679. the Chinese farm and home were so nearly self-supporting, the country had but little foreign trade. Before the World War the exports and imports were less than two dollars a year for each person, while in the United Kingdom they were over seventy dollars. (See Appendix.) Chief of all the exports is raw silk. Then come beans, bean cake, bean oil, and hides. Among their curious exports are firecrackers, which the Chinese are very fond of using, and dried eggs, which will, of course, keep a long time and can be carried easily.
The chief Chinese im ports are cotton and cot ton cloth, tobacco, iron, machinery to make manu factures, and oil for the family lamp. Even the Chinese peasant is willing to pay for a bright light. Most of the foreign trade of China is with Japan, Eng land, and the United States.
680. Cities.—Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yangtze, is the greatest trade center — the New York of China. Ocean steamers go to Hankow, 600 miles up the Yangtze. Why should Hankow be a ' great city? Why is it called the Chicago of China? The island city of Hongkong, now a British possession, is the center of the trade of south China and the Li Valley. Much of this trade comes by way of Canton, which, next to New York, is said to be the most crowded city in the world. Here thousands of people live in boats. Tientsin, the port of Peking, is the center of trade for North China. China has many large cities, most of which are in the district served by boats. Name the imports and exports of each port city. (Fig. 474.) 681. Future.—Some parts of China are so well cultivated that the land cannot be made to produce another thing. In parts, especially in the west, there is still unused land, and there may be some increase in Chinese agriculture. The great change in China will be in the growth of factories and in manufacture. Most of the things used in China are still made on the hand loom and the hand spinning wheel, and by other hand tools; but there are already 100,000 factory workers, and an American official says that in a few more decades there may be 40,000,000 factory workers. That would be only the
proportion that we now have to the total population in the United States.
China is rich in resourcesformanufacturing.
China has more coal by far than all Europe, of which a supply is found in each one of the eighteen provinces of China Proper. Where there is coal, there is often oil; indeed, the Chinese have used a little petroleum for a long while. She also has iron, which has supported a primitive iron industry for many centuries, but the resources are almost un touched, and are said to be very rich. An iron mine on the Yangtze sends Japan some of the iron used in that country. The moun tainous southwestern province, Yunnan, is famous for its mines of gold, copper, zinc, and other metals. She has so many people that they have never been counted; thus 320,000,000 is only an estimate.
With all these raw materials and all these workers at hand, and with a new education started, we may expect to see great changes in China in our own lifetime. The chief difficulty is a political one. Can China have a good government? Can she have peace? In this age of science and machinery, peace and good government are more important than ever before. American and European engineers are ready to help China with plans. American machinery is ready to chug in the mines, quarries, and fields, and to whirr in the factories. If China develops riches, it means riches for us too, through our trade with her. There is nothing to be gained from poor neighbors, and much to be had from rich ones. The lack of prosperity in Europe after the World War soon made hard times in the United States.