the 30th of October to the 9th of November, was 54 at sun-rise and 66 at noon; the sky uniformly clear.

The province of _Tche-kiang_ abounds in lakes and is intersected with rivers and ca.n.a.ls like _Kiang-nan_; but the produce, except that of a little rice, is very different, consisting princ.i.p.ally of silk. For feeding the worms that afford this article, all the fertile and beautiful vallies between the mountains, as well as the plains, are covered with plantations of the mulberry-tree. The small houses, in which the worms are reared, are placed generally in the centre of each plantation; in order that they may be removed as far as possible from any kind of noise; experience having taught them, that a sudden shout, or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood has sometimes perished by a thunder storm. The greatest attention is, therefore, necessary; and, accordingly, they are watched night and day.

In fine weather, the young worms are exposed to the sun, upon a kind of thin open gauze stretched in wooden frames; and at night they are replaced in the plantation houses. The trees are pruned from time to time, in order to cause a greater quant.i.ty and a constant succession of young leaves. The inhabitants of this province, especially in the cities, are almost universally clothed in silks; this rule among the Chinese of consuming, as much as possible, the products of their own country, and receiving as little as they can avoid from foreign nations, extends even to the provinces; a practice arising out of the little respect that, in China, as in ancient Rome, is paid to those concerned in trade and merchandize.

Besides silk _Tche-kiang_ produces camphor, tallow from the _Croton_, a considerable quant.i.ty of tea, oranges, and almost all the fruits that are peculiar to the country. Every part of the province appeared to be in the highest state of cultivation and the population to be immense.

Both the raw and manufactured silks, nankins and other cotton cloths, were sold at such low prices in the capital of this province, that it is difficult to conceive how the growers or the manufacturers contrived to gain a livelihood by their labour. But of all others, I am the most astonished at the small returns that must necessarily be made to the cultivators of the tea plant. The preparations of some of the finer kinds of this article are said to require that every leaf should be rolled singly by the hand; particularly such as are exported to the European markets. Besides this, there are many processes, such as steeping, drying, turning, and packing, after it has been plucked off the shrub leaf by leaf. Yet the first cost in the tea provinces cannot be more than from four-pence to two shillings a pound, when it is considered that the ordinary teas stand the East India Company in no more than eight-pence a pound; and the very best only two shillings and eight-pence[64]. Nothing can more clearly point out the patient and unremitting labour of the Chinese, than the preparation of this plant for the market. It is a curious circ.u.mstance that a body of merchants in England should furnish employment, as might easily be made appear, to more than a million subjects of a nation that affects to despise merchants, and throws every obstacle in the way of commercial intercourse.

[64] The East India Company pays from thirteen to sixty tales per pecul for their teas; some tea of a higher price is purchased by individuals, but seldom or ever by the Company. A tale is six shillings and eight-pence, and a pecul is one hundred and thirty-three pounds and one third.

The mean temperature of _Tche-kiang_, in the middle of November, was from fifty-six degrees at sun-rise, to sixty-two degrees at noon. The extent from North to South is between the parallels of twenty-eight and thirty-four and a half degrees of northern lat.i.tude.

The northern part of _Kiang-see_ contains the great _Po-yang_ lake, and those extensive swamps and mora.s.ses that surround it, and which, as I have already observed, may be considered as the sink of China. The middle and southern parts are mountainous. The chief produce is sugar and oil from the _Camellia Sesanqua_. In this province are the princ.i.p.al manufactories of porcelain, whose qualities, as I have in a former chapter observed, depend more on the care bestowed in the preparation and in the selection of the materials, than in any secret art possessed by them. There are also, in this province, large manufactories of coa.r.s.e earthen ware, of tiles, and bricks.

The extent of _Kiang-see_ is from twenty-eight to thirty degrees, and the temperature, in November, was the same as that of the neighbouring province of _Tche-kiang_.

