Chapter 3 - Shanghai's Commercial Importance
SHANGHAI'S geographical location made its future as a great commercial centre inevitable. Although on a tributary, it commands the commerce of the Yangtsze Kiang, listed as the third longest river in the world, streaming thirty-one hundred miles across Asia from its source in Thibet to the Pacific. It is literally the main highway of a vast empire of 700,000 square miles and more than 200,000,000 people.
Statistics alone cannot make visual the strategic position Shanghai occupies in world commerce. A glance at the map of China, however, pictures it as the cork of a vast bottle containing the major share of a great nation's vital life, the first city of the largest continent in the world. Equally distant in shipping time from Western Europe and the Eastern United States, Shanghai is an obvious centre of world commerce.
Half of China drained. The watershed of the Yangtsze river includes about half of China proper. The river, from Shanghai to Hankow, a distance of some 600 miles, provides a fairway of eight to ten feet of navigable depth in Winter and 28 to 30 feet in Summer. Above Hankow the river may be navigated during the Summer for another 800 miles while junks and small steamers go much farther. An area of approximately 50,000 squire miles supports a population of forty million people and that area is directly adjacent to Shanghai. The city is the distributing port for more than one-tenth of the inhabitants of the entire world.
The latest available returns published by the Chinese Maritime Customs show that in 1933 the total foreign trade of China amounted to 1,957 million dollars, comprising 1,345 million for imports and 612 million for exports. Of this volume of foreign trade Shanghai's share was 54.14 per cent., representing an increase of 8.66 over the figures for the previous year.
There are six major shipbuilding concerns in Shanghai. The city owns nine drydocks. The harbour has an area of 8,230 acres with about a quarter of this area available for anchorage.
Opposite Shanghai, on the Whangpoo, is Pootung, commercially a part of Shanghai.
The number of vessels entering and sailing from the port of Shanghai during 1933, with tonnage, were as follows:
Ships Cleared Tonnage Ocean and Coast liners 6,084 14,982,000 River steamers 1,789 2,539,854 Sailing vessels 414 92,680 Launches 910 57,626 Inland steamers 14,025 1,951,002 Total 23,222 19,623,171 Entered Tonnage Ocean and Coast liners 5,715 14,646,494 River steamers 1,871 2,743,411 Sailing vessels 405 90,682 Launches 876 68,504 Inland steamers 14,245 2,152,596 Total 23,112 19,701,687
Industrial Development. Less than fifty years ago the first electrically operated manufacturing plant was established in Shanghai; since then there has been a tremendous growth in the industrial wealth of the city.
It is estimated that there are now 2,709 factories in Shanghai, of which 82 are cotton mills and 124 cotton weaving plants, cotton manufactures representing one of the principal sources of Shanghai's prosperity. More than one-half of the spindles operating in China are in Shanghai.
It is worth noting that in Shanghai, one of the world's great cotton manufacturing centres, the first modern mill was established in 1889 and on May 10, 1897, the first foreign (British) mill was opened.
The total number of Chinese-owned factories is about 2,000, with an approximate gross capitalization of $300,000,000. About 250,000 workers are employed in these plants.
In addition to cotton mills other important factories are listed as follows: silk reeling, 112; silk weaving, 473; knitting, 136; silk lace, 39; flour mills, 14; rice mills, 53; cigarette factories (many of them small), 265; canned goods, 35; cosmetics, 31, candles and soap, 30; machinery, 217; hardware, 55, etc.PUBLIC UTILITIES
Shanghai enjoys excellent public utility services, justly boasting modern installations and efficient and economical distribution to patrons.
The Shanghai Waterworks Co., Ltd., and the Shanghai Gas Co., Ltd., are owned by British interests while the Shanghai Telephone Co. and the Shanghai Power Co. are controlled by American capital.
Gas. The organization of the Shanghai Gas Co., Ltd., the oldest but one of the most enterprising of Shanghai's public utilities, was undertaken in 1862, and gas for lighting was first produced on November 1, 1865.
At that time the price of gas was $4.50 per 1,000 cubic feet, there were 58 consumers, and five miles of mains. The price is now $2.85 per 1,000 cubic feet, and the last report showed 13,384 consumers, and 194 miles of gas mains. The entire city is served, the gas company which previously operated in the French Concession having been acquired in July, 1886.
