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BRITISH TRADE IN CHINA: SUG- GESTIONS FOR ITS REVIVAL.
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June 25, 1898,
language and_mercantile customs youths "selected in England for their business capacity. In ten years such a system "would give us a hold over the foreign "trade of China that the present methods
can never do,"
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Majesty's Government, by merchants in "commercial policy.' The conclusion "China, and by manufacturers at home, arrived at is as follows: -"In order to
and that there must be a clear under- improve China's demand for our im 'standing as to the aims to be pursued" " ports, her exports must be increased "The Government can do little while the "in value, and this can best be done by "merchants refuse to live anywhere but in Englishmen living in settlements, like that Shanghai or Hongkong, to employ their at Shanghai, at suitable places in the in- capital in the country, and to make their terior, who, while managing steam ship- young recruits learn to speak the Chinese ping_and_developing the export trade, language; and the merchants can "could at the same time distribute imports "nothing unless they feel confidence "and be ready to engage in mining aud "that Her Majesty's Government will engineering enterprise as the opportunity "insist on the observance of the treaties "offered. Rich men will not live in the "and provide for their modification out-ports, and poor men cannot make a to suit changing conditions of trade. living independently; therefore, the work "Unless there is a clear understanding "must be done by rich firms or corporatious "between the Government and the mer- "able to wait and train in the Chinese spoken
chants, the Government take rights, as in the case of the ports of call on the Yangtsze, in such a form as to be of no value, and the merchants do not get the developments that their plans demand. "Fortunately the necessity of a better "organisation, and of a closer understand- ing, is now recognised or both sides." The necessity of removing the lekin abuses and the obstructions to the transit pass trade and according permission to steamers to ply at places now closed is duly dwelt upon. But the correction of existing abuses would not suffice, in Mr. BOURNE's opinion, to add very greatly to the foreign trade of China; a great improvement, he maintains, can only come from a revolutionary increase in the volume of exports, and for this foreign capital and enterprise in the interior are essential; the increased value of exports would add to China's capacity to take our imports. "The right to mauufacture in "China seems to give our merchants and capitalists an opportunity of inaugurating a better state of things.'
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In August, 1896, Mr. BOURNE, of the Consular Service, was seconded to accom- pany the commercial mission sent to China by the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce. His report has not been published by the Foreign Office, under the title of "Trade "of Central and Southern China," in a volume of ninety-nine pages. Mr. BOURNE is an experienced traveller and has the faculty of setting out the information he gathers on his journeys in a manner at once concise and interesting. Leaving Shanghai the mission ascended the Yangtsze as far as Chungking, from which point it made a tour by land through Szechuen, Yunnan, and Kweichow, descending by the West River to Chuton, and studying the conditions of trade the whole way. Mr. BOURNE'S report will take its place ns A standard work of refer- ence OD commercial interests in this vast district. The general results are summed up in the last five pages. The fact that the foreign merchant in China has become a mere commission agent was prominently remarked upon by Mr. BRENAN in his recent report, and Mr. BOURNE again emphasises it as one of the chief reasons of the stagnation of trade. He says that "while there seems, until recently, to have "been a disposition on the part of Her Majesty's Government to leave British sub- "jects to make the best of existing rights, and an unwillingness to bring serious pressure to bear upon the Chinese Government to "fulfill its treaty obligations in regard to trade, it cannot be denied that British merchants in China have done very little to press the grievances of our trade in the matter of internal taxation upon the notice If the foreign merchant and capitalist are "of Her Majesty's Government, and for the to fulfil the role marked out for them "excellent reason that they were not im- by
Mr. BOURNE they must become mediately interested." The whole of the less dependent on the compradore. An internal trade having passed into the hands Englishman of experience in the interior of the Chinese, who are excellent peddlers to whon Mr. BOURNE was talking about and brokers," the British merchant ceased the compradore system told he leading to have any interest in the maintenance believed that for every dollar "of our treaty rights in regard to the British firm in Hongkong made in the "internal taxation of our trade, his pocket foreign import trade their compradore and "did not suffer immediately, and no
his friends made two dollars. Mr. BOURNE "strong representations were made at afterwards quoted this remark to the Hon. "home." In this Mr. BOURNE seeins Dr. Ho Kai and asked his opinion about it. to be somewhat unduly severe on the Dr. Ho KAI said he doubted whether the merchants, who, although acting mostly as compradore made double the profit of the commission agents and not immediately firm on imports, but be certainly made as affected in their own pockets by the squeez-much; British merchants would do much ing to which their Chinese constituents better than this if they had trusted en- are subjected in the interior, are neverthe-ployes who could speak Chinese; com less interested generally in the removal of pradores would still be necessary, but they obstacles to the expansion of trade, and through the various Chambers of Commerce they have over and over again drawn atten- tion to the blighting effects of the squeeze system and have supported their complaints by facts and figures. No doubt their repre- sentations would have commanded more at- tention had the grievances of which they complained been more personal to them- selves; but the fault of the inaction that has so long prevailed must be laid at the door of the Government rather than at that of the merchant. In fact it was the unfor- tunate policy of the Government that or- iginally rendered foreign enterprise in the in- terior impossible and compelled the mer- chant to confine bis operations to Hongkong and the treaty ports, leaving the important work of pushing trade in the interior to the Chinese.
