SHANGHAI
693
The market in heavy industrial chemicals was brisk though hampered by disturbances in the interior, and there is strong reason for belief that, given peace and tranquillity, a definite boom in these goods is likely to occur. The sugar market during the first eight months of the year was normal. Subsequently, increased imports and the fall in the price of silver engendered a very unsound and unhealthy influence, and it is stated that sugar merchants in Shanghai suffered losses amounting to anywhere between 2 million and 4 million taels. The year has been a period of exceptional profits for local cotton mills. To such an extent was demand good that for months buyers were apportioned yarn as it was made, and many orders have been placed for extensions to existing mills. Of other exports, the decline in raw hides generally, which started during the second half of 1928 and continued through the whole of 1929, was precipitated by heavy cattle-slaughtering in South America owing to severe droughts. The tea season on the whole proved a disastrous one for Chinese growers and far from satisfactory for foreign houses. Prices for fine teas were fairly well maintained, but the quantities of medium and common grades put on the market met with a very poor reception, and prices slumped heavily. Steam silk filatures have been labouring under the burden of high cost of production. Cocoon prices have been too high, and the cost of labour has been steadily increasing, with the result that at the end of the year filatures found themselves in a very precarions position, the selling price being below cost, and a number of filatures were forced to close down. There is still no improvement in quality to be noted, but the demands from the consuming markets are for better qualities, and complaints about unsatisfactory deliveries have again been numerous. Business in eggs and egg products continues to be one of increasing importance in the Shanghai export trade. The demand from abroad for eggs in shell was good, and fair quantities were shipped throughout the spring and summer, while the United States purchased increased quantities of all dried egg products. Froin January to the close of the year, month after month with the sole exception of May, a consistent increase in the stocks of silver held here took place. The total value of the stocks of sycee, bar silver, and dollars in January 1929 was Tls. 135,357,000, which in itself was an increase of 35 million taels over the figure for June 1928, but by December 1929 it had reached the stupendous total of Tls. 196,244,000. The Shanghai-Nanking Railway made further progress, carrying over 11,700,000 passengers, a considerable gain on the previous record year of 1926. The railway functioned continuously with the exception of a few days of emergency in the last quarter and showed every sign of increasing efficiency and of maintaining punctuality to schedule. Roads have increased in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, and many improvements have been undertaken by the municipal authorities. The traffic problem inside the Settlements still remains acute owing to the increase in the number of motor-cars. The market for second-hand cars is poor, mainly due to the fact that "hire-car" garages prefer to purchase up-to-date models. On the 18th July the first air mail was carried between Shanghai and Nanking, and aeroplanes carrying passengers and mails now fly regularly between here and Hankow. Strikes were fairly common at the beginning of the year, but for the most part they were for trivial reasons, and in the majority of cases the strikers returned to work unconditionally. The sale of the Shanghai Municipal Electricity Department for 81 million taels was completed on the 6th August. Movements of cargo through the Native Customs were seriously affected by piracy, banditry, and additional taxation, and by the opening up for through-cargo traffic of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, since goods hitherto transported via Haichow and thence by sea to Shanghai are now diverted to the Pukow line, which offers cheaper freight and better godown and transport facilities.