large way, is exactly the same as that now used in Egypt for the same
purpose, only that the latter is put in motion by oxen and the former
commonly by water. This machine consists of a long horizontal axis of
wood, with cogs or projecting pieces of wood or iron fixed upon it, at
certain intervals, and it is turned by a water-wheel. At right angles to
this axis are fixed as many horizontal levers as there are circular rows
of cogs; these levers act on pivots, that are fastened into a low brick
wall built parallel to the axis, and at the distance of about two feet
from it. At the further extremity of each lever, and perpendicular to
it, is fixed a hollow pestle, directly over a large mortar of stone or
iron sunk into the ground; the other extremity extending beyond the
wall, being pressed upon by the cogs of the axis in its revolution,
elevates the pestle, which by its own gravity falls into the mortar. An
axis of this kind sometimes gives motion to fifteen or twenty levers.
This machine[63], as well as the plough, still in use in modern Egypt,
which is also the same as the Chinese plough, have been considered by a
member of the French Institute to be the same instruments as those
employed in that country two thousand years ago; and judging from the
maxims of the Chinese government, and the character of the people, an
antiquity equally great may be assigned to them in the latter country.
The bamboo wheel for raising water, or something approaching very near
to it, either with buckets appended to the circumference, or with
fellies hollowed out so as to scoop up water, was also in use among the
ancient Egyptians; and, as I have before observed, continue to be so
among the Syrians; from these they are supposed to have passed into
Persia, where they are also still employed, and from whence they have
derived, in Europe, the name of Persian wheels. The chain-pump of China,
common in the hands of every farmer, was likewise an instrument of
husbandry in Egypt.
[63] See the plate facing page 37.
A very erroneous opinion seems to have been entertained in Europe, with
regard to the skill of the Chinese in agriculture. Industrious they
certainly are, in an eminent degree, but their labour does not always
appear to be bestowed with judgment. The instruments, in the first
place, they make use of are incapable of performing the operations of
husbandry to the greatest advantage. In the deepest and best soils,
their plough seldom cuts to the depth of four inches, so that they sow
from year to year upon the same soil, without being able to turn up new
earth, and to bury the worn-out mould to refresh itself. Supposing them,
however, to be supplied with ploughs of the best construction, we can
scarcely conceive that their mules and asses and old women, would be
equal to the task of drawing them.
The advantage that large farms in England possess over small ones
consists principally in the means they afford the tenant of keeping
better teams than can possibly be done on the latter, and consequently
of making a better _tilth_ for the reception of seed. The opulent
farmer, on the same quantity of ground, will invariably raise more
produce than the cottager can pretend to do. In China nine-tenths of
the peasantry may be considered as cottagers, and having few cattle
(millions I might add none at all) it can scarcely be expected that the
whole country should be in the best possible state of cultivation. As
horticulturists they may perhaps be allowed a considerable share of
merit; but, on the great scale of agriculture, they are certainly not to
be mentioned with many European nations. They have no knowledge of the
modes of improvement practised in the various breeds of cattle; no
instruments for breaking up and preparing waste lands; no system for
draining and reclaiming swamps and morasses; though that part of the
country over which the grand communication is effected between the two
extremities of the empire, abounds with lands of this nature, where
population is excessive and where the multitudes of shipping that pass
and repass create a never failing demand for grain and other vegetable
products. For want of this knowledge, a very considerable portion of the
richest land, perhaps, in the whole empire, is suffered to remain a
barren and unprofitable waste. If an idea may be formed from what we saw
in the course of our journey, and from the accounts that have been given
of the other provinces, I should conclude, that one-fourth part of the
whole country nearly consists of lakes and low, sour, swampy grounds,
which are totally uncultivated: and which, among other reasons hereafter
to be mentioned, may serve to explain the frequent famines that occur in
a more satisfactory way, than by supposing, with the Jesuits, that they
are owing to the circumstance of the nations bordering upon them to the
westward being savage and growing no corn. Their ignorance of draining,
or their dread of inundations, to which the low countries of China, in
their present state, are subject, may perhaps have driven them, in
certain situations, to the necessity of levelling the sides of mountains
into a succession of terraces; a mode of cultivation frequently taken
notice of by the missionaries as unexampled in Europe and peculiar to
the Chinese; whereas it is common in many parts of Europe. The mountains
of the _Pays de Vaud_, between _Lausanne_ and _Vevay_, are cultivated in
this manner to their summits with vines. "This would have been
impracticable," says Doctor Moore, "on account of the steepness, had not
the proprietors built strong stone walls at proper intervals, one above
the other, which support the soil, and form little terraces from the
bottom to the top of the mountains." But this method of terracing the
hills is not to be considered, by any means, as a common practice in
China. In our direct route it occurred only twice, and then on so small
a scale as hardly to deserve notice. The whole territorial right being
vested in the sovereign, the waste lands of course belong to the crown;
but any person, by giving notice to the proper magistrate, may obtain a
property therein, so long as he continues to pay such portion of the
estimated produce as is required to be collected into the public
magazines.
