THE  PROVINCES  AND  THE  TREATY  PORTS  235
variously  at  from  14,000,000  to  39,000,000,  the  most  probable
figure  being  25,000,000  (Popoff,  1894).  It  is  a  province
in  which,  through  its  whole  extent,  every  inch  of  ground  is
utilised,  even  the  otherwise  barren  wastes  of  the  low  coast
supplying  the  salt  for  the  Hwai  Administration,  which
provides  officially  for  the  needs  of  six  provinces  or  parts  of
provinces,  with  a  probable  total  of  a  hundred  million
consumers.  The  natural  products  are  rich  in  quality  and
infinite  in  variety,  including  silk,  by  nature  the  finest  in
the  world,  rice,  the  choicest  of  any  in  China,  cotton,  of
short  staple  but  fine  fibre,  besides  opium,  wheat,  beans,
etc.  ;  while  the  products  of  its  hand-looms,  of  the  silk
weavers  of  Soochow  and  Nanking,  and  of  the  cotton  weavers
of  every  farmstead  in  the  province,  have  been  renowned
for  centuries.  Trade  is  an  instinct  of  the  province,  facilitated
by  the  canals  which  everywhere  and  in  all  directions  intersect ­
  its  surface,  the  Grand  Canal  being  only  primus  inter
pares.  The  ruined  bridges,  temples,  and  houses  of  this
smiling  land,  devastated  by  the  Taiping  rebels  (1853-64),
were  a  marked  characteristic  of  Kiangsu  thirty  years  ago,
and  are  still  observable  in  many  places.  Kiangsu,  Kiangsi,
and  Anhwei  form  the  Viceroyalty  of  Liangkiang,  “  The
Two  River  (provinces).”  In  the  province  are  four  treaty
ports,  Nanking,  Chinkiang,  Soochow,  and  Shanghai.
Nanking  (32°  13'  N.,  119°  25'  E.),  the  “  Southern
Capital,”  the  official  name  being  Kiangning,  “  River  Rest,”
was  the  capital  of  the  Empire  at  several  periods  of  its  history,
the  last  occasion  being  under  the  two  first  Ming  Emperors,
1368-1402.  Remains  of  some  of  the  old  walls  are  still
discernible,  one  of  the  time  of  the  Six  Dynasties,  a.d.
221-587,  and  another  of  the  city  under  the  Southern  Sung
(a.d.  1127-1280),  and  Mongol  (a.d.  1280-1368)  Dynasties.
The  present  wall,  substantially  that  of  the  Ming  Hung-wu
(a.d.  1368),  but  renovated  after  its  capture  by  the  Taipings
in  1853  and  its  recapture  after  a  siege  of  eleven  years  in
1864,  have  a  circuit  of  twenty-five  miles,  and  enclose  an
area  sufficient  rather  for  the  possible  population  of  the
capital  of  an  empire  than  for  the  present  population  of