[Moreover with that vast number of people, and the number of hot baths
that they maintain - for every one has such a bath at least three times a
week, and in winter if possible every day, whilst every nobleman and man
of wealth has a private bath for his own use - the wood would not suffice
for the purpose.]
NOTE 1. - There is a great consumption of coal in Northern China,
especially in the brick stoves, which are universal, even in poor houses.
Coal seems to exist in every one of the eighteen provinces of China, which
in this respect is justly pronounced to be one of the most favoured
countries in the world. Near the capital coal is mined at Yuen-ming-yuen,
and in a variety of isolated deposits among the hills in the direction of
the Kalgan road, and in the district round Siuen-hwa-fu. (Sindachu of
Polo, ante ch. lix.) But the most important coal-fields in relation to the
future are those of Shan-tung Hu-nan, Ho-nan, and Shan-si. The last is
eminently the coal and iron province of China, and its coal-field, as
described by Baron Richthofen, combines, in an extraordinary manner, all
the advantages that can enhance the value of such a field except (at
present) that of facile export; whilst the quantity available is so great
that from Southern Shan-si alone he estimates the whole world could be
supplied, at the present rate of consumption, for several thousand years.
"Adits, miles in length, could be driven within the body of the coal....
These extraordinary conditions ... will eventually give rise to some
curious features in mining... if a railroad should ever be built from the
plain to this region ... branches of it will be constructed within the
body of one or other of these beds of anthracite." Baron Richthofen, in
the paper which we quote from, indicates the revolution in the deposit of
the world's wealth and power, to which such facts, combined with other
characteristics of China, point as probable; a revolution so vast that its
contemplation seems like that of a planetary catastrophe.
In the coal-fields of Hu-nan "the mines are chiefly opened where the
rivers intersect the inclined strata of the coal-measures and allow the
coal-beds to be attacked by the miner immediately at their out-croppings."
At the highest point of the Great Kiang, reached by Sarel and Blakiston,
they found mines on the cliffs over the river, from which the coal was
sent down by long bamboo cables, the loaded baskets drawing up the empty
ones.
[Many coal-fields have been explored since; one of the most important is
the coal-field of the Yun-nan province; the finest deposits are perhaps
those found in the bend of the Kiang; coal is found also at Mong-Tzu,
Lin-ngan, etc.; this rich coal region has been explored in 1898 by the
French engineer A. Leclere. (See Congres int. Geog., Paris, 1900, pp.
178-184.) - H. C.]
In various parts of China, as in Che-kiang, Sze-ch'wan, and at Peking,
they form powdered coal, mixed with mud, into bricks, somewhat like our
"patent fuel." This practice is noticed by Ibn Batuta, as well as the use
of coal in making porcelain, though this he seems to have misunderstood.
Rashiduddin also mentions the use of coal in China. It was in use,
according to citations of Pauthier's, before the Christian era. It is a
popular belief in China, that every provincial capital is bound to be
established over a coal-field, so as to have a provision in case of siege.
It is said that during the British siege of Canton mines were opened to
the north of the city.
(The Distribution of Coal in China, by Baron Richthofen, in Ocean
Highways, N.S., I. 311; Macgowan in Ch. Repos. xix. 385-387;
Blakiston, 133, 265; Mid. Kingdom, I. 73, 78; Amyot, xi. 334;
Cathay, 261, 478, 482; Notes by Rev. A. Williamson in J. N. Ch. Br.
R. A. S., December, 1867; Hedde and Rondot, p. 63.)
Aeneas Sylvius relates as a miracle that took place before his eyes in
Scotland, that poor and almost naked beggars, when stones were given
them as alms at the church doors, went away quite delighted; for stones of
that kind were imbued either with brimstone or with some oily matter, so
that they could be burnt instead of wood, of which the country was
destitute. (Quoted by Jos. Robertson, Statuta Eccles. Scotic. I. xciii.)
CHAPTER XXXI.
HOW THE GREAT KAAN CAUSES STORES OF CORN TO BE MADE, TO HELP HIS PEOPLE
WITHAL IN TIME OF DEARTH.
You must know that when the Emperor sees that corn is cheap and abundant,
he buys up large quantities, and has it stored in all his provinces in
great granaries, where it is so well looked after that it will keep for
three or four years.[NOTE 1]
And this applies, let me tell you, to all kinds of corn, whether wheat,
barley, millet, rice, panic, or what not, and when there is any scarcity
of a particular kind of corn, he causes that to be issued. And if the
price of the corn is at one bezant the measure, he lets them have it at a
bezant for four measures, or at whatever price will produce general
cheapness; and every one can have food in this way. And by this providence
of the Emperor's, his people can never suffer from dearth. He does the
same over his whole Empire; causing these supplies to be stored
everywhere, according to calculation of the wants and necessities of the
people.