When I said that the Chinese might claim a considerable share of merit
as horticulturists, I meant to confine the observation to their skill
and industry of raising the greatest possible quantity of vegetables
from a given piece of ground. Of the modes practised in Europe of
improving the quality of fruit, they seem to have no just notion. Their
oranges are naturally good and require no artificial means of
improvement, but the European fruits, as apples, pears, plums, peaches
and apricots are of indifferent quality. They have a common method of
propagating several kinds of fruit-trees, which of late years has been
practised with success in Bengal. The method is simply this: they strip
a ring of bark, about an inch in width, from a bearing branch, surround
the place with a ball of fat earth or loam bound fast to the branch with
a piece of matting; over this they suspend a pot or horn with water
having a small hole in the bottom just sufficient to let the water drop,
in order to keep the earth constantly moist; the branch throws new roots
into the earth just above the place where the ring was stripped off; the
operation is performed in the spring, and the branch is sawn off and put
into the ground at the fall of the leaf; the following year it bears
fruit. They have no method of forcing vegetables by artificial heat, or
by excluding the cold air and admitting, at the same time, the rays of
the sun through glass. Their chief merit consists in preparing the soil,
working it incessantly, and keeping it free of weeds.
Upon the whole, if I might venture to offer an opinion with respect to
the merit of the Chinese as agriculturists, I should not hesitate to say
that, let as much ground be given to one of their peasants as he and his
family can work with the spade, and he will turn that piece of ground to
more advantage, and produce from it more sustenance for the use of man,
than any European whatsoever would be able to do; but, let fifty or one
hundred acres of the best land in China be given to a farmer, at a mean
rent, so far from making out of it the value of three rents, on which
our farmers usually calculate, he would scarcely be able to support his
family, after paying the expence of labour that would be required to
work the farm.
In fact there are no great farms in China. The inhabitants enjoy every
advantage which may be supposed to arise from the lands being pretty
equally divided among them, an advantage of which the effects might
probably answer the expectations of those who lean towards such a
system, were they not counteracted by circumstances that are not less
prejudicial, perhaps, to the benefit of the public, than monopolizing
farmers are by such persons supposed to be in our own country. One of
the circumstances I allude to is the common practice, in almost every
part of the country, of assembling together in towns and villages,
between which very frequently the intermediate space of ground has not a
single habitation upon it; and the reason assigned for this custom is
the dread of the bands of robbers that infest the weak and unprotected
parts of the country. The consequence of such a system is, that although
the lands adjoining the villages be kept in the highest state of
cultivation, yet those at a distance are suffered to remain almost
useless; for having no beasts of burden, it would be an endless task of
human labour to bear the manure that would be required, for several
miles, upon the ground, and its produce from thence back again to the
village. That such robbers do exist who, in formidable gangs, plunder
the peasantry, is very certain: _She-fo-pao_ was watching his grain to
prevent its being stolen, when he had the misfortune of shooting his
relation, who had also gone out for the same purpose. They are sometimes
indeed so numerous, as to threaten their most populous cities. The
frequency of such robberies and the alarm they occasion to the
inhabitants are neither favourable to the high notions that have been
entertained of the Chinese government, nor of the morals of the people.