I have now to mention a subject on which much has already been written by various authors, but without the success of having carried conviction into the minds of their readers, that the things which they offered as facts were either true or possible; I allude to the populousness of this extensive empire. That none of the statements. .h.i.therto published are strictly true, I am free to admit, but that the highest degree of populousness that has yet been a.s.signed may be possible, and even probable, I am equally ready to contend. At the same time, I acknowledge that, prepared as we were, from all that we had seen and heard and read on the subject, for something very extraordinary; yet when the following statement was delivered, at the request of the Emba.s.sador, by _Chou-ta-gin_, as the abstract of a census that had been taken the preceding year, the amount appeared so enormous as to surpa.s.s credibility. But as we had always found this officer a plain, unaffected, and honest man, who on no occasion had attempted to deceive or impose on us, we could not consistently consider it in any other light than as a doc.u.ment drawn up from authentic materials; its inaccuracy, however, was obvious at a single glance, from the several sums being given in round millions. I have added to the table the extent of the provinces, the number of people on a square mile, and the value of the surplus taxes remitted to Pekin in the year 1792, as mentioned in the seventh chapter.

+-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+ | | | | No. on | Surplus | | | | | each | taxes | | | | Square | square | remitted | | Provinces. | Population. | Miles. | Mile. | to Pekin. | ------------------+--------------+----------+---------|------------+ | | | | | oz. silver.| |Pe-tche-lee | 38,000,000 | 58,949 | 644 | 3,036,000 | |Kiang-nan | 32,000,000 | 92,961 | 344 | 8,210,000 | |Kiang-see | 19,000,000 | 72,176 | 263 | 2,120,000 | |Tche-kiang | 21,000,000 | 39,150 | 536 | 3,810,000 | |Fo-kien | 15,000,000 | 53,480 | 280 | 1,277,000 | | {Hou-pee | 14,000,000} | | | {1,310,000 | |Houquang{Hou-nan | 13,000,000} | 144,770 | 187 | {1,345,000 | |Honan | 25,000,000 | 65,104 | 384 | 3,213,000 | |Shan-tung | 24,000,000 | 65,104 | 368 | 3,600,000 | |Shan-see | 27,000,000 | 55,268 | 488 | 3,722,000 | |Shen-see} one | 18,000,000} | | | {1,700,000 | |Kan-soo }province| 12,000,000} | 154,008 | 195 | { 340,000 | |Se-tchuen | 27,000,000 | 166,800 | 162 | 670,000 | |Quan-tung | 21,000,000 | 79,456 | 264 | 1,340,000 | |Quang-see | 10,000,000 | 78,250 | 128 | 500,000 | |Yu-nan | 8,000,000 | 107,969 | 74 | 210,000 | |Koei-tchoo | 9,000,000 | 64,554 | 140 | 145,000 | +-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+ | Totals | 313,000,000 |1,297,999[65] --- | 36,548,000 | +-----------------+--------------+--------------------+------------+

[65] The measurement annexed to each of the fifteen ancient provinces was taken from the maps that were constructed by a very laborious and, as far as we had an opportunity of comparing them with the country, a very accurate survey, which employed the Jesuits ten years. I do not pretend to say that the areas, as I have given them in the table, are mathematically correct, but the dimensions were taken with as much care as was deemed necessary for the purpose, from maps drawn on a large scale, of which a very beautiful ma.n.u.script copy is now in his Majesty's library at Buckingham-house, made by a Chinese, having all the names written in Chinese and Tartar characters.

