Sir T. Wade to Earl Granville.—(Received September 26)
(No. 67)

My Lord, Peking, August 3, 1882

I HAVE the honour to lay before your Lordship a Report by Mr. Spence of his visits to Corea, which, I cannot doubt, will be perused with interest.
Mr. Spence, as your Lordship is aware, did not arrive in Corea early enough to act as Admiral Willes’ interpreter, the duty which he was detached to perform, but this was not Mr. Spence’s fault, nor, I may add, was it mine. Admiral Willes, on arriving at Tien-tsin, had mentioned his desire to take Mr. Spence with him to Corea, his experience, acquired when he visited the country with the Duke of Genoa, making him of necessity a valuable assistant.
On the 14th May, having received a promise that the papers required by Admiral Willes should be forthcoming, I requested him to telegraph to Mr. Hughes, Her Majesty’s Consul at Shanghae, to desire Mr. Spence to come down with all speed from I-chang, of which port he was in acting charge. At this time it was assumed that Admiral Willes’ negotiations would not commence before the end of June. The Chargé d’ Affairs of the United States had stated to me that Commodore Shufeldt’s business would hardly be concluded sooner, and as he had expressed some anxiety about the non-appearance of other negotiators until he had himself left the field, Admiral Willes, on learning this from me, proposed to spend the intervening time up the Gulf of Tartary. Meanwhile, on the 19th May, we heard from the best authority that Commodore Shufeldt was expected at Chefoo in a week, and I then took the liberty of recommending him to proceed immediately to Corea. Sir Harry Parkes had already one or two gentlemen at hand should the Admiral require them. One of them, Mr. Aston, did eventually proceed to Corea. That he was not there earlier is possibly to be ascribed to my advice. I had been assured that a belief on the part of the Coreans that Admiral Willes was drawing counsel or assistance from the side of Japan would retard rather than accelerate his proceedings. I now believe that, so far as British officers of the Consular service in Japan are concerned, this was a mistake, and if, as I suspect, it was owing to what I told him, that Admiral Willes did not also engage the services of Sir Harry Parkes’ men, I must express my regret. But to return to Mr. Spence; the letter forwarded by Mr. Hughes was detained four days at Hankow, on its way to I-chang, reaching that port only on the 29th May; Mr. Spence was unable to leave I-chang before the 2nd June. Steam communication between I-chang and Hankow is regular but not frequent. He arrived at Shanghae on the 8th, and embarking on board the man-of-war which was waiting for him on the 9th, arrived in Corea on the 11th to find the Treaty signed and the Admiral departed.
The particular duty which would have fallen to the lot of Mr. Spence was the verification of the Chinese text. For this Admiral Willes was obliged to refer to Ma Taotai.
Mr. Spence is a very competent scholar in Chinese, written and spoken. It will be seen, I think, from his Report of what importance is a conversance with the former, the written language, in Corea.
It will be seen from the same Report that we must not be over ready to credit the pessimists who are preaching that Corean trade is worth little. On the other hand, it is, I think, undoubtedly true that, whatever foreign trade is done there will pass through the hands of the Chinese factor rather than of the Western trader, but this, I take leave to say, is not, in my opinion, against the interests of the Western producer. The western trader has heavy expenses to pay and a fortune to make. The Chinese factor's expenses are comparatively slight, and his notion of fortune making not extravagant. Consular surveillance is necessary, but rather to fight the battle of the trade than of the trader.

I have, &c.
(Signed)　　THOMAS FRANCIS WADE

Inclosure

Notes on the newly-opened Ports of Corea, and Trade prospects thereat.

