The Port of Tientsin and Its Problems

Abstract

V' ' HE harbour and the upper reaches of the Haiho rapidly silted up and the port was closed to sea-going vessels by the middle of June. From the latest (I933) report of the Maritime Customs to the earliest, the navigational problems of the port of Tientsin have called for attention. For Tientsin is an important port, the leading port of North China; with only two southern ports, Shanghai and Hongkong, surpassing it in value of either their foreign trade or their total trade.' The greatness of the port lies, in fact, in the sources whence the navigational difficulties arise; for Tientsin, 35 miles from the head of the Gulf of Chihli, offers the nearest sea outlet for the North China plain with its abundant harvests and its silt-laden rivers. The more important waterways of North China, excluding the Hwang Ho but including the Grand Canal, focus on Its tributary territory stretches out to the Mongolian plateau and included part of Manchuria until the present alienation of the province of Jehol, an event likely to have a permanent effect on the prosperity of Tientsin. Under stress of military disturbances in recent years, part of the trade from the northern part of the area has been diverted from It is estimated that the port lost four-fifths of its normal wool trade in I926 for this reason. Influences have been active, too, in an endeavor to divert Mongolian products from the KalganTientsin route to that of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The area from which most of the trade of Tientsin comes is about equal in size to the United States east of the Mississippi River. From its early days as a treaty port raw cotton has figured as a principal export of Tientsin, and it still continues to head the export list. Wool, another important staple, had dropped to fourth place by I931, but it gained in 1933 and nearly offset the loss in cotton in that year. Wool comes chiefly from Kansu and Mongolia. Other important exports are hides and skins, also in large part from Mongolia; eggs and egg products, beans, tobacco, and walnuts from the plain; bristles from northern Hopei and Manchuria; and carpets and rugs manufactured in Tientsin.2 The commercial status of Tientsin gives it advantages in the trend from the household type of manufacturing to the factory, and already the city has important rayon and cotton-weaving establishments as well as carpet factories.3 A careful analysis of the import trade in cotton piece goods is