32.6 The far east: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 2/4)

The population increased from 130,000,000 to 150,000,000 in A.D. 1700 to 313,000,000 by 1794. (Ref. 140 ) Maize joined the traditional northern crops of millet and sorghum and allowed the restoration of a demographic balance between northern and southern China. As in western Europe, Chinese merchants now had their shops in one place, their houses in another. (Ref. 260 ) Merchant and artisan guilds greatly expanded in number and function, with security funds, insurance plans and entertainment programs. Dictionaries and encyclopedias were published. The Ch'ien-lung Emperor was probably the most capable ruler of his time, but his reign was blemished by two things: (1) a literary inquisition in the 1770s to suppress what he thought to be subversive ideas and (2) in his older age he became the dupe of a clever guardsman named Ho-shen, who introduced extensive bribery and corruption in the administration. (Ref. 101 )

As East-West contacts became less and less, soon all foreign commerce had to come through the port of Canton (or at Kyakhta for the Russians). The extensive exports of tea, silk and porcelain were under government license at those ports, with silver the standard medium of exchange until very late in the century when foreign powers began to bring in opium instead of silver. By the end of the century everyone in China smoked tobacco, even children. (Ref. 260 )

Chinese armies roamed westward over Central Asia and by the Treaty of Kiakhta in 1727 Russia was forced to acknowledge Chinese jurisdiction over that region, the last strongholds of nomadic power. In the meantime, however, the huge Kamchatka Peninsula to the north had been taken by Russia along with the Kurile Islands. (Ref. 131 ) Old tribal rebellion problems also gave intermittent difficulties throughout the century. There were a number of such uprisings in Yunnan (1726-29), of the Miao of Kweichow (1795-97), of the Yao in Kwangsi in 1790 and of the Chinese Muslims of Kansu in 1781-84 and the most serious of all - the great Chin-ch'uan tribal rebellions of western Szechwan, which simmered from 1746 through 1776. Taiwan had an uprising in 1787, but it was not a major threat to the Ch'ing Dynasty. At the end of the century, however, as indicated above, the government was declining with corruption in the administration and demoralization in the army. (Ref. 8 ) The tremendous population increase and the limited amount of land for increasing agricultural production combined to produce some serious hardships and impoverishment of the people. This was in part the reason for the White Lotus rebellion in Szechwan, Shensi and Hupeh in 1795, which continued into the next century. (Ref. 8 )

One must not overlook the extensive, internal water traffic that was and is so essential for the Chinese life. A witness in 1733 described a perpetual movement of boats, barks and rafts (some 3 miles long) containing permanent homes with wives and children aboard. One could almost believe there were as many people living on water as in the towns and of the world's greatest maritime trades, linking up the small-craft from the interior with the Chinese junks and European three-masters. The ordinary rate of interest between merchants of Canton at the end of this century was 18 to 20%. (Ref. 292 )