Report by Consul-General Hosie on the province of Ssu-̆chúan.

  • Alexander Hosie
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by Consul-General Hosie on the province of Ssu-̆chúan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    copper cash in circulation is melted down and manufactured into articles of all kinds. It is said that a string of 1,000 good cash will produce about 6 catties of copper, which is, of course, much more valuable than the cash value of the coins. The practice is illegal, but is daily carried on in ClTengtu. IV. Lead. Lead is found in Hui-li Chou, Mien-ning Hsien, Ten-yuan Hsien, and Yiieh-hsi T‘ing, all in the Prefecture of Ning-yuan Fu; in Kuan Hsien in ClTengtu Fu, and in Mao Chou, Sung-p‘an King, Li-fan T‘ing, and Mou-kung Thng. The ore is smelted with coal and run into bricks and bars weighing about 50 and 5 catties respectively. The price in ClTengtu is T. 0-0*8 a catty. It is mostly used as an alloy in tin for the manu¬ facture of lamps, candlesticks, head ornaments, wine pots, basins, and every variety of household utensils. Lead is also largely used for conversion into wffiite lead, the manu¬ facture of which I have already described when dealing with paint colours. Tin itself is not a product of SsuclTuan ; it is brought to ClTengtu from the Kuo-chiu-chang mines in Yunnan. V. Zinc or Spelter, P‘ing-shan Hsien, Ma-pien Tcing, and Lei-po T£ing, in the Prefecture of Hsu-chou Fu; Hui-li Chou, Mien-ning Hsien, Yen-yuan Hsien, and Yiieh-hsi T‘ing in King yuan Fu; Chia-chiang Hsien in Chia-ting Fu; and Tcien-‘ch‘u.an Chou, Lu-shan Hsien, and Ming-shan Hsien in Ya-chou Fu, are all credited with the possession of zinc. The ore is smelted with charcoal and the metal poured into iron moulds and turned out as bricks measuring 12 by 5 by 3 Chinese inches and weighing about 50 catties. The value here is T. O’Offi per catty. Its principal use is as an alloy in copper to form brass. VI. Antimony. So far antimony has been discovered in only one district of Ssuchhian—Hsiu-shan Hsien, in the Department of Yu-yang Chou, in the south-east, where it borders on Kueichou and ITunan, and I understand that the whole of the output is by agreement disposed of to the mining department of the latter province at about T. 36 a ton. VII. Iron. Iron is well distributed throughout Ssuchhian, but owing to the difficulties of com¬ munication, parts of the north are supplied by Shensi. In addition to the usual demand for agricultural implements, artizans’ tools, and kitchen utensils, the most important use to which iron is put is the manufacture of large iron pans for the evaporation of salt at the numerous brine wells throughout the province. The fact that these pans, which are from 4 to 5 feet in diameter, weigh often as much as 1,(100 lbs., and have constantly to be renewed, will give some indication of the quantity of iron required in their manu¬ facture. True, the old pans are broken up and re-moulded, but the annual consumption of the metal for this purpose alone must be enormous. Many of the evaporating pans used at the great salt wells of Tzu-liu-ching and Wu-tung-clTioa are made at a place called Kan-shui, in the district of Ch‘i-chiang Hsien to the south of Chungking, near the Kueichou frontier, where, and in the neighbouring district of Nan-clTuan Hsien to the east iron is particularly abundant. Indeed, all along the banks of the Chh-chiang Kiver, which enters the Yangtsze at Chiang-k‘ou, south by east of Chungking, the manufacture of these pans is a most important industry, which has been greatly aided by the fact that the pans can be sent by water almost to the very wells. Laid down, the pans cost from T. 30 to T. 45 each, according to weight. The moulds used in casting them consist of an upper and lower layer of clay mixed with straw and some¬ times human hair for binding purposes; the upper layer is pierced with numerous vent¬ holes. Iron is also carried from the same ironworks to Lu Chou, where and on the banks of the T‘o River pan-casting forms an important industry, and ClTengtu is supplied from the same source as well as from Jung-ching Hsien, in the Prefecture of Ya-chou Fu to the west, where the metal is abundant. Charcoal is almost universally used in smelting. The ore laid down at Kan-shui costs 5 cash a catty. The iron when smelted
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