Page 34 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

6 CHINESE PORCELAIN.

demand for houses and shops was so great that they were
speedily rebuilt. The city seems to have been governed by one
mandarin. Each street, or, if long, section thereof, had a chief
with ten assistants, one for every ten houses, who were re-
to the head mandarin, their business to main-
sponsible being
tain order and report all breaches thereof to the mandarin, who,
for any neglect on their part, had the bastinado administered
Each of the streets or districts were barricaded at
freely.
and no one allowed to without a The
night, pass given signal.
mandarin in charge of the city frequently went round, as also
others from Feou-liang, to see that order was kept. Strangers
were allowed to the in the and then had
rarely pass night city,
to with friends, who became answerable for their good
stay
conduct. As a rule, all strangers had to sleep in their boats.
This strict is said to have been on account
police supervision
of the wealth contained in the houses. King-te-chin was
destroyed by the Tai-pings, but its prosperity seems to have
been on the decline before that.
Lord Macartney (1792-1794) passed near King-te-chin, and
there were three thousand furnaces there, but
says porcelain
of course he may merely have been quoting from the above-
named author. However, it seems, at all events, even at that
time to have been a very large manufactory.
"
Writing in 1837, GutzlafT tells us: Five hundred ovens are
constantly burning, and emit during the night a flame which
the the of a lake of fire.
gives region surrounding appearance
No in China is to manufacture of
place thought porcelain
excellence with that of several
equal King-te-chin, though
cities in Fokeen and Kuan-tun g have endeavoured to rival it
in this production. . . . The wood has to be brought from
a distance of three hundred miles. Provisions are extremely
dear, and labour in equal proportion, so that several other
situated more have become successful
places, advantageously,
rivals in the manufacture of the article by supplying it at a
"
cheaper rate (vi. p. 88).