Gensan

GENSAN, the most northerly of the two ports on the east coast of Corea, is situated in Broughton Bay, in latitude 39°. It is only a Corean village, built on a strip of level ground lying between the great axial range of mountains which runs parallel with and close to the whole eastern coast and the sea. The port is easily made, and is, though more of a roadstead than a harbour, a good anchorage in all winds except those between north and east. The well-known harbour of Port Lazareff is only a few miles off, and as some confusion exists between the two places, I attach a rough map of the Corean coast near Gensan, showing their relative position. Port Lazareff, it will be seen, lies directly to the north of the new port. It was minutely described by me in the report of my visit to Corea with His Royal Highness the Duke of Genoa, printed by the Foreign Office the 10th May, 1881, and I need not refer to it here except as a safe haven in a north-easterly gale for the shipping which may frequent the open port of Gensan. The anchorage has a gently sloping, sandy bottom, shallowing from 15 fathoms about 1½ miles from shore to 7 fathoms when half-a-mile. Wooden landing piers were put up by the Japanese in 1880, but it is not likely that the trade of the port will ever be sufficiently large to necessitate any other means of landing cargo than that which exists at present—viz, in open harbour into cargo boats. The maximum rise and fall of the tide during the three weeks I spent near Gensan was 2½ feet. The shores of the harbour and of Port Lazareff are fringed with ice during winter, but both places remain open and accessible throughout the year. Navigation is much impeded by the fogs during spring and autumn.
Gensan is at the southern extremity of the north-eastern province of Hsien Ching. Its connections with the towns of this province, which lie to the west of the axial range, are fairly good, but with the capital, about one hundred miles off as the crow flies, communication is difficult. In the trade with Seoul, the capital of Corea, and the populous valley of the Hankiang, Gensan will be unable to compete with the port to be opened on the west coast of the country, owing to the height of the mountain passes and the badness of the roads. From the great range which throws up near Gensan several peaks of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet high, spurs run down to the sea shore, inclosing along the whole east coast a series of narrow valleys of limited extent, but of enchanting beauty, which are well tilled and populous. In the bottom lands, where irrigation is easy, rice is cultivated; but on light soils, or where the supply of water is short, millet, hemp, and sweet potatoes are grown. No terracing has been done anywhere, not even on the lowest slopes of the hills. All are covered with a dense jungle of brushwood, ferns, conifers, rose trees, stunted pines, and dwarf oaks. Trees get more frequent as the hills get higher, and the lofty ranges, from a distance, appear to be an unbroken mass of forest. The narrow valleys, however, teem with people, and it is the wants of their hardy population of farmers and fishermen, and of the towns in the province of Hsien Ching that Gensan will supply, rather than those of cis-montane Corea.
Two small streams flow into the sea near Gensan. A river of considerable size flows into Port Lazareff by two or three embouchures, erroneously described in the “China Pilot,” Vol. iv., as navigable. It is navigable for light draught Corean boats, but by none of its mouths in 1880 could we find an entrance for a steam launch drawing only 3 feet. This river forms a considerable delta, in which is situated extensive Government salt works. It is covered with drysalters’ huts and ponds, through which the river meanders in a dozen different channels. We followed the river a short way inland, sufficiently far to prove that Admiral Roze’s remarks regarding its course and importance are quite misleading.