Considering then the whole surface of the Chinese dominions within the great wall to contain 1,297,999 square miles, or 830,719,360 English acres, and the population to amount to 333,000,000, every square mile will be found to contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, and every individual might possess two acres and a half of land. Great Britain is supposed to average about one hundred and twenty persons on one square mile, and that to each inhabitant there might be a.s.signed a portion of five acres, or to each family five-and-twenty acres. The population of China, therefore, is to that of Great Britain as 256 to 120, or in a proportion somewhat greater than two to one; and the quant.i.ty of land that each individual in Great Britain might possess is just twice as much as could be allowed to each individual of China. We have only then to enquire if Britain, under the same circ.u.mstances as China, be capable of supporting twice its present population, or which is the same thing, if twelve and an half acres of land be sufficient for the maintenance of a family of five persons? Two acres of choice land sown with wheat, under good tillage, may be reckoned to average, after deducting the seed, 60 bushels or 3600 pounds, which every baker knows would yield 5400 pounds of bread, or three pounds a day to every member of the family for the whole year. Half an acre is a great allowance for a kitchen-garden and potatoe bed. There would still remain ten acres, which must be very bad land if, besides paying the rent and taxes, it did not keep three or four cows; and an industrious and managing family would find no difficulty in rearing as many pigs and as much poultry as would be necessary for home consumption, and for the purchase of clothing and other indispensable necessaries. If then the country was pretty equally part.i.tioned out in this manner; if the land was applied solely to produce food for man; if no horses nor superfluous animals were kept for pleasure, and few only for labour; if the country was not drained of its best hands in foreign trade and in large manufactories; if the carriage of goods for exchanging with other goods was performed by ca.n.a.ls and rivers and lakes, all abounding with fish; if the catching of these fish gave employment to a very considerable portion of the inhabitants; if the bulk of the people were satisfied to abstain almost wholly from animal food, except such as is most easily procured, that of pigs and ducks and fish; if only a very small part of the grain raised was employed in the distilleries, but was used as the staff of life for man; and if this grain was of such a nature as to yield twice, and even three times, the produce that wheat will give on the same s.p.a.ce of ground; if, moreover, the climate was so favourable as to allow two such crops every year--if, under all these circ.u.mstances, twelve and a half acres of land would not support a family of five persons; the fault could only be ascribed to idleness or bad management.

Let us then, for a moment, consider that these or similar advantages operate in China; that every product of the ground is appropriated solely for the food and clothing of man; that a single acre of land, sown with rice, will yield a sufficient quant.i.ty for the consumption of five people for a whole year, allowing to each person two pounds a-day, provided the returns of his crop are from twenty to twenty-five for one, which are considered as extremely moderate, being frequently more than twice this quant.i.ty; that in the southern provinces two crops of rice are produced in the year, one acre of which I am well a.s.sured, with proper culture, will afford a supply of that grain even for ten persons, and that an acre of cotton will clothe two or three hundred persons, we may justly infer that, instead of twelve acres to each family, half that quant.i.ty would appear to be more than necessary; and safely conclude, that there is no want of land to support the a.s.sumed population of three hundred and thirty-three millions. This being the case, the population is not yet arrived at a level with the means which the country affords of subsistence.

There is, perhaps, no country where the condition of the peasantry may more justly be compared with those of China than Ireland. This island, according to the latest survey, contains about 17,000,000 English acres, 730,000 houses and 3,500,000 souls; so that, as in Great Britain, each individual averages very nearly five acres and every family five-and-twenty. An Irish cottager holds seldom more than an Irish acre of land, or one and three-quarters English nearly, in cultivation, with a cow's gra.s.s, for which he pays a rent from two to five pounds. Those on Lord Macartney's estate at Lissanore have their acre, which they cultivate in divisions with oats, potatoes, kale, and a little flax; with this they have besides the full pasturage of a cow all the year upon a large waste, not overstocked, and a comfortable cabin to inhabit, for which each pays the rent of three pounds. The cottager works perhaps three days in the week, at nine-pence a-day; if, instead of which, he had a second acre to cultivate, he would derive more benefit from its produce than from the product of his three days' labour _per_ week; that is to say, provided he would expend the same labour in its tillage. Thus then, supposing only half of Ireland in a state of cultivation and the other half pasturage, it would support a population more than three times that which it now contains; and as a century ago it had no more than a million of people, so within the present century, under favourable circ.u.mstances, it may increase to ten millions. And it is not unworthy of remark, that this great increase of population in Ireland has taken place since the introduction of the potatoe, which gives a never-failing crop.

