GENERAL. CONSIDERATIONS.—The present state of economic development in China is due in part to considerations of a geo graphical nature. As the country falls within the monsoon area it supports a large population, the size of which has been variously estimated, but which probably numbers between 300 and 400 millions. The marked climatic differences between the summer and winter seasons, which have already been noted, have probably contributed to the greater physical energy of the Chinese as compared with the inhabitants of the more tropical parts of the monsoon area.
In agriculture, which is their chief occupation, they have become very proficient ; nevertheless the large population has pressed heavily upon the means of subsistence, and has, indeed, only been kept in check by war, famine, flood, and infanticide. But, if China is both fertile and densely populated, it is surrounded on all sides but one by barren or mountainous lands which have retarded, though they have not prevented, communication with the rest of the world, and even the ocean was until recently a barrier to inter course with other countries. This isolation naturally led to a deadening of intellectual life, in consequence of which education became stereotyped. At the same time, their obvious mental superiority to the nomadic races by whom they were surrounded and occasionally conquered, and to the aborigines, whom they had themselves overcome, naturally gave the settled Chinese an exag gerated belief in their own capacities, and induced a contempt for foreigners and for foreign methods. To remedy these evils the
rulers of China have, on the whole, been able to do but little. The mountainous topography of the country, no less than its great extent, rendered necessary a certain amount of local autonomy, and the energy of the Government has usually been absorbed,. either in maintaining a balance between different parts of the Empire or in readjusting the balance after it had been disturbed. Since the Manchu conquests, moreover, power has been in the hands of aliens, who have cared but little for the ultimate welfare of the people. It would appear, therefore, that the great mass of the inhabitants, poor, uneducated, and ill-informed of what is happening elsewhere, presents a formidable obstacle to the spread of new ideas, and hence it is not surprising that economic progress has only been made in those districts where foreign influences have been most felt. But, as recent events in Japan have shown, the Chinese belong to a race not incapable of rapid industrial advances, and, with the vast supplies of coal, iron, and other raw materials which they possess, it is not impossible that they may initiate an industrial revolution, the results of which will be of much more importance than those of the political one which has just taken place in their midst.