To meet the demands for its product, the gas company in 1931 planned a new plant in the Yangtszepoo district. This plant, declared by engineers to be the most modern in the world, was opened in February, 1934. Designed to produce 4,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day, extensions to bring the production to 10,000,000 cubic feet have been provided for. The Shanghai Gas Co. manifestly have faith in the future of Shanghai.
Light and Power. The story of the development of the Shanghai Power Co. closely
parallels the story of the development of the city itself, during the past fifty years, and there is much of interest in the recital.
The old Shanghai Electric Co. was founded in 1882 and the first public display of electric light was made on July 26 of that year. The Shanghai Club first used electric light on September 25 and on November 11 the Taotai of Shanghai (chief Chinese official of the district), issued an edict forbidding Chinese to use electric light! The edict was soon smothered by public demand. Today the Chinese are perhaps the most liberal users of electric light. By June, 1883, The Bund was illuminated by electricity.
In 1893 the Shanghai Municipal Council bought the electric company and owned, operated and developed it until August, 1929, when it was transferred to the present Shanghai Power Co.
The power plant of the Shanghai Power Co. in the Yangtszepoo district, an imposing sight on the right bank of the Whangpoo river as a steamer approaches the city, is one of the largest in the world, with a total generating capacity of about 185,000 kilowatts. The plant consumed 550,000 tons of coal in 1933.
At the first of 1934 the company was supplying power and light to 73,642 customers, an increase of 7.8 per cent in a year. The population served is estimated at 2,225,000, as the company not only serves the International Settlement but also furnishes much of the light and power consumed in the French Concession and the Municipality of Greater Shanghai. More than 1,000 miles of lines are in service.
Telephone Service. Thanks to its complete reconstruction during the past few years, the plant of the Shanghai Telephone Co. gives Shanghai a service second to none elsewhere, as visitors will soon learn for themselves.
At the end of 1933 there were 49,401 telephones in service, an increase for the year of 10.75 per cent., and 92 per cent. of the subscribers were served by automatic equipment. Completed toll calls in 1933 totalled 3,211,700, an increase of 175 per cent over 1932. Average daily calls were 504,200, an increase of 38 per cent. The average number of completed calls per subsciber per day increased more than 100 per cent over 1931, before automatic service was installed. The company operates in both the International Settlement and the French Concession and the 1933 annual report valued the plant at Tls. 29,027,145.93.
The Shanghai Telephone Co. dates back only to 1929, when the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. took over the old Shanghai Mutual Telephone Co., formed and financed the new company, and directed the conversion to the automatic system, a tremendous task which, however, was completed in less than twenty months.
Waterworks. The Shanghai Waterworks Co., Ltd., was incorporated in England in 1880 with a capital of 100,000 pounds. The authorized capital is now 1,164,000 pounds, Taels 2,000,000 and $3,000,000 (Mex.) and the population served is well over a million.
The company was formally opened in 1883 by the then Viceroy of the Province, His Excellency Li Hung Chang. The record of the company has since been one of constant development. The original plant was designed to supply 3,000,000 gallons per day whereas the plant now is capable of meeting a demand of over seventy million gallons.
The area served by the company is the International Settlement and roads constructed by the Shanghai Municipal Council beyond Settlement limits. An "off peak" supply is also provided for the company supplying the French Concession, while a stand-by bulk supply is given to the Chapei Waterworks. Altogether the company's distribution mains have a mileage of nearly 185. The average daily consumption in 1933 was 45,231,796 gallons.
The source of supply is the Whangpoo River, from which the water is pumped into settling tanks, and is then passed partly by gravitation or a further stage of pumping into the filtration system. The Whangpoo River is one of the most turbid and polluted sources of water supply in the World, but the standard of purity eventually obtained gives a bacterial reduction of 99.99 per cent., or a standard equal to any and superior to many in the West.
Shanghai in the fifties had neither gas nor, of course, electricity. Street lighting was done by means of oil lamps at a cost of $12 per month for the city. 
unless otherwise indicated