I am aware that such is not the common opinion which prevails in this country, neither with regard to Ireland nor China; on the contrary, the latter is generally supposed to be overstocked with people; that the land is insufficient for their maintenance, and that the cities stand so thick one after the other, especially along the grand navigation between Pekin and Canton, that they almost occupy the whole surface. I should not, however, have expected to meet with an observation to this effect from the very learned commentator on the _voyage of Nearchus_, founded on no better authority than the crude notes of one _aeneas Anderson_, a livery servant of Lord Macartney, vamped up by a London bookseller as a speculation that could not fail, so greatly excited was public curiosity at the return of the Emba.s.sy. I would not be thought to disparage the authority on account of its being that of a livery servant; on the contrary, the notes of the meanest and dullest person, on a country so little travelled over, would be deserving attention before they came into the hands of a _book-dresser_; but what dependence can be placed on the information of an author who states as a fact, that he saw tea and rice growing on the banks of the _Pei-ho_, between the thirty-ninth and fortieth parallels of lat.i.tude, two articles of the culture of which, in the whole province of _Pe-tche-lee_, they know no more than we do in England; and who ignorantly and impertinently talks of the shocking ideas the Chinese entertained of English cruelty, on seeing one of the guard receive a few lashes, when, not only the common soldiers, but the officers of this nation are flogged most severely with the bamboo on every slight occasion. If Doctor Vincent, from reading this book, was really persuaded that the cities of China were so large and so numerous, that they left not ground enough to subsist the inhabitants, I could wish to recall his attention for a few moments to this subject, as opinions sanctioned by such high authority, whether right or wrong, are sure, in some degree, to bias the public mind. We have seen that if China be allowed to contain three hundred and thirty-three millions of people, the proportion of its population is only just double that of Great Britain. Now if London and Liverpool and Birmingham and Glasgow, and all the cities, towns, villages, gentlemen's villas, farm-houses and cottages in this island were doubled, I see no great inconvenience likely to arise from such duplication. The unproductive land, in the shape of gentlemen's parks and pleasure grounds, would, I presume, be much more than sufficient to counterbalance the quant.i.ty occupied by the new erections; and the wastes and commons would perhaps be more than enough to allow even a second duplication. But the population of an English city is not to be compared with, or considered as similar to, the populousness of a Chinese city, as will be obvious by considering the two capitals of these two empires. Pekin, according to a measurement supposed to be taken with great accuracy, occupies a s.p.a.ce of about fourteen square miles. London, with its suburbs, when reduced to a square, is said to comprehend about nine square miles. The houses of Pekin rarely exceed a single story; those of London are seldom less than four; yet both the Chinese and the missionaries who are settled in this capital agree that Pekin contains three millions of people; while London is barely allowed to have one million. The reason of this difference is, that most of the cross streets of a Chinese city are very narrow, and the alleys branching from them so confined, that a person may place one hand on one side and the other on the other side as he walks along[66]; that the houses in general are very small, and that each house contains six, eight, or ten persons, sometimes twice the number. If, therefore, fourteen square miles of buildings in China contain three millions of inhabitants, and nine square miles of buildings in England one million, the population of a city in China will be to that of a city in England as twenty-seven to fourteen, or very nearly as two to one; and the former, with a proportion of inhabitants double to that of the latter, will only have the same proportion of buildings; so that there is no necessity of their being so closely crowded together, or of their occupying so great a portion of land, as to interfere with the quant.i.ty necessary for the subsistence of the people.

[66] One of the streets in the suburbs of Canton is emphatically called _Squeeze-gut-alley_, which is so narrow that every gentleman in the Company's service does not find it quite convenient to pa.s.s.

I have been thus particular, in order to set in its true light a subject that has been much agitated and generally disbelieved. The sum total of three hundred and thirty-three millions is so enormous, that in its aggregate form it astonishes the mind and staggers credibility; yet we find no difficulty in conceiving that a single square mile in China may contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, especially when we call to our recollection the United Provinces of Holland, which have been calculated to contain two hundred and seventy inhabitants on a square mile. And the United Provinces have enjoyed few of the advantages favourable to population, of which China, for ages past, has been in the uninterrupted possession.