Until the opening of Gensan by the Japanese in 1879 it was an unimportant collection of huts. In that year the Japanese chose, or were alloted, a site for a Settlement to the west of the Corean town, picturesquely situated near a wooded headland in the position I have marked in the map. When I visited it in 1880 the Settlement was marked out, a Consulate-General erected, and a dozen substantial two-storied European houses, besides a number of Japanese houses, built. Communication with Japan was maintained by a steamer once every two months, and trade had hardly begun. The year 1881 may be considered to be the first year of the port, the trade done amounting to 770,000 yen of imports, and 728,000 yen of exports; in all, a trade of about 225,000ℓ. The imports were all European or American goods, in the main, cottons of heavy weight. The exports were hides, gold-dust, hemp, and silk. The cotton piece-goods go to Corea by way of Shanghae, being sold by English to Chinese merchants there, and by the latter to Japanese merchants in Nagasaki and Kobé. Eighteen vessels entered and cleared at Gensan during the year.
The Japanese have a Consul-General here, with a staff of student interpreters, learning Corean for colloquial purposes and Chinese for official correspondence. The nearest local authority to Gensan of sufficient rank to be in relations with the Consul on a footing of equality is the Fu-shih, or Prefect of Tê Yüan-fu, a city of the first rank some 10 miles to the south-west. All business regarding international matters, as between Japan and Corea at this port, is entrusted, on the Corean side, to the Tê Yüan Prefect. There is another city of equal rank some 20 miles to the north-west, Yung Hing-fu, the Prefect of which visited the Duke of Genoa's ship in 1880. These places I have dignified by the name of cities, as they are designated “fu” by the Coreans, but they are in no way to be compared in point of buildings, defences, population, or trade to Chinese cities of that rank. “Fu” denotes in Corea, as in China, the first territorial division of a province, or the capital city of such division, or the rank of the officer having jurisdiction. The provincial Superior of the Prefect is the Ying-mên, or Governor, but I am unable to say whether the Japanese authorities are in direct relations with him or not.
The Settlement area at Gensan was given by the Corean Government to the Japanese on the most liberal terms, and in the event of the acquisition of a British Settlement site being contemplated by Her Majesty’s Government, it will in all probability be secured with little or no expenditure of money. If the promontory marked in the map is not all included in the Japanese Settlement, and I feel sure it is not, is would be a most desirable site for the houses of British subjects resorting to Gensan, provided fresh water in plentiful supply exists. One more convenenient could not be found, and one ore healthy or more beautiful it would be difficult to conceive. In this connection I may add that the Corean huts in the neighbourhood and in the native town are not only not fit habitations for Europeans, but cannot by any transformation short of rebuilding, be made so. There may be in the fu cities of Corea temples and stone houses sufficiently well constructed to serve as residences for a time, but in Gensan there was none. When under the new treaty a British Consul is first sent to Gensan he will either have to apply for accommodation to the Japanese Consul General, or remain on board ship until a place can be run up for him. There are plenty of Japanese carpenters and masons in the port, and there will be no difficulty in getting temporary quarters erected.
I shall consider later on in this paper the prospects of British trade at this port, but I may state here one field of usefulness and pleasure which the opening of Gensan will secure to some of my countrymen. The jungle-clad mountain range I have described as the backbone of Corea is given up to the undisputed possession of the tiger, and near Gensan the hills, great and small, are abandoned to him and other wild beasts. Tiger pits are to be seen on farms contiguous to the jungle, and in winter, which at Gensan is bitter, the tigers come down to the valleys by the sea in search of food. They have at times invaded the Japanese Settlement even, and the Consul General informed me that one broke into the guard-house of the Settlement in the winter of 1879, and devoured a policeman. The natives, being defenceless, hold them in horror, and the Englishman with his rifle will be hailed in this part of Corea as a deliverer.

