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April 17, 1905.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE BEPORT. amnious time in the work of endeavoring to, however, that the 8hausi bankers, who four, frame att agreement which, while acceptable to rears ago abandoned their plundered vaults and the Council, would not be too burdensome to | withdrew their available assets, will rosteme the Company We consider that in the new | operations at Tientsin during the coming agreement, although the community will benefit spring. In Shantung the railway to Chi-mo, largely by the concessions we have made, we 412 kilomètres from Tsingtau, was opened to were justified in making them, in order to traffic. From Szechwan alone are bad crops | obviate the great difficulty of carrying out the reported, and the susuing destitution can only terme of the old agreement and especially of partially be relieved because of the difficulties Clause No. 7 to which I bave already alluded, of transport. The wealthy Yangtzo basin was and we must trust to the expansion of our free from disturbances, only in Kiangsi some business to recoup as for the pecuniary sacri- rioting and from Hangchow some pilfering of floes we are now making. One very satisfactory boats being reported; and the harvests of the feature of the new agreement is that the whole of the vast ares were excellent, as good | community, through the Council, will in future as in 19:3-tonnage, even, sufficient to more The participate in the prosperity of the Company, the rice from Wahu, was wanting, which will be carrying out exactly the stringency in the Hankow money market be- origin 1 intention of the promoters of the came more pronounced towards the end of the Company, as expressed in the letter which year. From Hankow the railway to the north is I addressed to the Council in 1880, before open to traffic for 434 kilométres as far as Hsü- the original agreement was entered in o. Anchon, and the roadbed is ready to the Yellow extraordinary general meeting will have to River. In Fuhkion, too, a very good Rice crop be convened at an early date, of which dua was harvested; but from the vicinity of Amoy notice will be given, for the purpose of laying come reports of devastating floods. From this before the shareholders a scheme for the province is heard the first audible note of increase of the capital of the Company, in order distress-not local-due to the war, coming from the dealers in Tea and Timber, shut out to provide the shares to be allotted to the
from their northern market. Kwangtaug Municipal Council under the terms of the new agreement, and to defray the cost of the impor- suffered from deprivation of the Beancake tant extensions and additions to the works. needed to manure its fields, and the piracy in which are necessary to keep pace with the the Canton delta was rampant; the province as a constantly increasing business of the Company, whole was prosperous and the harvest abundant. The railway from Canton to Samshui has been opened to traffic, a length of 20 miles (32 kilomètres), In Kwangsi the disorders hava CHINA'S FOREIGN TRADE. been reduced, if not entirely repressed, and here, too, the harvest was good. Yunnan re- ports the harvesting of an exceptionally good The annual report on the foreign trade of orop of Rice," and an abundance of coin cir- China for 1904, published by the Inspector-culating, introduced for railway construction. General of Customs, is to hand. Below are
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The war appears to have been of minor im- portance among the conditions affecting the trade of China during the year. A large area of production and consumption was cut off, and trade. was hampered to some extent by the action taken by the Chinese authorities in restraint of those who would have made of the Chinese porta bases of supply for one or other of the belligerents; otherwise, and at a distance from the seat of war, the direct effect was not clearly perceptible. Indirectly, of course, some effect was produced. The monetary stringency, existing since 190.) and well marked at the end of 1903, became more pronounced as the war went on, and must be beld accountable for some, at least, of the stagnation prevalent during 1904; it is probable that it was a potent agency în restricting the export of Chinese produce, and thereby increasing the so-called: "adverse balance of trade." Among Imports we find that textiles, & third of the whole, alone show no expansion, a fact due directly to the inflated cost of the raw material. 'These various causes have had their influence in producing the depression which characterised certainly the first nine months of the year, but among all other causes the fluctuationsinexchange must not be lost sight of Trade can adjust itself to a low exchange or to a high exchange, or even to a shifting exchange if the movement can be foreseen; but a state of things which introduces the element of gambling into the business of every day, which makes it impossible for a merchant to estimate the amount in one currency which will give him a profit in another, and which may even make it doubtful if a profit actually realised. in one currency can be safely landed in another, all this increases the cost of trading by enfore- ing the wisdom of large margins, and by so much acts as a restraint on trade.
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Finally, f r-away Yatung reports that the trade with Tibet was entirely disorganised by the operation of the British Expeditionary force, that a two years supply of both Imports and Exports is waiting to be moved, but that the necessary transport will not be available; from Yunnan and Szechwan come reports of On the whole, increased trade with Tibet. the conditions of trade were excellent and such as to overcome, except in the actual field of operations, the inevitably depressing effects of the war; and the maintenance and even in crease, of the values of the Import and Export trade are an indication of brilliant pro-poots for the coming year, assuming that no untoward conditions intervene to bring distress on the Empire.