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What is the remedy? To improve the "state of our trade with China," says Mr. BOURNE, "it then seems that there must be a reconsideration of the position by Her
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could then be kept in their place and confined to the commission that was their due; as things were now, the compradore tended to become the merchant and the English head of the house his agent; an up-country merchant wishing to do business with the firm had to accept the com- pradore's terms or do nothing; if he ap- proached the Englishman he was referred back to the compradore; none of the Englishmen in the house could understand him, and Chinese who might interpret would be all in the compradore's pay. No wonder Mr. BOURNE says that "under the present order of things manufacturers at "home can scarcely regard merchants re- "sident in China as adequately representing "their interests for all purposes; and, although they can only act effectively in China through Englishmen resident there, "it would seem they should watch the course of events in that country very carefully "for themselves, and that they should have મી decided voice in determining qur
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THE PAKOI-NANNING RAILWAY.
Mr. Acting Consul WILKINSON, in his report on the trade of Pakhoi for the year 1897, snys:-"As regards the proposed
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railway here-which should connect Pak- "hoi with Nanning, a distance of some 90 "miles-there never was much probability "of its construction, and the opening of "the West River will defer it indefinitely." A few days ago a Havas telegram informed us that the construction of the line in question had been granted to France. Whether that means that the line is really to be constructed forthwith or that France has acquired rights in respect of the project simply for the purpose of delaying its execution and preventing any one else undertaking the work remains to be seen. It is certainly a remarkable project for France to undertake, for if the proposed line succeeded in attracting any consider- able volume of traffic it would be in part at the expense of the Tonkin routes. Mr. WILKINSON says:-"It was in 1890 that "the competition of the Tonkin routes began to seriously affect the trade of "Pakhoi. This port had become an entre “
pôt through which traffic was conducted "between South-east Yunnan and the bead waters of the Red and West Rivers on the one side and Hongkong on the other. The opening of Mengtzu and Lungchow -which took effect in 1889-at once began to divert a portion of this traffic to Tonkin," Hitherto the trade via Tonkin has taken the Red River route almost ex-
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clusively, that proceeding via Lungchow being quite insignificant in quantity. A light railway was laid some years ago from Phulangthuong to Langson, and this is now being improved and extended at the one end to Hanoi and at the other to Lungchow, so that there will shortly be through com munication. The consequences to Pakhoi of the completion of that railway are, as Mr. WILKINSON says, still only in the region of conjecture, but the conditions of the problem are so admirably stated by Mr. MORSE, Commissioner of Customs at Lungchow, in his trade report for 1896, that the Consul
quotes from him at some length. "It is not," anys Mr. MORSE, "the Kwangsi-Tonkin trade "which the railway is built to carry; this "direct traffic is of no importance.
The raison d'être of the line is to capture the trade-now amounting to 3,000,000 "taels annually-which enters China by the gate of Pakhoi." With a railway from Pakhoi to Nanning Mr. MORSE is of opinion that Pakhoi would have an even chance of retaining its transit trade.