740
CHINA
rather the leanness of the preceding year. The falling off in the staple exports is, how- ever, obscured in the foliowing values of the Manchurian trade by certain other factors, among which are the great increase in the export of oils and the higher values assign- ed to beans and beancake :---
Net foreign imports...
1908.
1910.
...Hk. Tls. 42,118,568
1909. 49,265,303 57,613,364
Net native imports
19
Exports abroad and to native ports
?
8,550,701 45,143,358
14,830,539 15,498,520
77,926,613 80,213,122
Total...
95,812,627 142,022,455 153,325,006
11
The value of foreign imports at Tientsin and Chinwangtao was larger by 10 million taels than in 1909, owing chiefly to the great advance made by Japanese drills and yarn and to increased importations of railway material and munitions of war. figures for the Chilli ports are :----
1910.
The
1908.
Net foreign imports...
..Hk. Tls. 39,062,458
1909. 48,332,463 58,210,933
Net native imports
17
Exports abroad and to native ports
25,842,067 21.117.466
29,080,389 23,121,092
33
31,089,082 28,255,868
Total...
86,021,089 108,501,934 109,5-7,893
The export trade of Chefoo experienced a reaction, and the downward course of imports, both foreign and native, which had been interrupted by the exceptional activity of 1909, was fully resumed. Without the help of a railway, for which funds have not yet been found, it is to be feared that the inland trade of Chefoo will be extinguished in a few years; and even the local pongee trade, recently become so important, is in danger from the dishonest practices which have done so much harm to other Chinese in- dustries. At Kiaochow, on the other hand, with its railway connecion, a marked in- crease in the value of exports and foreign imports was recorded, and the total value of the trade was 42,500,000 taels, or some 12,000,000 taels more than the Chefoo total. The figures for the Shantung ports are :-
1908.
Net foreign imports...
...Hk. Tls. 25,605,918
1909. 29,267,628
1910. 28,702, 33
Net native imports
>>
Exports abroad and to native ports
"
10,863,629 15,879,381 23,169,710 32,979,700
12,171,:35
31,903, 39
Total...
"J
59,639,257 78,126,709 72,776,407 In the Yangtze provinces the bad crops of 1909 and the wet spring of 1910, together with the embargo placed on the movements of grain, had a markedly depressing in- fluence on the trade of the first six months of the year. Recovery set in, however, with improved agricultural prospects. The outstanding feature in this section is the increase of 1 million taels in the value of the export trade of Hankow. The volume of the Yangtze trade-from Chungking to Chinkiang, and including Changsha and Vochow- was as follows:-
1910.
Net foreign imports...
1908. ...Hk. Tls.104,644,857
1909.
97,816,052
98,043,925
Net native imports..
"
Exports abroad and to native ports
33,154,129 134,680,625
37,739,416
38,653,568
152,291,362
157,059,098
Total...
272,479,611
287,846,830 293,756,591
The value of the Shanghai trade increased all round. This is, roughly, accounted for, as regards imports, by the rise in the value of opium, and, as regards exports, by the huge increase in the shipments of raw cotton. In Kwangtung there were large im- portations of foreign rice, and here, as elsewhere, the enhanced value of opium swells the figures materially, notwithstanding a large decrease in the quantity imported. Among exports, raw silk shows an important increase. The ports of Kwangtung and Kwangsi-11 in all-yield the following totals:
Net foreign imports... Net native imports
Exports abroad and to native ports
Total...
1908.
1909.
1910. .Hk. Tls.107,838,502 104,165,988 122,777,050 61,461,000 51,238,843 92,328,310 106,644,255
*
31
54,172,248 93,614,205
255,624,955 257,955,358 280,660,178