are also
four or five mills at one or other of the ports working 80,000
spindles more. These mills are all engaged in the manufacture of yarn
for the Chinese market, very little weaving being done. Chinese-grown
cotton is used, the staple of which is short; only the coarser counts
can be spun.

At certain large centres flour and rice mills have been erected and
are superseding native methods of treating wheat and rice; at Canton
there are sugar refineries. At Hanyang near Hankow are large
iron-works owned by Chinese. They are supplied with ore from the mines
at Ta-ye, 60 m. distant, and turn out (1909) about 300 steel rails a
day.

_Commerce_.

The foreign trade of China is conducted through the "treaty ports,"
i.e. sea and river ports and a few inland cities which by the treaty
of Nanking (1842) that of Tientsin (1860) and subsequent treaties have
been thrown open to foreigners for purposes of trade. (The Nanking
treaty recognized five ports only as open to foreigners--Canton,[21]
Amoy, Fu-chow, Ning-po and Shanghai.) These places are as follows,
treaty ports in Manchuria being included: Amoy, Antung, Canton,
Chang-sha, Dairen, Chin-kiang, Chinwantao, Ch'ungk'ing, Chifu,
Fu-chow, Funing (Santuao), Hang-chow, Hankow, I-ch'ang, Kang-moon,
Kiao-chow, Kiu-kiang, K'iung-chow, Kow-loon, Lappa, Lung-chow,
Mengtsze, Mukden, Nanking, Nanning, Ning-po, Niu-chwang, Pakhoi,
Sanshui, Shanghai, Shasi, Su-chow, Swatow, Szemao, Tatungkow,
Tientsin, Teng-yueh, Wen-chow, Wu-chow, Wuhu, Yo-chow.

The progress of the foreign trade of China is set out in the
following table. The values are given both in currency and sterling,
but it is to be remarked that during the period when silver was
falling, that is, from 1875 to 1893, the silver valuation represents
much more accurately variations in the volume of trade than does the
gold valuation. Gold prices fell continuously during this period,
while silver prices were nearly constant. Since 1893 silver prices
have tended to rise, and the gold valuation is then more accurate. The
conversion from silver to gold is made at the rate of exchange of the
day, and therefore varies from year to year.

_Table of Imports and Exports, exclusive of Bullion._

+--------+---------------------------+---------------------------+
| | Imports. | Exports. |
| +-------------+-----