Fusan

Fusan, is latitude 35°, is situated exactly at the south-east corner of the peninsula where the great Corean range loses itself amongst barren hills and sand dunes. The harbour is one of the finest in Eastern seas. The black-looking hills of the mainland bound it to the east, west, and north; on the south it is protected by Deer Island; and it is a magnificent anchorage, easy of access, and safe in all weathers. The shores of the harbour are fringed with villages containing an aggregate population of from 10,000 to 12,000, mostly engaged in fishing, for I believe the neighbourhood of Fusan is as barren as it looks. Deer Island, on the contrary, is uninhabited, and, with the exception of a space which has been cleared as a Government reservation for horses, is densely wooded to its summit, 1,500 feet high, and well stocked with game. Ships can lie at anchor within a short distance of any of its shores. Tides are very small, only 2 or 3 feet rise an fall, and the harbour, of course, is free from ice. The whole of this part of the coast, including Fusan Harbour, has been carefully surveyed by Her Majesty’s ships, and is accurately described in Vol. iv of the “China Pilot.” Fusan is only a few hours steaming from Simonoseki in Japan, and is about the same distance from Shanghae as Nagasaki.
One hundred and twenty miles south of Gensan the Corean range divides into two branches, one continuing to run along the east coast, and the other trending south-west to the south-west corner of the peninsula. These two branch-ranges inclose the watershed of a considerable river, the Wu, with its tributary, the Ching, which flows into the Channel of Corea a little to the west of the port of Fusan.
This watershed forms the Province of Ch'ing Shang, which is over 7,000 square miles in extent, and comprises a great extent of rice lands. This section of the country produces far more grain than it can consume, and since the opening of Fusan to Japanese trade it has exported a considerable amount, and taken payment for the exports in British cotton goods. This and the neighbouring Province of Chuan Lo, of which I know nothing, is the country which will supply, and be supplied from, Fusan.
Owing to its proximity to Japan, Fusan has long had relations with that country, although till 1876 they were not those of commerce. It was the last stronghold of the Japanese in Corea after Fidejoshi’s campaigns, and it has been inhabited by a garrison of Japanese from the Island of Tsushima ever since 1615. The little town where the Princes of Tsushima kept their garrison under the old Treaty of 1615 is now transformed into the Japanese trading Settlement under the Treaty of 1876. It is situated as I have marked in the foregoing rough map. Its area has been extended to meet the large influx of Japanese which the hope of gain has drawn hither, but the modern settlement is built under the shadow of the rees planted by their military predecessors 200 years ago.
Shortly after Fusan was open to trade 700 Japanese found their way there, and when I visited the port in 1880 there were over 2,000 residents in the Settlements. Trade in 1879 was of the value of 560,000 yen of imports, and 670,000 yen exports. The imports were mainly English cotton goods and foreign dyes; the exports, rice, stock-fish, and medicines. Owing to the great increase in the export of rice lately, trade is reported as having increased to a total volume of over 2,000,000 yen a year, of which 700,000 yen represents rice exports. Trade is much impeded, both here and at Gensan, by the cumbrous nature of Corean money,copper cash, there being no such system of banking as we have in China, enabling the defects of a bad currency to be entirely obviated by means of notes and bills of exchange. Transactions are conducted at present between Japanese and Coreans at Fusan are frequently in barter.
The Japanese have a Consul and a large Consular staff at Fusan. He is in relations with the territorial Prefect living at Tung-ts’ai Fu, a city some 8 miles off. It is with this official we shall be in relations in event of the British Treaty being ratified. There is a second prefectural city some 16 miles off, at the mouth of the river which drains the whole province.
In striking contrast to the barren hills round the harbour the Japanese Settlement nestles in the midst of a grove of magnificent fir-trees of phenomenal size. It strikes me as occupying the best site also for trade purposes. However, between it and the Corean town of Fusan, which lies 2½ miles to the north-east at the head of a little bught, there are plenty of sites along the high road to Tung-ts’ai. Should Her Majesty’s Government desire to acquire a Settlement here for the use of British subjects resorting to Fusan, it will be obtained, in all probaility, on a simple understanding to pay a nominal rent, annually, without any initial purchase. Such, at least, I was told by the Japanese Consul at Fusan was the arrangement made with the Japanese Government when their Settlement was enlarged, and this affords a presumption that a similar courtesy will be extended to other Treaty Powers.

Jên Ch’uan

Jên Ch’uan is the port opened on the west coast, near the mouth of the Hankiang River, and within a few miles of the capital. When I crossed over to Corea in June, by order of Her Majesty’s Minister, to join Admiral Willes, I was only a few hours at the anchorage of Ile Boisée, and had no opportunity of seeing this port. The extraordinary rise and fall of the tide, some 30 feet, and the velocity of the tide currents, appear to me to be great obstacles to the success of this port as a trading mart. This is all the more to be regretted, inasmuch as its proximity to the capital and to the valley of the principal Corean river points to it as the port where trade in British products is likely to be largest, and where the products of the country which can be profitably purchased will be most easily discovered. However, this is a matter on which I speak with insufficient knowledge. Her Majesty’s ship “Flying Fish” has been surveying off the mouth of the Hankiang, and Commander Hoskyn, or Mr. Aston, the Consul at Kobé, who is on board, should be able to give Her Majesty’s Government accurate information regarding the convenience and safety of Jên Ch’uan, or any other port near the capital. Until such information is received the selection of the port on the west coast should, in my opinion, be left an open question for a time. I hear, however, that the Japanese are to commence trading at Jên Ch’uan in autumn. In that case, a change of port, even if proved to be desirable, will be impossible. The small part of the Jên Ch’uan Prefecture which came under my eyes was not much cultivated; but it would be as unfair to argue the poverty of the country from that, as to judge of China from the mud flats of Taku.