Revenue. The collection of the year was Hk. Tls. 31,493,156, an increase from 1903 of nearly one million taels, or three per cent. As this is the principle source of revenue from which the Chinese Government draws the means of meeting its Foreign liabilities, it will, perhaps, be better to say that in 1903, at the average exchange for that year, the Customs Revenne was £4,028,355 or its equivalent in other Foreign currencies; and in 1904; at the average exchange for 1904, it was £4,514,019; thus constituting a real, though fortuitous, gain to the Imperial exchequer of £485,664, or 12 per cent, The increase in the general Import Duty (Opium excluded). Hk. Tls. 887,86', very nearly measures the increase in the total collection and was made mainly in the last quarter of the year. The general Export and Coast Trade Duties and Tonnage Dues in- creased but slightly; while Transit Dues fell off, chiefly from reduced collection on Foreign goods inwards. Opium Likin was less by Hk. Tls: 322,986, measuring the reduced import of the Foreign drug; while Opium Duty was more by Hk. Tls: 331,438, occasioned by an in- Notwithstanding the evidence of the stagna. crease in the collection from the movement of Native Opium from Hk. Tis:467,907 in 1903 to tion of trade, it is still true that China as-a- whole was in a prosperous condition during the Hk. Tls. 920,421 in 1994. Newchwang shows Jaar. In the North the crops were abundant. the effect of the war in the reduction of This unprecedented rains which visited Man-Revenue collected. Tientsin and Chinwangtao churia, while impeding the movements of the belligerents and causing them much hardship, brought to the cultivator a joy which was-miti- gated only by the difficulty he experienced in finding a cash market for his abundant crops. Chihli and Shangtung were both favoured with good harrests, estimated at nine-tenths of a possible "best" and nothing but the general stringency of the money market, more marked at Tientsin thân elsewhere, interfered with a It is stated, ́ generally good ́year for trade
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maintained 1908 figures; so did Shangtung, but with transference of trade from Chefoo to Kiso- chow, continuing in this the history of 1903, Chungking and its transhipping port, Iohaug, rose from Hk. Tls. 705,141 to Hk. Tis:1,124,250, in which duty on native Opinar socounted for H. Tis:423,392 and Hk:Tls:825,278 respectively. The combined Revenue of Yockow and of Changsha did not equal the Yochow collection of 1903. Of Lower Yangtze-ports, Hankow shệ Kiukiang had increased collection; while porta-below were
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slightly under 1903 Shanghai showa a dis- tinct improvement, to which general Import and Export Duty and Tonnage Dues contributed Chekking ports held their own. Hangchow making the best showing. Fuhkien ports were about the same, except that a greater quantity of Tea originated at Santuao, to the detriment of the Foochow Revenue. Porté in Kwangtang and Kwangsi collected Hk. Tim 6,113,564 in 1903 and HF. Tls, 6,385,013 in 1964 the relative figures for trade by steamer and by junk remain much the same as in 1993, indient- ing that the tendency to ship by stemmer is maintained. All the frontier marts show disi tinct gains, Mengtax in particular increasing from Hk. Tls, 160,985 to Hk. Tls, 248,441,
Foreign Trade.-The valne of the articles entering into the Foreign trade of Chins have this year, for the first time uniformly, been settled on the basis of the cost of the goods at the moment they enter into China's inter national exchange-the c.i.f. value in the case of Imports and the f.o.b. value for Exports. This breaks continuity of the tables of value, but it was thought better to make the break and have one value for all statistical purposes than to continue the practice of having one system of valuation for the table of merchandise and another for statistical use found in the summary at the end of each year's Report on the trade of the Empire. The value given
total trade to the
Hk. of the year, Tls583,547,291, is 8 per cent. more than the value for 1903 given in the tables and 7 per cent. more than that given in the summary, the discrepancy being explainable by the fact that import values were at some ports already on a f.ob. basis in 1903. The inclusion of the heading "Trade by junk not otherwise recorded" brings within our purview practically the whole Foreign trade of China, excepting some small quantities arriving at or leaving s A dig few unimportant points on the coast. gram is appended to this Report showing the development of the trade of China, by decen» nial intervals, during the 40 years from 1864 to 1904. In the carrying trade it shows that Great Britain retains in 1964 fully as large a proportion of the tonnage as of the lesser amounts of each previous decade; it also słowa the line of the American carrying trade on-the China coast, and the rise to prominenos of the Japanese and German flags, Noticeable niso is the steady increase in the tonnage of Chinese shipping entered at the Maritime Customs This is the last year in which a distinction will not be made between the various countries of Europe, hitherto classed together under tho Continent of Europe (Rassin heading
and it will be interesting to excepted); ' compare at this point of a new departure the 40 years statistics of the trade with Foreign countries. Hongkong is always our element of statistical confusion, receiving: m it for distribution does Foreign: goods to the ports of South China and Chinese produce for shipment to all parts of the world, including China itself. In 1884, the day of leisurely movement in sailing vessels carryifig cargoes to destination, and with no dread of long demurrage, Hongkong contributed· 31 par cent: to imports and took 14 per cent of exports; in 1904 these had risen to 40 and:39 per cent. respectively. India sent us 32 per cent. of our imports in 1864, entirely Opium, and: wine per cent, direct in 1904, Opium and Cotton Yarn. In direct imports, Great Britain shows an absolute increase in value; but the per-centage to the total fell from 21 to 16 por cent.; direct exports fell from 07 to six per cent., dus mainly to the decadence of China's Tea trade. The Continent of Europe ond- tributed no direct imports in 1884 and 6hr per cent, of those of 1904; while of expertas direst it took 24 per cent: in 1864 and 19 per cent; in 1904 The United States rose from one to eight per cent, for imports and from eight to 11për coat, for exports, other than those through Hongkong. The direct trade with Japan ride from three to 14 per cent, for: importážand from nothing to 16 per cent for experts. The direct Ten trade with: Bussia= huil not been: inaugurated in 1864; but in÷1903 it haneunted to siz per cent of all exports : in 1904, this: trades was disorganiseds total imports increased toŭ sevenfőldi exports: to nosarly fivefold, thɛ samow
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