The great river ; the story of a voyage on the Yangtze Kiang . d wheat were also grown and, as the business withthe south increased (Canton and Swatow alwayspurchased great quantities of rice) imports increasedalso—opium, cigarettes, kerosene and sugar. Theyear 1904 was a record year for rice, 8J miUionpiculs being exported, besides large quantitiesof rapeseed, wheat and cotton, and some beans,making a total valued at thirty million taels forthe year. In 1907, rice exports fell off because prices were sohigh and because the southern market was closedwhen rice began to come in more cheaply and
The great river ; the story of a voyage on the Yangtze Kiang . d wheat were also grown and, as the business withthe south increased (Canton and Swatow alwayspurchased great quantities of rice) imports increasedalso—opium, cigarettes, kerosene and sugar. Theyear 1904 was a record year for rice, 8J miUionpiculs being exported, besides large quantitiesof rapeseed, wheat and cotton, and some beans,making a total valued at thirty million taels forthe year. In 1907, rice exports fell off because prices were sohigh and because the southern market was closedwhen rice began to come in more cheaply and with lessdifficulty from Indo-China and Siam. But the feather business grew up then and hasrecently developed into a large industry, includingfarms of ducks and geese and plants for sorting thefeathers. Paper and skins and hides increased,leaf tobacco began to figure in the Customs reports,rice picked up again in 1910, and then came the well-remembered year of the revolution, 1911, beginningwith severe floods and heavy rains as a forecast ofimpending THE RICE CENTRE OF THE YANGTZE 27 But, in some respects, Wuhu did not fare sobadly during the revolution. The fact that shewas accessible to deep-draft vessels the year round,the last port on the Yangtze so served, which is oneof the facts of richest promise for Wuhu, made hera port of transhipment. Kerosene oil, intended forHankow, was dumped at Wuhu—eight million gallonsof it in that year. Those were the days before thetelegraph came and Wuhu did not know whether ornot she had a market for her rice. People who wereliving in the Valley at that time were accustomed tosee 30 or more steamers being loaded at one time withrice for export. The waterways from the city madeWuhu a distribution centre for the province and herfuture importance was secured. Early in the spring, before the rice crop has beenplanted, the rape grows so abundantly that on cloudydays, the yellow fields look like sunshine and seemto reflect rays of Hght
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectchinade, bookyear1922
