Even the capital of the Empire, the great Peking, and the productive region around it, have depended largely on the overland trade to Europe, and especially on the great Russian market opened annually at Novgorod. It only needs a railroad from the back country, through Peking direct to the coast, to bring this large trade under American control. Mr. James G. Swan (Hawaiian Consul) has written a valuable pamphlet on the regions drained by the Amoor River, in which he shows that there is an immense trade "now lying dormant in Siberia, Mongolia, Manchooria, Northern China, Corea and Japan, which will be brought into active life and diverted to the American shore of the North Pacific Ocean by the great continental railroads which will have the outlet of their commerce through the Straits of Fuca." He gives the population of these countries as follows: Siberia 4,000,000 Mongolia 12,000,000 Manchooria 5,000,000 Japan 36,000,000 ---------- Total 57,000,000 [Sidenote: The trade of the Amoor River, Japan, etc.] The Amoor River, with its great Chinese tributary, the Songaree, furnishes over 2,600 miles of steamboat navigation (a second Mississippi), but, owing to a great bend to the south, the Amoor can be reached by a short line of railroad from the Russian port Vladivostock, or Poisette Harbor. Japan lies on the way from Puget Sound to the region referred to. Major Collins, some years ago, said in a letter to Secretary Marcy concerning this market: "One item, cotton fabrics, might be introduced to the amount of millions yearly; then there are many products of these countries that could be received in exchange. This must be done through the Amoor and its affluents. It can hardly be estimated what a revolution in trade and commerce can be effected in this region; and the fondness of the people for luxuries and foreign merchandise being very great, if the means of procuring them were facilitated and the prices cheapened, the consumption would be immense, and in a few years a trade of many millions would be effected." Major Collins thought that these people would consume annually five dollars per head of American goods; Mr. Swan estimates two dollars per head. These goods would be paid for in silks, tea, rice, furs, skins, wax, fossil ivory, plumbago, tin, precious stones, naval stores, etc. It is said that the overland trade of North China to Russia now requires for its transportation a caravan line of 36,000 camels and bullocks, and 100,000 horses, and that the Siberian trade is as large as that of China. The tea sold at Novgorod amounts to $5,000,000 each annual fair. The caravan tea is preferred to the ship tea, which is said to be injured by the voyage through the tropics; another argument for the North American route. [Sidenote: The new railroad across Siberia to St. Petersburg.]