Trade Prospects

The three ports are well selected. Corea is divided naturally into three sections by its mountain system. These I may term Southern Corea, cis-montane Corea, and trans-montane Corea. The first of these is served by Fusan, the second by Jên Ch’uan or some other port near the capital on the west coast, and the last by Gensan. No part of the country, except the strip along the Tumen River, on the Russian frontier, is 100 miles from a Treaty port.
British shipping will be at once engaged in the Corean trade as soon as the Treaty is ratified, and permission given to British subjects to proceed to Corea. A British line of steamers has recently been running between Vladivostock, in Russian Tartary, and Shanghae, with considerable success. The agents of it, Messrs, Jardine, Matheson and Co., of Shanghae, intend to make the two Corean ports, Fusan and Gensan, ports of call for the steamers of this line, on both outward and inward voyages. It is their intention also to station agents at these ports. The port on the western coast being only a few hours out of the regular course of steamers plying between Shanghae and Tien-tsin, it will probably, shortly after its opening be in constant communication with these important cities.

Imports

The main import will be British cotton goods. There is an impression that Coreans wear nothing except white cotton cloths, which is not correct. All classes, of all occupations, are fully clothed in all weathers in white garments, but most of the poorer people wear a singularly fine species of hempen cloth, which may easily be mistaken for coarse cotton. I found, however, that it was an object of ambition to all people clothed in hemp to have an outer cloak or gown of foreign cotton cloth, the superior fineness and finish of which they have a high admiration of. For this, which one sees worn by every person of means, they insist on having the best cotton cloth, American sheetings being the favourite stuff in the north, and the heaviest makes of English goods in the south. Indeed, it is an axiom in Shanghae that “There is no market in Corea for rubbish,” and that “A Corean is a gentleman who pays a high price for a good article.” A large quantity of cottons are imported into Corea at present overland from Newch-wang, through the palisade frontier known as the Corean Gate. Some are taken from Tien-tsin, and 200,000 or 300,000 pieces find their way into the country through Japanese ports and hands. In all cases the goods come first from Shanghae; and I have it on the authority of Shanghae importers that the total amount which is now sent from that port in these various channels is much larger than it is the custom to assert. I am of opinion that the opening of Corea to British trade will be followed by a large increase in the consumption of our cotton goods in that country, particularly at the port on the west coast, which will be the inlet to the capital and the Han-kiang Valley, a new and extensive market. The 10 per cent. Tariff provided for in the British Treaty will not be a bar to the trade, for this reason:—The goods sent into Corea by way of the northern ports of China pay, at present, a 5 per cent. Tariff duty at Shanghae, besides three or four profits to brokers and middlemen; whereas, sent direct from Shanghae to Jên Ch’uan or Gensan, a drawback on re-export for the Chinese duty would be given, and the middlemen’s profits saved. Individual transactions in imported cottons at the new Corean ports will, in most cases, be small, owing partly to the clumsy currency and the want of bills—a subject to which I have already alluded—and partly to the timidity of the natives, who, as far as I was able to judge in the Fusan shops, spend much time and many words over the purchase of one piece of cloth. On these grounds, I think it probable that the distributors of our goods will be eventually all Chinese or Japanese, and not English. None the less will the trade be a British one, and an advantage to us, in the interests of our manufacturing classes, to secure, especially at a time when, in more civilized parts of the world, market, after market is shut against us. There will be a great demand, too, at Corean ports for inexpensive European knick-nacks of all kinds—metal ware, glass ware, and the like, for the country has hitherto been in such complete isolation that grown-up men have the curiosity and desires of children regarding all handy and glittering articles.

