Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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SHANGHAI
features of Chinese cities—dirt, closeness, and absence of
all sanitary arrangements; while the want of any build¬
ing of architectural or antiquarian interest robs the city
of any redeeming traits. On the eastern face of the city,
between the walls and the river, stands the principal
suburb, off which the native shipping lies anchored. The
native town has thus nothing to recommend it except its
geographical position. Situated in the extreme eastern
portion of the province of
Kiang-soo, and possessing
a good and commodious
anchorage, as well as an
easy access to the ocean,
it forms the principal
port of central China.
From the western wall
of the city there stretches
away a rich alluvial plain
extending over 45,000
square miles, which is
intersected by numerous
waterways and great
chains of lakes. The
products of this fertile
district, as well as the
teas and silks of more
distant regions, find
their natural outlet at
Shanghai. The looms
of Soochow and the tea
plantations of Gan-hwuy,
together with the rice
of this “garden of China,” have for many years before
treaty days supplied the Shanghai junks with their
richest freight. But though thus favourably situated
as an emporium of trade Shanghai did not attract the
attention of foreign diplomatists until the outbreak of
the war of 1841, when the inhabitants purchased protec¬
tion from the bombarding propensities of Admiral Parker
by the payment of a ransom of one million taels. In the
Nanking treaty, which was signed in the following year,
Shanghai was included among the four new ports which
were thrown open to trade by the terms of that document.
In 1843 Sir George Balfour, then Captain Balfour, was
appointed British consul, and it was on his motion that the
site of the present English settlement, which is bounded
on the north by the Soochow creek, on the south by the
Yang-king canal, and on the east by the river, was chosen.
The site, thus defined on its three sides (on the west no
boundary was marked out), is three-fifths of a mile in
length, and was separated from the native city by a
narrow strip of land which was subsequently selected as
the site of the French settlement. Later again the
Americans established themselves on the other side of the
Soochow creek, on a piece of land fronting on the river,
which there makes a sharp turn in an easterly direction.
At first merchants appeared disinclined to take advantage
of the opportunities offered them at Shanghai. “ At the
end of the first year of its history as an open port Shanghai
could count only 23 foreign residents and families, 1
consular flag, 11 merchants’ houses, and 2 Protestant
missionaries. Only forty-four foreign vessels had arrived
during the same period.”1 By degrees, however, the
manifold advantages as a port of trade possessed by
Shanghai attracted merchants of all nationalities; and
from the banks of the Hwang-p’u arose lines of hongs
and handsome dwelling-houses, which have converted a
reed-covered swamp into one of the finest cities in the East,
1 The. Treaty Ports of China and Japan, by W. F. Mayer.
The number of foreigners, other than English, who
took up their abode in the English settlement at Shanghai
made it soon necessary to adopt some more catholic form
of government than that supplied by an English consul
who had control only over British subjects, and by com¬
mon agreement a committee of residents, consisting of a
chairman and six members, was elected by the renters
of land for the purposes of general municipal administra¬
tion. It was expected when the council was formed that
the three settlements—the British, French, and Americans
—would have been incorporated into one municipality,
but international jealousy prevented the fulfilment of the
scheme, and it was not until 1863 that the Americans
threw in their lot with the British. In 1853 the pro¬
sperity of the settlements received a severe check in con¬
sequence of the capture of the native city by a band of
insurgents, who held possession of the walls from September
in that year to February 1855. This incident, though in
many ways disastrous, was the exciting cause of the estab¬
lishment of the foreign customs service, which has proved
of such inestimable advantage to the Chinese Government.
The confusion into which the customs system was thrown
by the occupation of the city by the rebels induced the
Chinese authorities to request the consuls of Great
Britain, France, and the United States to nominate three
officers to superintend the collection of the revenue. This
arrangement was found to work so well that on the re¬
occupation of the city the native authorities proposed that
it should be made permanent, and Mr H. N. Lay, of H.M.’s
consular service, was in consequence appointed inspector
of the Shanghai customs. The results of Mr Lay’s ad¬
ministration proved so successful that when arranging the
terms of the treaty of 1858 the Chinese willingly assented
to the application of the same system to all the treaty ports,
and Mr Lay was thereupon appointed inspector-general of
maritime customs. On the retirement of Mr Lay in 1862
Sir Bobert Hart was appointed to the post, which he still
(1886) occupies.
During the period from 1856 to 1864 the trade of Shanghai
increased by leaps and by bounds, and its prosperity culminated
between 1860 and 1864, when, in addition to the ordinary commerce,
the influx of Chinese into the foreign settlement in consequence of
the advance eastward of the T’ai-p’ing rebels added enormously to
the value of land and to the profits of the leaseholders. Both in
1860 and again in 1861 the rebels advanced to the walls of Shanghai,
and on both occasions were driven back in confusion by the British
troops and volunteers, aided by the naval forces of England and
France. It was in connexion with this resistance to the rebels at
Shanghai that General Gordon assumed the command of the Chinese
force, which under his direction gave a meaning and reality to the
hitherto somewhat boastful title of “ever-victorious army” it had
assumed under the generalship of the two American adventurers
Ward and Burge vine. To Shanghai the successful operations of
Gordon against the rebels brought temporarily disastrous conse¬
quences. With the disappearance of the T’ai-p’ings the refugees
who had sought safety in the foreign settlements returned to their
homes, leaving whole streets and quarters deserted and empty. The
loss thus inflicted on the municipality was very considerable, and
was intensified by a commercial crisis in the markets of cotton and
tea, in both of which articles there had been a great deal of over¬
speculation. But, though the abnormal prosperity produced by
extraordinary circumstances was thus suddenly brought to an end,
the genuine trade of the port has steadily advanced, subject of
course to occasional fluctuations. For example, between the years
1878 and 1881 the gross value of the trade increased from 110,956,274
taels to 141,291,357 taels. In 1883, however, this amount fell to
110,433,531 taels, while in 1884 it rose again' to 113,215,520 taels,
although at this time, as will be remembered, hostilities were being
carried on between France and China. In the same year 53,562
bales of silk were exported, as against 47,807 bales in 1883, and
27,084,675 lb of green tea, as against 25,336,041 lb in 1883.
In black tea there was a falling off, the respective figures being
43,813,058 and 48,251,637 lb. The total burthen of foreign steamers
which entered and cleared at Shanghai during 1884 was 3,145,242
tons. Of this amount 2,238,433 tons were British, 500,222 were
American, 188,484 were Japanese, 93,226 were German, 88,983
were French, 24,572 were Russian, and 11,322 were Danish.
According to the latest estimate the native population of the