The  PROVINCES  AND  THE'¡TREATY  PORTS  255
allied  forces,  who  then  occupied  Canton,  as  a  reminder  of
the  wanton  destruction  of  foreign  property  in  the  preceding
year.  The  early  history  of  the  trade  of  Canton  is  the
history  of  the  foreign  trade  of  China,  and  is  treated  in  that
chapter.  In  1842,  by  the  British  treaty  of  Nanking,  Canton
lost  its  monopoly  of  trade,  and  the  produce  of  the  country
was  allowed  to  find  its  outlet  where  best  it  could  by  any
one  of  the  four  other  ports—Shanghai,  Ningpo,  Foochow,
and  Amoy—then  opened  to  trade  ;  and  when,  in  1861,
the  Yangtze  ports  and  Swatow  were  thrown  open,  Canton
was  absolutely  restricted  to  its  own  producing  and  supply
district.  Since  that  time  the  course  of  trade  is  shown  by
the  following  figures,  the  value  of  silk  and  its  products  (in
millions  of  taels)  being  put  in  parentheses  after  the  value
of  the  export  trade  :—
Imports.  Exports.
Tls.  Tls.
i860  ..  13,061,230  11,516,815  (37)
1864  ..  2,393,085  9,860,220  (4  0)
1874  •  .  6,626,441  16,287,633  (91)
1884  -.  11,886,781  13,853,243  (8  0)
1894  ..  27,385,876  18,031,721  (126)
1904  .  .  52,885,637  43,361,439  (29  5)
It  will  be  convenient  to  consider  here  the  status  of  the
two  supervising  stations  for  the  junk  trade  with  Hongkong
and  Macao,  the  stations  of  Kowloon  and  Lappa.
The  foreign  colonies  of  Hongkong  and  Macao  being
free  ports,  with  no  Customs  duties  or  supervision  to  trammel
their  trade,  the  preventive  measures  necessary  to  check
smuggling  were  obviously  imposed  on  the  Chinese  authorities ­
  alone.  Smuggling  was  easy,  and,  easy  or  difficult,  the
a  fu 1S  in S ra ^P e&lt; ^  i n  the  Chinese  character.  Macao  was
on  e  mainland,  Hongkong  (the  original  cession)  was
para  e  by  a  short  mile  of  water  from  Chinese  territory,
J!  Sm ! lgglers  by  water  from  either  had  their  choice  of  a
OtJ, 6  °  r ? utes  by  which  to  reach  a  profitable  market.
Salt  Were  the  P rinci P al  subjects  of  the  traffic,
P  i  ecause  of  the  great  value  and  high  duty  attaching

Total.
Tls.
24,578,045
12,253,305
22,914,074
25,740,024
45,417,597
96,247,076