ASIA 713 Wusung (on the coast) was laid in 1876, and was eagerly utilized. history. In this field the most surprising advance has undoubtedly The following year it was torn up by the authorities. The next been made by Russia. temporary line (which tapped the Kaiping collieries and extended to In 1875 Russia was astride of the Caspian, but as yet only strainthe Taku forts) is now replaced by a permanent connexion between ing her eyes across the Eastern Turkman deserts. In 1880 she was these (now demolished) forts and Tientsin, and extends north-east- knocking at the gates of Merv. Five years later she was Russ ss/afl wards into Manchuria. In 1897 a line was laid from Peking to Tien- setting a limit to the northern borders of Afghanistan. p spaa s tsin—73 miles—and it is already doubled. Another railway is under To-day she books her passengers from the Caspian to ' construction by a Belgian company which will ultimately connect Samarkand by rail, and has completed two sections of a trans-Asiatic Peking with Hankow on the Yang-tse-kiang, and a new line now line which will link her capital of St. Petersburg with Vladivostok, links Shanghai with Wusung. These, with a few short industrial on the shores of the Pacific. Already one may cross Asia by steam. lines for the conveyance of material in the Yang-tse basin, are all With these railways have arisen those local commercial developthat exist. The great extent of waterways in China undoubtedly ments which support them, and which were awaiting them. reduces the prospective profits of railway undertakings, as they Ferghana is once again a garden in Asia, rich in cereals and fruit, and have formed the great natural trade arteries of the country from rapidly developing a most important cotton trade. Siberia and the time immemorial. But considering the length of the great river lands of the Amur have been found to be rich beyond all previous channels and the volume of the river discharge, the length of the conjecture. Here five millions of square miles are inhabited by four actual waterway is comparatively small. Explorations have only million inhabitants, but the tide of immigration has set in with a lately been carried into the basins of the Upper Yang-tse tributaries steady flow which promises soon to adjust the balance. In 1898 by the agents of European syndicates to determine their possible 400,000 immigrants were numbered, and the numbers are increasvalue as lines of internal trade communication either by rail or ing. It is said that “ this vast territory, long looked on as a river, and the result will probably be a development of steam navi- barren waste, is destined to be one of the world’s gation in the Min and Kialing affluents of the Yang-tse, and a richest and most productive sections.” Here wheat Agricultural possible railway connexion between Burma and Central China. ripens with phenomenal rapidity, and in the Irkutsk wealth An extension from the Russian-Siberian system into Manchuria, country the frost period only lasts for 100 days. Siberia.of and a connexion between the Central Siberian railway and Central Transbaikalia and the Usuri regions are essentially China, are the chief continental projects now before the world. fitted for agricultural development, and the wheat production of Persia.—The development of roads in Persia has been slow, but the empire has already been sensibly increased since the opening not unimportant. Railways do not exist. The opening of the of the Central Siberian Railway. Rice is also now largely grown Karun river to navigation in 1889 was the first step towards in Russia, its cultivation having commenced about the year 1880. an awakening of commercial speculative interest in Persia, which In the Caucasus, Transbaikal, and Turkestan regions, rice is sown has not been altogether unproductive of benefit to the country. in the same way as wheat. The demand for it is increasing Hitherto this country, which includes more than half a million throughout European Russia. Rice grown in Asia is shipped square miles of territory without navigable rivers (except about 200 uncleaned to the Caspian ports, and there sold to commission miles of the Karun), and nine millions of intelligent and industrious agents. In late years the annual export from Baku has amounted inhabitants, has had to “carry on its foreign trade and local traffic to nearly 50,000 tons. along mule tracks, the like of which are hardly to be met with in The mineral resources of Western Siberia are boundless. Between any other part of the world, however backward.” In 1880 a cart Tomsk and Kooznesk lie 23,000 square miles of coal lands as yet road was constructed between Tehran (or Teheran, the latter being untouched. In Eastern Siberia 400 places are known more popular but less correct) and Kasvin (96 miles); in in which gold is to be found, and iron, graphite, and Mineral wealth. 