INTERNAL  TRADE  3%7
(Tairen  or  Dalny)  to  Harbin,  and  thence  east  to  Vladivostock
and  north-west  into  Russian  territory  ;  and  by  this  railway
in  1903  went  378,739  piculs  of  Chinese  tea.  My  present
concern  is,  however,  with  the  internal  trade  of  China.  This
route,  proceeding  east  from  Peking  and  north-east  from
Tientsin,  passes  through  the  narrow  defile  between  the
mountains  and  the  sea  at  Shanhaikwan,  where  the  Great
Wall  ends  on  the  shore,  and  then  goes  on  to  Ningyuan,  where
three  hundred  years  ago,  the  Manchu  invaders  met  their
only  serious  check.  By  this  route  came  the  Manchus,  and
by  this  route  have  come  tribute  and  ginseng  from  Korea,
until,  twelve  years  ago,  the  tribute  ceased.  With  the
development  of  steam  traffic  trade  between  Chihli  and
Manchuria  by  this  portal  fell  away,  until  the  exigencies  of
war  shut  out  the  merchants  of  Newchwang  from  their  hinterland ­
  and  drove  its  trade  temporarily  to  Tientsin,  from  which
port  the  foreign  goods  sent  by  railway  into  Manchuria  under
transit  pass  in  1905  were  valued  at  Tls.4,925,000.  From
Newchwang  the  Liao  River  in  summer  and  the  frozen  plain
of  Manchuria  in  winter  furnish  the  means  of  distributing
a  trade  which,  import  and  export,  was  in  1905  valued
at  more  than  Tls.70,000,000.
These  are  the  principal  internal  trade  routes  of  the
Chinese  Empire,  thronged  with  boats  or  with  the  carts  and
pack-animals  engaged  in  the  interchange  of  commodities
between  a  race  of  traders  developed  through  the  course
of  many  centuries.  By  these  routes  comes  the  Chinese
produce  intended  for  export  from  the  shipping  ports,  and  by
these  routes  foreign  products  are  distributed  for  consumption
in  the  marts  of  the  interior  ;  but  there  are  no  statistics  to
show  the  volume  of  the  enormous  traffic  which  originates
and  ends  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire.  Some  slight
indication  is  given  by  the  quantities  of  a  few  articles  of  the
purely  domestic  trade  conveyed  by  the  steamers  which,
on  some  routes,  have  now  displaced,  wholly  or  partially,
the  old  primitive  means  of  conveyance  ;  and  a  few  brief
notes  are  given  on  the  more  important  commodities.
Rice,  shipped  from  producing  to  non-producing,  from