and pulse of this part of the Liao valley should find their way out to markets. The Changchun-Kirin line was also built by China. It cost 11,800,000 yen, of which 6,500,000 yen were borrowed from the South Manchuria Railway. This line, like the Ssupingkai-Chengchiatun line, is but the first section of a longer one. Eventually it is meant to be extended to Kainei on the Chosen border and there connect with the North Chosen line. When the connection is completed the great central plains of Manchuria will find an outlet on the Sea of Japan, as has been pointed out in another chapter. There are four proposed lines still unbuilt: The Kaiyuan-Kirin line via Hailun, to have a length of 233 miles; the Kirin-Kainei line of about 270 miles, which we have just mentioned; the Taonan-Jehol line of about 470 miles; and another to start from a point on the Taonan-Jehol line and terminate at a port unnamed. With the completion of these lines, or even of some of them, Manchuria will enter a new era of industrial expansion. CHAPTER XIII TRADE AND TRADE TENDENCIES IN the course of 1922 Manchuria bought 180,160,070 Haikwan taels' worth of foreign and Chinese goods. In the same year she sold to China and to foreign countries goods valued at 274,426,631 Hk. taels. As the average exchange value of a Haikwan tael in 1922 ruled at 83 cents of American money, she did business worth a little more than $377,406,960 in American money, taking both her net imports and exports together. Of this amount, 162,671,858 Hk. taels' worth of her imports went through the three ports of South Manchuria-through Dairen, Yingkou, and Antung. Of her exports, 195,320,511 Hk. taels' worth went out through the same three ports. Therefore out of the total of 454,586,701 Hk. taels of imports and exports, no less than 357,892,369 Hk. taels' worth of business passed through the Big Three of her ports; that is to say, very nearly three-fourths of the entire exporting and importing trade of Manchuria passed the three ports in the south in 1922. And the year was not an exceptional one in this respect. This has been the case ever since Russian Far East has been suffering from the effects of the economic chaos following the Bolshevik revolution. CHARACTER OF THE MANCHURIAN TRADE There are eight articles on the lists of goods she imported through the three ports in 1922 which stand out head and shoulder above the rest, not in volume neces sarily but in value. They are, in the order of their im None of these belong in the raw-material class except some items under iron and steel. The item in the above list which tells a more pointed tale than any others is the one ranked at the very top of the list-cotton piece goods. Manchuria pays for cotton piece goods more than three times the amount she does for her cotton yarn imports. This may not paint the picture of the backwardness of all her industries. It certainly does spell the primitive state of her textile industry. She cannot rank even with China taken as a whole. For in 1922, the value of Chinese importation of cotton textiles amounted to less than $125,140,000 while her importation of cotton yarns reached more than $54,883,500 in value. Her textile importation was less than two and a half times that of the yarn. And in these figures Manchurian trade is of course included. The fact is, Manchuria imported through the three ports cotton piece goods made in China to the extent of more than 12,998,000 Hk. taels in 1922. There are also eight articles on the list of her exports which put all the rest in the shade. They are in their order of importance: |