packages 134,238 £21,657 Do. 100,724 16,245 129,453 20,879 Do. 359,223 57,939 1839. Do. 2,295,339 370,216 Do. The progress of the trade will be seen from the fact that the Russian imports of tea, were in 1800, Russian pounds 2,799,900 ; and in 1839, Russian pounds 8,071,880. N.B.-Forty Russian pounds are equal to thirty-six pounds avoirdupois. The following statement was laid before the Parliamentary Committee on East India affairs in 1830, which shows the retail price of tea at St. Petersburgh, and the value of some samples procured and brought from thence. It will be seen that high prices have not diminished consumption : Russian tea, which I drank last year at Vienna, at the hospitable table of Mr. Magennis, Secretary to the British Embassy, was superior to any tea I have tasted in England. The Charges on a chest of tea from Kiachta are stated to be : 422 WOOLLEN TRADE WITH RUSSIA. The The silver rouble of Russia is estimated at about three shillings and two pence; 113 silver will purchase 345 paper roubles. latter are subject, however, to great depreciation, according to the supply of specie. The Exports of Woollen Cloth from Russia to Kiachta have been increasing, while ours have been decreasing. In former years, Russia exported to China the woollen manufactures of Poland (as will be seen by the above table), and still earlier those of Prussia, in addition to her own, Previous to 1812, a considerable quantity of English woollens were sent to Russia, intended for the Chinese market. The cost of this cloth was at that time from 178. to 20s. per yard, though the same cloth, in 1830, could be had at 10s. or 12s., or even less. This trade was stopped by an increase of duty laid by the Russian government on English cloths, and a reduction of that on Prussian cloth. At present, however, only cloths manufactured are exported. They are made principally at Moscow and its neighbourhood, of different qualities, similar to the English cloths, called Spanish stripes and habit cloths. They are classed in three varieties:-1st. Mezeritsky cloths; 2nd. those of Masloff or Maslovia; 3rd. Karnavoy cloth: in each variety are four or five grades of quality. The assortment of colours in 100 pieces of Mezeritsky, is :Blue, 40 pieces; light blue, 10 pieces; black, 20 pieces; violet, 2 pieces; yellow, 1 piece; red pomegranate, 8 pieces; brown violet, 4 pieces; scarlet, 10 pieces; green, 3 pieces; and fashions of the day, 2 pieces. These are packed in ten bales, each having an assortment of the different colours. The first quality of Mezeritsky cloth costs at Moscow 150 to 165 roubles assign, per piece of twenty-five arshuns (68. 9d. to 78. 4d., per yard); and the charges from Moscow to Kiachta amount to about 250 roubles assign, per each bale, the RUSSIAN CLOTHS AND PRICES IN CHINA. 423 measure from sixty to sixty-seven inches in width. The first quality of Masloff cloth costs at Moscow 7 to 7 roubles assign per arshine, (8s. to 8s. 6d. per yard); the length of the pieces forty to forty-five arshines, or thirty-one to thirty-five yards; breadth between the lists sixty-seven to seventy inches. They are made up in bales of eight pieces each; in an export of 1,000 pieces of these two cloths, the proportions are about 750 to 800 pieces of Mezeritsky, and 200 to 250 pieces of Maslovia. Velveteens (plush), a considerable quantity is annually bartered at Kiachta. They are made in pieces of about fifty arshines in length (39 yards), and of two breadths, viz. ten vershacks and sixteen ditto, (seventeen and a half and twenty-eight inches), the price of the former at Moscow is about R. 1, 40 co. to R. 1, 80 per arshine, and of the latter R. 2, 80. The camlets exported to China are principally of Dutch make, a very trifling proportion being Russian. The other principal articles of Russian export to China are linen goods of a coarse description; leather, skins, and furs. Also fire-arms, cutlery, corals, mirrors, watches, and divers articles of ornament; the cost of carriage from Moscow to Kiachta is about twenty-five roubles per pood (36lbs.) English.) In a letter from China dated December, 1842, to Mr. Macgregor, one of the secretaries to the Board of Trade, and to whom the nation is so greatly indebted for his invaluable collection of European tariffs, and the statistical illustration of the condition of different countries, it is stated that the Russian woollens now actively compete with English woollens in the north of China. I found excellent Russian cloth in Chusan, Ningpo and Shanghai. Mr. Macgregor's correspondent states that the cloth is called by the Chinese Ka-la; its consumption, in reference to English cloth, is as five to one of the latter, and it is only within the last five years that the article has been introduced in any quantity. The breadth of the muster cloth exceeds that of English stripes by four inches. The length usually is 50 to 80 cooids (19 to 30 yards) per piece; the breadth varies from 62 to 64 inches. The consumption at Ningpo is estimated at from 3,000 to 5,000 pieces, and at Soo-choo 20,000 pieces. The latter is the principal mart, and from it Ningpo gets supplied. The shopman quoted the then rates at 27 dollars per piece of 50 cooids (191 yards) for black; 32 dollars blue; 35 dollars scarlet and purple; say 1 dollars per yard for black; 1 dollars for blue; and 1% dollar