Another, and perhaps the chief, disadvantage arising from landed
property being pretty equally divided, will be noticed in speaking of
the population and the frequent famines.
The province of _Kiang-nan_ extends from about 31° to 34-1/2° of
northern latitude; and the mean temperature, according to Fahrenheit's
thermometer, from the 30th of October to the 9th of November, was 54° at
sun-rise and 66° at noon; the sky uniformly clear.
The province of _Tche-kiang_ abounds in lakes and is intersected with
rivers and canals like _Kiang-nan_; but the produce, except that of a
little rice, is very different, consisting principally of silk. For
feeding the worms that afford this article, all the fertile and
beautiful vallies between the mountains, as well as the plains, are
covered with plantations of the mulberry-tree. The small houses, in
which the worms are reared, are placed generally in the centre of each
plantation; in order that they may be removed as far as possible from
any kind of noise; experience having taught them, that a sudden shout,
or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood
has sometimes perished by a thunder storm. The greatest attention is,
therefore, necessary; and, accordingly, they are watched night and day.
In fine weather, the young worms are exposed to the sun, upon a kind of
thin open gauze stretched in wooden frames; and at night they are
replaced in the plantation houses. The trees are pruned from time to
time, in order to cause a greater quantity and a constant succession of
young leaves. The inhabitants of this province, especially in the
cities, are almost universally clothed in silks; this rule among the
Chinese of consuming, as much as possible, the products of their own
country, and receiving as little as they can avoid from foreign nations,
extends even to the provinces; a practice arising out of the little
respect that, in China, as in ancient Rome, is paid to those concerned
in trade and merchandize.
Besides silk _Tche-kiang_ produces camphor, tallow from the _Croton_, a
considerable quantity of tea, oranges, and almost all the fruits that
are peculiar to the country. Every part of the province appeared to be
in the highest state of cultivation and the population to be immense.
Both the raw and manufactured silks, nankins and other cotton cloths,
were sold at such low prices in the capital of this province, that it is
difficult to conceive how the growers or the manufacturers contrived to
gain a livelihood by their labour. But of all others, I am the most
astonished at the small returns that must necessarily be made to the
cultivators of the tea plant. The preparations of some of the finer
kinds of this article are said to require that every leaf should be
rolled singly by the hand; particularly such as are exported to the
European markets. Besides this, there are many processes, such as
steeping, drying, turning, and packing, after it has been plucked off
the shrub leaf by leaf. Yet the first cost in the tea provinces cannot
be more than from four-pence to two shillings a pound, when it is
considered that the ordinary teas stand the East India Company in no
more than eight-pence a pound; and the very best only two shillings and
eight-pence[64]. Nothing can more clearly point out the patient and
unremitting labour of the Chinese, than the preparation of this plant
for the market. It is a curious circumstance that a body of merchants in
England should furnish employment, as might easily be made appear, to
more than a million subjects of a nation that affects to despise
merchants, and throws every obstacle in the way of commercial
intercourse.
[64] The East India Company pays from thirteen to sixty tales per pecul
for their teas; some tea of a higher price is purchased by individuals,
but seldom or ever by the Company. A tale is six shillings and
eight-pence, and a pecul is one hundred and thirty-three pounds and one
third.
The mean temperature of _Tche-kiang_, in the middle of November, was
from fifty-six degrees at sun-rise, to sixty-two degrees at noon. The
extent from North to South is between the parallels of twenty-eight and
thirty-four and a half degrees of northern latitude.
The northern part of _Kiang-see_ contains the great _Po-yang_ lake, and
those extensive swamps and morasses that surround it, and which, as I
have already observed, may be considered as the sink of China. The
middle and southern parts are mountainous. The chief produce is sugar
and oil from the _Camellia Sesanqua_. In this province are the principal
manufactories of porcelain, whose qualities, as I have in a former
chapter observed, depend more on the care bestowed in the preparation
and in the selection of the materials, than in any secret art possessed
by them. There are also, in this province, large manufactories of coarse
earthen ware, of tiles, and bricks.
The extent of _Kiang-see_ is from twenty-eight to thirty degrees, and
the temperature, in November, was the same as that of the neighbouring
province of _Tche-kiang_.
