railway accidents. In the previous year, 32 were killed, and 183 injured by railway accidents. The number of passengers conveyed on all the railways in the kingdom during the year, amounted to 85,391,095, being an increase of 17 per cent. over the previous year; value of passenger traffic £7,960,764, an increase of 16 per cent., and value of goods traffic £7,020,695, an increase of 10 per cent. over the previous year. Aggregate revenue of all railways for 1851, close on £15,000 Sterling, an increase of 13 per cent. on the receipts of 1850. POST OFFICE IN GREAT BRITAIN. THE gross receipts of the British Post Office for the year ending January 5, 1851, was $11,323,420; cost of management, $7,303,925; net revenue, $4,019,490. The estimated total number of letters in 1850, was 347,069,071; number of money orders, 4,439,713, and the amount of them, $42,472,490. TEA-TRADE OF SHANG-HAE. (From the North China Herald.) THE rapid increase in the export of tea from this port appears from the following table: Progressive inc., Ibs. Remarks. 1,558,453 9,388,422 7,829,969* 10,073,578 685,156 13,313,599 3,240,021 Year of Alum's bankruptcy. 34,334,052 The prices for the black teas most esteemed in the English market, have averaged lower than in any former year; how far these prices may prove sufficiently remunerative to the producers, has not been very certainly ascertained. We exported hence, Increased quantity, . 382,019 3,240,021 Diminished value, £40,244 so that with more than three million pounds of tea additional, the whole export has been estimated at £40,000 less than the smaller quantity of the preceding year. In green teas the competition with the Americans has kept the prices higher; little comparatively therefore has been purchased for English consumption, and if there be any doubt of the black teas having proved remunerative to the native merchants this last year, it is, on the other hand, admitted by the tea men, that the green teas have yielded a large profit. The proportions of black and green tea purchased by the only parties in the market, the British and Americans, are as follows: An effort has been made calculated materially to promote the rapid extension of the tea trade. The system adopted at Canton has been commenced at Shanghae, of sending parties under agreement with our merchants into the tea districts with ready cash to purchase certain descriptions of teas, and this will be one of the surest means of securing a fair proportion of the best qualities for the Shanghae market, the great desideratum hitherto. The progress of the tea trade here has been sufficiently rapid, and the actual quantity exported sufficiently large to make the relative facilities and advantages of shipments at Shanghae and Canton a question of importance both in a commercial and political sense. To have drawn to the port something like a quarter of the annual shipments of tea in four years from so powerful a rival, with all the advantages derived from capital and long prescriptive custom still in favor of Canton, argues local facilities of great value. One of the chief of these appears to be, if not nearer proximity to, at least more easy and less costly transit from the districts producing the black and green teas. Of the Congous known to the foreign merchants as the Moning, Ningchew, and Hohow teas, the taste for which has so greatly increased of late years, that their consumption, I am informed, has attained nearly 28,000,000 lbs., about 8,000,000 lbs. have been purchased in Shanghae during the last year. The black teas exported under the East India Company were believed to be the produce almost entirely of the Bohea Hills, in the Province of Fo-Kien. Later information would lead to the conviction that few of the provinces of China are without tea cultivation south of the Yang-tse-kiang, though the more western territories probably supply no portion for exportation. From all the information which has reached me I believe the foreign mar kets are chiefly, if not exclusively, supplied by the four provinces of Gan-hway, Ki-ang-soo, Che-kiang, and Fo-Kien. The names given to the class of teas already mentioned (Moning, Ning-chew, and Ho-how), appear to be derived from towns and districts. The finest and highest grades of teas, as a general rule, have hitherto been directed to Canton, from the greater wealth of the Canton mercantile body interested in bringing them to that port, who have taken steps to insure this object through their agents sent into the tea country, and from the larger market it affords, backed by the influence of old habit, peculiarly binding upon Chinese. It is obvious that the additional expense of transit to Canton diminishes in importance as the first cost or value of the tea increases, and consequently bears very unequally upon the dearer and finer kinds, and those of inferior qualities, for which the nearer market of Shanghae is naturally preferred, even though they realize from 10 to 15 per cent. less than the rates ruling in Canton. This, or a still larger percentage, being no doubt saved by the proximity of the market, and consequent diminution of expenses. The green teas in like manner have been procurable here from 10 to 20 per cent. cheaper than at Canton, by which the Americans, as it has been stated, have been the chief gainers, higher prices having been given than British exporters could with prudence offer; the American home market not suffering under the same excessive supply and consequent depression as our own, better prices will be realized by the importers. From these data, keeping in view the progress observable in the shipments of tea from this port since the commencement of 1844, it may fairly be assumed that at no distant period Shanghae will at least divide equally with Canton the amount of tea exports; and should obstacles arise to our commerce at the latter port, the transfer of the whole trade (exclusive perhaps of the produce Kwangtung, of insignificant quantity) will easily and naturally follow. EXPORTS OF TEA FROM HONGKONG. The following interesting tables of exports are from the China Mail, for which we are indebted to A. H. Palmer, Esq. of Washington, D. C. Export of Tea to the Continent of Europe. Date and Ships. Green. Year end. June 30, 1845, Aug., in 6 vessels, 827,700 66 1,221,600 66 Sept., in 7 vessels, *The Edward Boustead's cargo, formerly included in December exports, is now omitted, she having gone to British North America. + Loaded at Shanghae. Export of Tea and Raw Silk to Great Britain. Date and Ship. Black. Year 1843-44, in 79 ves., 41,639,400 Green. 8,974,200 Year 1844-45, in 105 ves., 41,373,300 12,196,900 Pounds. Silk, bales. ... 10,727 50,613,600 53,570,200 Year 1845-46, in 117 ves., 44,975,500 12,609,100 57,584,600 18,600 Year 1846-47, in 106 ves., 45,501,000 7,864,000 53,365,000 19,000 Year 1847-48, in 92 ves.,* 40,730,600 6,963,700 47,694,300 21,377 38,763,500 8,479,200 47,242,700 17,228 45,841,200 8,120,600 53,961,800 16,134 36,012,700 6,191,300 42,204,000 Shanghae, 19,853,100 1,963,000 21,816,100 16,883 Year 1848-49, in 86 ves., 66 5,260 DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. Summary of the Debt of the United States, the Value of Imports and Exports, and the Tonnage, from 1791 to 1850. * Including vessels lost-1847, Romeo, 806,200 lb., and Siam, 590,100 lb.-1849. Sarah Trotman, 370,800 lb.—1850, Palmyra, 556,000 lb and Glencairn, 322,340 lb. |