A.D. 1644—total 323,800. Of these 100,000 are supposed to be reviewed by the Emperor at Peking once a year. The number of guards in the Forbidden City, each of whom holds military rank, is given as 717.

2. The Ying Ping, or National Army, having 6,459 officers and 650,000 privates. The pay of the infantry is from 58. to 108. a month, and the cavalry receive about 17., out of which each man must feed his horse, and replace it if the one originally supplied by the Government is not forthcoming.

It is impossible to obtain any very reliable information about the Chinese army, but it is stated that great improvements have taken place since the last occasion upon which Chinese troops were opposed to Europeans. Large quantities of foreign-made arms have been purchased, and the arsenals in China, under foreign supervision, are said to be daily turning out both arms and ammunition. Captain Norman, in his book, 'Tonquin,' divides the army as follows::

I. The Active Army, comprising:

1. The Army of Manchuria;

2. The Army of the Centre; and
3. The Army of Turkestan.

II. The Territorial Army.

He gives the number of the Army of Manchuria as 70,000 men, divided into two army corps, the head-quarters of the one being at Tsitsihar the capital, and of the other at Moukden. Many of these troops are armed with the Mauser rifle, and possess a liberal supply of Krupp 8 centimètre field cannon. The Army of the Centre, having its headquarters at Kalgan, an important town to the N. W. of Peking, is numbered at 50,000 men in time of peace. This number, however, can be doubled in case of war. The men are a hardy race, and are armed with Remington rifles. The Army of Turkestan is employed in keeping order in the extreme western territories, and could not, in all probability, be moved eastward in the event of war with a European foe. The Territorial Army, or 'Braves,' is a kind of local militia, capable of being raised to a strength of probably 600,000 men. The numbers are kept down in time of peace to 200,000. The Tartar cavalry of the north are mounted on undersized but sturdy ponies. The small size of their horses, and their wretched equipment, render them no match for European cavalry. Permanent Manchu garrisons under Manchu officers are established in a few of the great cities on the coast and along the frontier.

NAVY.

Within the last fifteen years China has acquired a considerable fleet, and many of the ships are of a powerful character. The larger vessels have been built in European yards, several of them in England, but the Imperial arsenal of Foochow has produced torpedo-cruisers, gunboats, and despatch vessels. The fleet is divided into the North Coast Squadron, the Foochow Squadron, the Shanghai Flotilla, and the Canton Flotilla. The North Coast Squadron consists of 4 barbette sea-going armour-clads, 2 of 7,280 tons, and

2 of 2,850 tons; 1 turret ship of 2,320 tons; 3 deck-protected cruisers, 2,300 and 2,500 tons; 4 torpedo cruisers; a torpedo flotilla; and 11 gunboats, from 325 to 440 tons. The Foochow Squadron consists of ten cruisers of from 1,400 to 2,480 tons, 3 gunboats, 9 despatch boats, and 3 revenue cruisers; the Shanghai Flotilla, of an armoured frigate, 2,630 tons, a gunboat, 6 floating batteries (wood), and 3 transports; and the Canton Flotilla, of 3 deck-protected cruisers and 13 gunboats. The naval strength of China, adopting the system of classification used in this volume (see Introductory table), may be expressed thus:-Battleships, 1 first-class, 1 second-class, 3 third-class; 9 port-defence vessels; cruisers, 9 second-class, 12 third-class a, and 35 b; torpedo-boats, 2 first-class, 26 second-class, 13 third-class, and 2 smaller boats.

Production and Industry.

China is essentially an agricultural country, though no statistics as to areas or crops exist. Wheat, barley, maize, and millet and other cereals are chiefly cultivated in the north, and rice in the south. Sugar is cultivated in Formosa and the south provinces. Opium has become a crop of increasing importance. Tea is cultivated exclusively in the west and south, in FuChien, Hû-pei, Hû-Nan, Chiang-ksi, Cheh-Chiang, An-hui, Kuangtung, and Sze-ch'wan. The culture of silk is equally important with that of tea. The mulberry tree grows everywhere, but the best and the most silk comes from Kuangtung, Sze-ch 'wan, and Cheh-Chiang.

All the 19 provinces contain coal, and China may be regarded as one of the first coal countries of the world. The coal mines at Kai-ping, Northern Chihli, under foreign supervision, have been very productive; at Keelung, in Formosa, and at Hankow, coal mines have also been worked. There are also considerable stores of iron and copper remaining to be worked, and in Yunnan Japanese mining engineers have been employed to teach the people how to apply modern methods to copper mining, which is an industry of some antiquity in that province.

Commerce.

The commercial intercourse of China is mainly with the United Kingdom and the British colonies. The following table shows the value of the foreign trade of China for the five years 1888-92 in haikwan taels :

1 These values are the actual market prices of the goods (imports and exports) in the ports of China; but for the purposes of comparison it is the value of the imports at the moment of landing, and of the exports at the moment of shipping, that should be taken. For this purpose from the imports there have to be deducted the costs incurred after landing, namely, the expenses of landing, storing, and selling, and the duty paid; and to the exports there have to be added the importer's commission, the expenses of packing, storing, and shipping, and the export duty. So dealt with, the value of the imports for 1891 comes to 115,028,051 haikwan taels, and that of the exports to 115,553,640 haikwan taels; and the value of the imports for 1892 comes to 116,786,112 haikwan taels, and that of the exports to 117,218,438 haikwan taels.