I have now to mention a subject on which much has already been written
by various authors, but without the success of having carried conviction
into the minds of their readers, that the things which they offered as
facts were either true or possible; I allude to the populousness of this
extensive empire. That none of the statements hitherto published are
strictly true, I am free to admit, but that the highest degree of
populousness that has yet been assigned may be possible, and even
probable, I am equally ready to contend. At the same time, I acknowledge
that, prepared as we were, from all that we had seen and heard and read
on the subject, for something very extraordinary; yet when the following
statement was delivered, at the request of the Embassador, by
_Chou-ta-gin_, as the abstract of a census that had been taken the
preceding year, the amount appeared so enormous as to surpass
credibility. But as we had always found this officer a plain,
unaffected, and honest man, who on no occasion had attempted to deceive
or impose on us, we could not consistently consider it in any other
light than as a document drawn up from authentic materials; its
inaccuracy, however, was obvious at a single glance, from the several
sums being given in round millions. I have added to the table the extent
of the provinces, the number of people on a square mile, and the value
of the surplus taxes remitted to Pekin in the year 1792, as mentioned in
the seventh chapter.
+-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+
| | | | No. on | Surplus |
| | | | each | taxes |
| | | Square | square | remitted |
| Provinces. | Population. | Miles. | Mile. | to Pekin. |
------------------+--------------+----------+---------|------------+
| | | | | oz. silver.|
|Pe-tche-lee | 38,000,000 | 58,949 | 644 | 3,036,000 |
|Kiang-nan | 32,000,000 | 92,961 | 344 | 8,210,000 |
|Kiang-see | 19,000,000 | 72,176 | 263 | 2,120,000 |
|Tche-kiang | 21,000,000 | 39,150 | 536 | 3,810,000 |
|Fo-kien | 15,000,000 | 53,480 | 280 | 1,277,000 |
| {Hou-pee | 14,000,000} | | | {1,310,000 |
|Houquang{Hou-nan | 13,000,000} | 144,770 | 187 | {1,345,000 |
|Honan | 25,000,000 | 65,104 | 384 | 3,213,000 |
|Shan-tung | 24,000,000 | 65,104 | 368 | 3,600,000 |
|Shan-see | 27,000,000 | 55,268 | 488 | 3,722,000 |
|Shen-see} one | 18,000,000} | | | {1,700,000 |
|Kan-soo }province| 12,000,000} | 154,008 | 195 | { 340,000 |
|Se-tchuen | 27,000,000 | 166,800 | 162 | 670,000 |
|Quan-tung | 21,000,000 | 79,456 | 264 | 1,340,000 |
|Quang-see | 10,000,000 | 78,250 | 128 | 500,000 |
|Yu-nan | 8,000,000 | 107,969 | 74 | 210,000 |
|Koei-tchoo | 9,000,000 | 64,554 | 140 | 145,000 |
+-----------------+--------------+----------+---------+------------+
| Totals | 313,000,000 |1,297,999[65] --- | 36,548,000 |
+-----------------+--------------+--------------------+------------+
[65] The measurement annexed to each of the fifteen ancient provinces
was taken from the maps that were constructed by a very laborious and,
as far as we had an opportunity of comparing them with the country, a
very accurate survey, which employed the Jesuits ten years. I do not
pretend to say that the areas, as I have given them in the table, are
mathematically correct, but the dimensions were taken with as much care
as was deemed necessary for the purpose, from maps drawn on a large
scale, of which a very beautiful manuscript copy is now in his Majesty's
library at Buckingham-house, made by a Chinese, having all the names
written in Chinese and Tartar characters.