The materials for the statement given by Father Amiot of the population of China appear to have been collected with care. The number of souls in 1760, according to this statement

was 196,837,977 In 1761 198,214,553 ----------- Annual increase 1,376,576

This statement must however be incorrect, from the circ.u.mstance of some millions of people being excluded who have no fixed habitation, but are constantly changing their position on the inland navigations of the empire, as well as all the islanders of the Archipelago of _Chu-san_ and of Formosa. Without, however, taking these into consideration, and by supposing the number of souls in 1761, to amount to 198,214,553, there ought to have been, in the year 1793, by allowing a progressive increase, according to a moderate calculation in political arithmetic, at least 280,000,000 souls.

Whether this great empire, the first in rank both in extent and population, may or may not actually contain 333 millions of souls, is a point that Europeans are not likely ever to ascertain. That it is capable of subsisting this and a much greater population has, I think, been sufficiently proved. I know it is a common argument with those who are not willing to admit the fact, that although cities and towns and shipping may be crowded together in an astonishing manner, on and near the grand route between the capital and Canton, yet that the interior parts of the country are almost deserted. By some of our party going to _Chu-san_, we had occasion to see parts of the country remote from the common road, and such parts happened to be by far the most populous in the whole journey. But independent of the small portion of country seen by us, the western provinces, which are most distant from the grand navigation, are considered as the granaries of the empire; and the cultivation of much grain, where few cattle and less machinery are used, necessarily implies a corresponding population. Thus we see from the above table, that the surplus produce of the land remitted to Pekin from the provinces of

Oz. silver.

Honan } remote from the grand { 3,213,000 Shan-see } navigation, were { 3,722,000 Shen-see } { 2,040,000

Whilst those of

Pe-tche-lee } on the grand navigation, { 3,036,000 Shan-tung } were { 3,600,000 Tche-kiang } { 3,810,000

chiefly in rice, wheat, and millet. There are no grounds therefore for supposing that the interior parts of China are deserts.

There are others again who are persuaded of the population being so enormous, that the country is wholly inadequate to supply the means of subsistence; and that famines are absolutely necessary to keep down the former to the level of the latter. The loose and general way in which the accounts of the missionaries are drawn up certainly leave such an impression; but as I have endeavoured to shew that such is far from being the case, it may be expected I should also attempt to explain the frequency of those disastrous famines which occasionally commit such terrible havock in this country. I am of opinion then, that three princ.i.p.al reasons may be a.s.signed for them. First, the equal division of the land: Secondly, the mode of cultivation: and Thirdly, the nature of the products.

If, in the first place, every man has it in his option to rent as much land as will support his family with food and clothing, he will have no occasion to go to market for the first necessities; and such being generally the case in China, those first necessities find no market, except in the large cities. When the peasant has brought under tillage of grain as much land as may be sufficient for the consumption of his own family, and the necessary surplus for the landlord, he looks no further; and all his neighbours having done the same, the first necessities are, in fact, unsaleable articles, except in so far as regards the demands of large cities, which are by no means so close upon one another as has been imagined. A surplus of grain is likewise less calculated to exchange for superfluities or luxuries than many other articles of produce. This being the case, if, by any accident, a failure of the crops should be general in a province, it has no relief to expect from the neighbouring provinces, nor any supplies from foreign countries. In China there are no great farmers who store their grain to throw into the market in seasons of scarcity. In such seasons the only resource is that of the government opening its magazines, and restoring to the people that portion of their crop which it had demanded from them as the price of its protection. And this being originally only a tenth part, out of which the monthly subsistence of every officer and soldier had already been deduced, the remainder is seldom adequate to the wants of the people. Insurrection and rebellion ensue, and those who may escape the devouring scourge of famine, in all probability, fall by the sword. In such seasons a whole province is sometimes half depopulated; wretched parents are reduced, by imperious want, to sell or destroy their offspring, and children to put an end, by violence, to the sufferings of their aged and infirm parents. Thus, the equal division of land, so favourable to population in seasons of plenty, is just the reverse when the calamity of a famine falls upon the people.

In the second place, a scarcity may be owing to the mode of cultivation.

When I mention that two-thirds of the small quant.i.ty of land under tillage is cultivated with the spade or the hoe, or otherwise by manual labour, without the aid of draught-cattle or skilful machinery, it will readily be conceived how very small a portion each family will be likely to employ every year; certainly not one-third part of his average allowance.