The sterling value of the foreign trade of China for 1892 shows a decline of over 6,000,000., owing to the fall in the rate of exchange, but the silver-purchasing power of commodities in China appears not to have depreciated with the appreciation in the silver value of gold.

28,870,150

During 1892 the principal countries participated in the trade of China as shown in the following table :-

Great Britain

The imports from Hong Kong come originally from, and the exports to that colony are further carried on to, Great Britain, Germany, France, America, Australia, India, the Straits, and other countries.

The figures given above include the statistics of imports and exports at the treaty ports for the whole year; and also the like statistics of the junk trade of Hong Kong and Macao with the south of China (by the Kowloon and Lappa custom houses).

The chief imports and exports are as follows (1892):—

Of the tea in 1892, 361,458 piculs (each 133 lbs.) went to Great Britain, 535,818 piculs to Russia, 307,923 piculs to the United States, 162,727 piculs to Hong Kong, 119,822 piculs to Australia, out of a total of 1,622,681 piculs. The total export of tea has been as follows to foreign countries in 1882-92, in piculs:-1882, 2,017,151; 1883, 1,987,324; 1884, 2,016, 218; 1885, 2,128,751; 1886, 2,217,295; 1887, 2,153,037; 1888, 2,167,552; 1889, 1,877,331; 1890, 1,665,396; 1891, 1,750,034; 1892, 1,622,681.

China has besides an extensive coasting trade, largely carried on by British and other foreign as well as Chinese vessels, both junks and foreignbuilt vessels. A considerable fleet of steamers belonging to a Chinese company is engaged in this, and occasionally participates in the foreign trade. Great Britain has, in virtue of various treaties with the Chinese Government, the right of access to twenty-three ports of the Empire. The following

is a list of these twenty-three ports, known as treaty ports, with the name of the provinces in which they are situated, and the value of their direct foreign imports and exports for 1892 :

Since April 1887 the customs stations in the vicinity of Hong Kong and Macao have been placed under the management of the foreign customs. Kowloon imports 13,468,368 haikwan taels, exports 17,290,632 haikwan taels ; and Lappa imports 3,178,519 haikwan taels and exports 1,684,635 haikwan taels. The same service has also been charged with the collection of the so-called Likin (inland) tax on foreign opium imported, which is likely to result in a considerable increase of the foreign maritime customs receipts.

In 1889 two new custom houses were opened on the Tungking frontier, one at Lungchow, Kwangsi, the other at Mengtsz, Yunnan.

The value of their direct foreign imports and exports for 1892 was (in haikwan taels) :

Lungchow-imports 26,996, exports 10,991
Mengtsz -imports 887,606, exports 736,000

The port of Nanking, which the Chinese Government consented to throw open by a treaty made with France in 1858, in which England participated under the most favoured nation' clause, had not been opened at the end of 1892.

The value of the total imports into the United Kingdom from China, and of the exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures from the United Kingdom to China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao), was as

follows in each of the last five years according to the Board of Trade

The imports into the United Kingdom from China are made up, to the amount of nearly one-half, of tea. During the last five years the quantities and value of the imports of tea into the United Kingdom were, from China, as follows:

Besides tea, the only other important article of import into Great Britain from China is raw silk, the value of which amounted to 928,2257. in 1888, to 1,131,6427. in 1889, to 710,7127. in 1890, to 819,0821. in 1891, and to 461,8407. in 1892. Manufactured cotton and woollen goods, the former of the value of 4,190,5357., and the latter of 573,4397., in the year 1892, constituted the bulk of the exports of British produce to the Chinese Empire, exclusive of the goods passing in transit through the colony of Hong Kong.

The collection of the revenue on the Chinese foreign trade and the administration of the lights on the coast of China are under the management of the Imperial Customs Department, the head of which is a foreigner (British), under whom is a large staff of European, American, and Chinese subordinates, the department being organised somewhat similarly to the English Civil Service. It has an agency in London.

Shipping and Navigation.

During the year 1892, 37,927 vessels, of 29,440,575 tons (28,974 being steamers of 28,410,156 tons), entered and cleared Chinese ports. Of these 18,973, of 19,316,815 tons, were British; 14,532, of 6,561,190 tons, Chinese ; 2,016, of 1,466,133 tons, German; 719, of 630,868 tons, Japanese; 111, of 61,328 tons, American; 144, of 252,920 tons, French.

Internal Communications.

China is traversed in all directions by numerous roads, and, though none are paved or metalled, and all are badly kept, a vast internal trade is carried on partly over them, but chiefly by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. A first attempt to introduce railways into the country was made by