Considering then the whole surface of the Chinese dominions within the
great wall to contain 1,297,999 square miles, or 830,719,360 English
acres, and the population to amount to 333,000,000, every square mile
will be found to contain two hundred and fifty-six persons, and every
individual might possess two acres and a half of land. Great Britain is
supposed to average about one hundred and twenty persons on one square
mile, and that to each inhabitant there might be assigned a portion of
five acres, or to each family five-and-twenty acres. The population of
China, therefore, is to that of Great Britain as 256 to 120, or in a
proportion somewhat greater than two to one; and the quantity of land
that each individual in Great Britain might possess is just twice as
much as could be allowed to each individual of China. We have only then
to enquire if Britain, under the same circumstances as China, be capable
of supporting twice its present population, or which is the same thing,
if twelve and an half acres of land be sufficient for the maintenance of
a family of five persons? Two acres of choice land sown with wheat,
under good tillage, may be reckoned to average, after deducting the
seed, 60 bushels or 3600 pounds, which every baker knows would yield
5400 pounds of bread, or three pounds a day to every member of the
family for the whole year. Half an acre is a great allowance for a
kitchen-garden and potatoe bed. There would still remain ten acres,
which must be very bad land if, besides paying the rent and taxes, it
did not keep three or four cows; and an industrious and managing family
would find no difficulty in rearing as many pigs and as much poultry as
would be necessary for home consumption, and for the purchase of
clothing and other indispensable necessaries. If then the country was
pretty equally partitioned out in this manner; if the land was applied
solely to produce food for man; if no horses nor superfluous animals
were kept for pleasure, and few only for labour; if the country was not
drained of its best hands in foreign trade and in large manufactories;
if the carriage of goods for exchanging with other goods was performed
by canals and rivers and lakes, all abounding with fish; if the catching
of these fish gave employment to a very considerable portion of the
inhabitants; if the bulk of the people were satisfied to abstain almost
wholly from animal food, except such as is most easily procured, that of
pigs and ducks and fish; if only a very small part of the grain raised
was employed in the distilleries, but was used as the staff of life for
man; and if this grain was of such a nature as to yield twice, and even
three times, the produce that wheat will give on the same space of
ground; if, moreover, the climate was so favourable as to allow two such
crops every year--if, under all these circumstances, twelve and a half
acres of land would not support a family of five persons; the fault
could only be ascribed to idleness or bad management.
Let us then, for a moment, consider that these or similar advantages
operate in China; that every product of the ground is appropriated
solely for the food and clothing of man; that a single acre of land,
sown with rice, will yield a sufficient quantity for the consumption of
five people for a whole year, allowing to each person two pounds a-day,
provided the returns of his crop are from twenty to twenty-five for one,
which are considered as extremely moderate, being frequently more than
twice this quantity; that in the southern provinces two crops of rice
are produced in the year, one acre of which I am well assured, with
proper culture, will afford a supply of that grain even for ten persons,
and that an acre of cotton will clothe two or three hundred persons, we
may justly infer that, instead of twelve acres to each family, half that
quantity would appear to be more than necessary; and safely conclude,
that there is no want of land to support the assumed population of three
hundred and thirty-three millions. This being the case, the population
is not yet arrived at a level with the means which the country affords
of subsistence.
There is, perhaps, no country where the condition of the peasantry may
more justly be compared with those of China than Ireland. This island,
according to the latest survey, contains about 17,000,000 English acres,
730,000 houses and 3,500,000 souls; so that, as in Great Britain, each
individual averages very nearly five acres and every family
five-and-twenty. An Irish cottager holds seldom more than an Irish acre
of land, or one and three-quarters English nearly, in cultivation, with
a cow's grass, for which he pays a rent from two to five pounds. Those
on Lord Macartney's estate at Lissanore have their acre, which they
cultivate in divisions with oats, potatoes, kale, and a little flax;
with this they have besides the full pasturage of a cow all the year
upon a large waste, not overstocked, and a comfortable cabin to inhabit,
for which each pays the rent of three pounds. The cottager works perhaps
three days in the week, at nine-pence a-day; if, instead of which, he
had a second acre to cultivate, he would derive more benefit from its
produce than from the product of his three days' labour _per_ week; that
is to say, provided he would expend the same labour in its tillage. Thus
then, supposing only half of Ireland in a state of cultivation and the
other half pasturage, it would support a population more than three
times that which it now contains; and as a century ago it had no more
than a million of people, so within the present century, under
favourable circumstances, it may increase to ten millions. And it is not
unworthy of remark, that this great increase of population in Ireland
has taken place since the introduction of the potatoe, which gives a
never-failing crop.