1883 Tehran was connected with Kum (97 miles); and in 1890 lapis-lazuli deposits are all awaiting development. Mashad and Askabad, in Russian territory, were united by a more The industries of Siberia are growing rapidly. Chemicals, sugar, or less metalled road 150 miles in length. Concessions have been and paper mills are already paying well. Manchuria looks togranted for the construction of roads between Tehran and Ahwaz, Russia for the development of its natural wealth. Ia . . . . with a branch road to Ispahan from Burujird ; between Tehran The Ob and the Yenisei both carry their fleets of us nes‘ and Baghdad ; Tabriz and Astara ; Tabriz and Bayazid ; Zinjan steamers, and Russian merchantmen are busy on the Pacific and Burujird ; Kazvin and Hamadan ; and Kazvin and Resht; but between the Usuri coast and Japan. A strange industry has only the last, the concession for which was granted in 1893, has arisen on the Arctic shores of Siberia, where mammoth ivory is become a fait accompli so far. This road has been engineered by found preserved in layers of underground ice. It is collected by Russians, and has largely widened the circle of her Persian trade. the primitive Tangut inhabitants for the market. These people It has also shortened the distance between Europe and Tehran, depend for their living on the migrations of animals. They come which place can now be reached from London, in case of urgency, with the reindeer herds to the Arctic coast in summer, and return within two weeks vi& Baku and Resht. The road from Tehran to to the protection of the southern forests in winter. Ahwaz (530 miles) has advanced as far as Kum, and the opening Russian explorations in Manchuria in connexion with the of a trade route between Shuster and Ispahan through the Bak- Siberian railway project, no less than English explorations in the tiari country has been secured politically ; but much remains upper basin of the Yang-tse, have largely increased our to be done on both these lines. A new route from which great knowledge of the resources of Eastern Asia. Manchuria churia trade results are anticipated has been opened between Persia and has been called the Canada of China, and is found India. This connects Mashad with Quetta on the Indian rail- capable of increasing largely her capacities for the supply of food way system by way of Sistan and Nushki, passing through the stuff and agricultural products in support of that increased popuHelmund desert. On the north-west, Russian railways are rapidly lation of the north-eastern provinces of China which will attend approaching Persia ; and the completion of the Tiflis, Alexandropol- the development of the great northern coalfields in the province of Kars line, with a branch line from Alexandropol to Erivan, will Shansi, and the collateral industries which will arise therefrom. greatly affect the current of Persian trade. The result of these Although the resources of China in silk, tea, and opium have railway developments on the north-west of Persia will be to increase long been known, and although much further material progress in the importance of Tehran as a trade centre, and to draw away agriculture is hardly to be expected from a country Mineral which has been highly cultivated by a swarming and wealth of traffic from the southern ports. In Asia Minor and Syria progress in railway development has industrious population throughout historical ages, it is china been slow, but the recent concession to an Anatolian company for only lately that these vast resources of mineral wealth the Euphrates valley line may reawaken commercial activity in have been exhibited which require the development of the many this part of Asia. A line from the Bosporus to Angora, and railway schemes which have been already floated to give them another from Smyrna to Konieh, represent the chief railway systems practical effect. Vast fields of as yet untouched coal and anthraof Asia Minor at present. In Syria the Beirut-Damascus and cite exist in the northern, western, and central provinces of China. Jaffa-Jerusalem lines exhibit little prospect of extension. Copper, iron, mercury, silver, lead, and tin. are amongst her mineral products, and salt is found in the upper valleys of the Economic Developments and Commercial Enterprise in Asia. Yang-tse-kiang, or Kinsha. It will be found, as might naturally be expected, that increase The modern history of Japan shows steady progress in scientific of material wealth and of commercial importance amongst Asiatic and philosophic culture. Her art's and industries have received countries has been coincident with the development of trade routes a certain impetus since the conclusion of the war with Ja aa and railways. Although Asia is the oldest amongst the histori- China in 1894, but it is chiefly in the direction of that P cally recognized continents of the world, and although it was in material advancement which now places Japan in the position of Asia that the “cradle of civilization ” was rocked, it has remained an important military and naval power that the end of the 19th for the later centuries of our era, and especially for the latter part century has to regard Japanese progress. Japan already possesses of the 19th century, to witness a display of natural resources such 3420 miles of railway and 562 miles of telephone. Her army as could never have been imagined by those who first grasped at includes 125,000 regulars and 407,000 reserves, and her navy the wealth of the East. Russia, India, China, Japan, and in a less 31 warships. (See Japan.) India, Burma, and Ceylon.—Ho part of the Asiatic continent degree Persia, have all developed hidden capabilities and economic possibilities such as must inevitably affect the world’s commercial has been so prolific in contribution to the general wealth of the S. I. — 90