for scarlet and purple. The packages are made up of five pieces, and an assortment should contain, according to the shopkeeper's information, 50 pieces blue (the muster sent is not a fast colour, apparently dyed in the piece), 35 pieces black, 10 pieces scarlet, two pieces ash, three pieces green; this may not be correct, as neither purple nor 424 COTTON MANUFACTURES IN RUSSIA. brown is mentioned. The end of the piece seen had the maker's name in gold letters, No. 18301. The high number of the piece will show that it is a manufacture of some moment. In order that a comparison might be made between the Russian cloth and Spanish stripes, there was selected from the man's stock a piece of Gott's manufacture, which it was said that buyers complained of the quality being inferior to that of the same article imported during the Company's time; they also stated that the consumption of it was decreasing. Ningpo does not take off more than 300 to 500 pieces per annum, (chiefly black and blue); Soochoo 3,000 to 5,000 pieces; Hangchow-foo only a small quantity. The price of a piece of 18 yards was quoted at 35 dollars purple (1 dollar per yard), 27 dollars blue (1 dollar per yard), and 20 dollars for black (1 dollar per yard). From the foregoing statements, it is quite evident, that the terms upon which Russia can compete in the Chinese market with England, in the article of woollens, chiefly depends upon the sale of tea. When we consider the great reduction in prices that woollens have undergone, it is clear that unless their tea trade was protected as it is (notwithstanding the large profits of the Russian imports) it would be largely participated in by the merchants of other countries. They could not barter their goods at Kiachta, at the nominal prices stated, nor supply China Proper with woollens, at such competing prices. Cotton cloths called "Daba" and "Kitaia" from China, were such favourites that nothing else was worn in summer. The "Daba and Kitaia," is a sort of thick callico, of different colours, brought from China through Bucharia, into Russia, in large quantities, and is used for the apparel of both men and women. The Chinese Kitaia is the best, of which there are two sorts. Daba is a strong stuff, of a beautiful red colour without gloss; it is narrow and not unlike our coarse calico. The other is coarser, but more durable. Great quantities of cotton stuffs, and calicoes, are brought from Bucharia and Mongolia, called Seleinskaia, from a city of the name of Selim. They are generally of gay colours, as red, green, yellow, blue, and are made up in bundles of rolls, each 20 ells long. A Russian official account states, "That formerly, Chinese nankins, and other cotton stuffs, were amongst the most important articles of our importation. Now Russia exports cotton goods to China, and little by little the tissues of our fabrics have very nearly supplanted, in this trade, those proceeding in transit from foreign countries. "The cotton stuffs manufactured in Russia, and exported to China in 1826, was in value 167,199 roubles, paper-money, and in 1840 to 920,881 paper roubles, in the succeeding year there is a small increase on the preceding." The cotton stuffs imported from China in 1840 were 19,670 roubles. Description of goods. BARTER TRADE AT KIACHTA. Report concerning the barter trade at Kiachta in 1843. It appears the amount of trade in the foregoing report, as compared with that of previous years, does not exceed one-third of the average. No cause is assigned for such a great falling off. The foreign fur trade at Canton, twenty years ago, amounting to a million dollars annually, is now nearly quite extinct; on the northern frontier there is still an extensive traffic; and were all the facts of the case at our command, we might find that this traffic is annually increasing. The Russian and Chinese commerce was very considerable in 1845. It is said to have amounted to 13,622,000 silver roubles, at 3s. 2d. per rouble, to £2,156,816 sterling. The Russian articles were furs and cloths. From China there came 100,000 chests of tea from forty-five to sixty pounds each, besides 40,000 chests of inferior qualities of tea. The mode of transacting business at Kiachta deserves notice. Commissioners are appointed on each side, who fix by regulations, the price of every article of import, and of the tea to be given in exchange for it; the price of the tea, the proportion of each sort, to be bartered for the different articles. Six members chosen among the Russian merchants, and presided over by the customhouse director, a similar number of Chinese presided over by their governor; these two commissioners discuss the prices, which once determined, become the law for both nations. The tea is classed into family and flower tea; both which are said to consist chiefly of Pekoe. In 1843 the Chinese brought for sale 120,000 chests; of which 80,000 were flower tea, and 40,000 family tea. The prices, which have been unaltered for years, are as follows:Rubles, sixty for one chest qudrat family tea. Rubles, 120 for one chest 3rd. sort flower tea. Rubles, eighty do. Polootornay family tea (14 as large) The prices of Russian produce were raised in 1843, from those of former years. And it was also arranged that one chest of family, is to go along with every three chests of flower tea. : 425 |