Exports

With regard to exports, we are as yet quite in the dark, except in so far as the Japanese trade with Corea has thrown light on the subject. That the southern provinces produce rice in abundance, the non-prohibition of its export in the Treaty proves. Various medicines, notably “ginseng,” are at present brought to China; but whether they are of a nature to enrich the European pharmacopoeia we do not as yet know. Hides and skins seem to be obtainable; the fine quality of the hemp I have already noticed; and the gold dust exported to Japan indicates some store in the country of the precious metals. To the north there are, along the Yaloo and Tumên Rivers, great forests of pines, poles cut from which come to Tien-tsin in junks from the Chinese district coterminous with the Corean frontier.
There is a disposition to depreciate the resources of Corea as a producing country, founded on quite insufficient testimony. The country, in any case, has resources to support millions of strong, sturdy men, and in the South it produces, in ordinary years, more grain than can be consumed.
The foregoing notes on trade are sufficiently meagre. Of this, however, we may be assured: whatever imports trade springs up will, in origin, be mainly British. Provided equal privileges are granted to all, trade, both import and export, will, in carriage and distribution, be mainly British. But if commercial privileges, such as the rights of coast trading, be granted to the Chinese, and the feudal relation in which Corea stands toChina{to China} be put forth as a special consideration barring a claim by England, under the favoured-nation clause of the Treaty, to equal privileges, Corean trade, in carriage and distribution, will be mainly in Chinese hands. The right of Corea to make such arrangements will, I feel sure, in the course of time be asserted, and, in my humble opinion, it will have to be strenuously resisted.

The Coreans are physically the finest people in Eastern Asia; they are, as a rule, tall, strong men, with a most independent bearing and look; they are much less refined than either the Chinese or Japanese; they are boorish in behaviour even on occasions of ceremony, and seem to know no medium between sulking and rude familiarity; they are very dirty drunken when they get the chance, and dishonest. In 1880 I found them, away from the Japanese Settlements, well-disposed, willing to talk, and even friendly; but in the neighbourhood of Fusan and Gensan I found them the very reverse. The bad usage they have had to put up with from the Japanese settlers has, I regret to say, infuriated the Coreans not only against them, but against all foreigners. The outrages one reads of as constantly occurring by Coreans on Japanese are simply occasional retaliations by the former for the constant tyranny of the latter. To this legacy of hate we shall succeed at Fusan and Gensan when British subjects proceed there; but I have little doubt that, with ordinary circumspection by our people, and watchful supervision by our Consuls, hate will be turned to toleration, and Coreans learn to distinguish between an Englishman and a Japanese. For a time, however, it will be impossible for Englishmen to walk much about alone in the vicinity of the Japanese Settlements.
The right of travelling in the interior is not expressly granted in our Treaty, and it is open to contention whether a prohibition to carry goods into the interior connotes a permission to travel in the interior without goods. If the Corean Government intends, as is more than probable, that our subjects shall have no other or higher privileges than those they have granted to Japanese subjects, we shall have no right to travel, and the question of Settlements will therefore have to be faced at the very outset of our Treaty intercourse. Without permission to travel, and in the midst of a Corean population on thoroughly bad terms with the Japanese, it would be impossible for a handful of British subjects to live at a Corean port except on ground reserved for their especial use. Mindful of this, I have in my notice of the ports above drawn special attention to Settlement sites.
The Coreans, it is known, have a language of their own, and a method of writing it by means of an alphabet. This latter seems to be displaced by the written Chinese character, which I found in universal use. Education is more wide-spread than in China, and I rarely have met with a Corean, however young or however poor, who was not able to read and write sufficient Chinese to carry on an ordinary conversation. Chinese is written by the Coreans exactly in China, only they read it in Corean, so that any person who has a ready knowledge of the commoner characters and combinations of the Chinese written language finds himself quite at home in Corea, and might, armed with pen and ink, travel through the country unharmed from one end of it to the other. All official correspondence in Corea is in Chinese, examinations for official appointments being conducted in that language. Of Japanese, written or spoken, neither officials nor people know anything, and the Japanese Consuls in Corea have to make a special study of Chinese to fit them for their duties. In the service to which I have the honour to belong Her Majesty’s Government has there a body of servants from whom may be drawn, without any further linguistic preparation than that which their training in China has already given them, a Consular staff for Corea capable of communicating freely with both officials and people the moment they set foot in the country.
I have given Corean names throughout these notes their sounds in Chinese.

(Signed)　　WM. DONALD SPENCE