18941
Extract from a Report by the Enclosure Statistical Secretary of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs on "China's Import Trade and the fall in Silver?
I have the honour to be,
My Lord Marquess, Your Lordship's Most Obedient Humble Servant,
William Robinson
Enclosure
The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, MARCH 19TH, 1894,
CHINA'S IMPORT TRADE AND THE FALL IN SILVER,
Mr. Kopsch, the Statistical Secretary of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, in his review of the trade for 1893 says:
The dislocation in exchange brought about by according a fictitious value to the rupee and closing the Indian mints to the coinage of silver has resulted, as predicted, in a very serious falling off in the entire trade from India to China. The net importation of opium for the year (although largely augmented by including, for the first time, in the Customs returns the opium brought in junks from Singapore to Hainan, amounting to 1,102 piculs), has declined to the extent of 2,674 piculs or from 70,782 piculs in 1892 to 68,108 piculs during the year under review. The protection of the rupee enhanced the price of opium so greatly that it placed the Indian drug beyond the means of a fast number of consumers, and this rise taking place concurrently with adequate supplies of Native opium—which has so improved in quality that, it is averred, smokers prefer it to Malwa—renders it almost hopeless for the imported drug to continue to compete successfully with the excellent and ever-improving home-grown product. The trade in Indian yarn has likewise undergone a sudden and severe check, the quantity having receded from 1,254,400 piculs in 1892 to 987,800 piculs, or a decrease of 266,600 piculs. Raw cotton from India has been similarly affected, the year's supply being only 53,400 piculs, or just about half the quantity imported during the previous 12 months. The deficiency in these two Indian staples alone represents a decrease in the value of the Indo-China import trade of over Hk. Tls. 4,745,000.
Reference to the list of imports from European gold-currency countries discloses an unparalleled falling off in all kinds of textile fabrics. In such staples as grey shirtings, which appreciated in price during 1893 as much as 36 percent. per piece, the supply falls short of that of the previous year by 2,158,000 pieces; white shirtings receded to the extent of 465,000 pieces, while the price advanced 35½ per cent.; and T-cloths, by 552,000 pieces—the total importation for the year, 1,537,000 pieces, being less than in any period during the decade, the prices of 7lb. and 3lb. goods increasing 12 per cent. and 17 per cent. respectively as compared with quotations in 1892. The statistics of English and American sheetings, in the aggregate, compare very unfavourably with those of the preceding 12 months, the figures for 1893 exhibiting a shortage of 311,000 pieces. Indeed, the only conspicuous gain in the list of woven cotton goods is in the drills of all kinds, which exceed the total importation of the previous year by 111,800 piculs—a supply probably not more than sufficient to make good the stock lost, or to fulfil orders in hand, when the Shanghai Cotton Mill was destroyed by fire on the 19th October last. It is satisfactory to note that unclassed cotton goods, which include the tastefully-designed fabrics of Japanese looms, continue to advance by immense strides, the importation of 1893 showing a rise in value of Hk. Tls. 660,400, or more than double the figures of the previous year. The quantity of Japanese cotton goods landed at Shanghai during the year was 142,500 pieces, or 40,000 pieces over the importation of 1892; in 1890 only 8,200 pieces appear in the returns of that port.
Under the heading of woollens the aggregate value shows a contraction of Hk. Tls. 207,000, and the only items for which the demand was greater than in the preceding years are long ells and blankets. Of metals it will be seen that most descriptions of iron have been in less demand, and, excepting the noteworthy increase in steel and spelter, the average importation of metals is maintained. In both kinds of kerosene oil (American and Russian) the consumption has increased prodigiously, the aggregate increase over '92 amounting to 9,473,000 gallons, the share contributed by the American oil being 4,936,000 gallons, and Russian 4,537,000 gallons. In this connexion it should be noted that in 1894 Russian oil will probably be brought to China in bulk by the steamers of the "Shell" line, and stored in tanks erected at Shanghai and other ports.
Owing to a short crop in South China, due to floods in the province of Kwang-tung, the importation of duty-free rice, chiefly Siamese, surpasses all previous demands, the consignments of the year aggregating the enormous total of 9,474,500 piculs, or 5,526,500 piculs over the importation of the previous year. The increase in sugar is explained by all qualities shipped from Hongkong—refined, as well as the products of the refineries—being accounted Foreign in the Import table.
Reference to the numerous commodities brought from silver-standard countries south of China indicates a general increase in quantity and value, the so-called depreciated silver in no way affecting the Asiatic division of China's import trade.
In connexion with the decline in the value of China's foreign import trade, it may not be out of place to remark that to the observer in the East it seems inexplicable that the gold-currency countries, while striving to extend their trade, should resolutely ignore the fact, so clearly demonstrated by the decline in the demand for piece goods, that to the millions in China the tael or ounce of silver is still a tael of undiminished purchasing power, whether the sterling value be 6s. or 3s., and that so soon as the discredited tael fails to buy the same quantity of foreign goods as heretofore, the consumer ceases to be a customer, and will supply his own wants by manufacturing textiles from home-grown materials. Indications are not wanting that the erection of the cotton mills at ports extending from the Gulf of Tonkin to Chungking is contemplated, and there is abundant evidence of great local activity in that direction. A nation whose inexhaustible supply of labourers excites such alarm among Western peoples and Governments is not likely to prove less formidable when it brings similar forces of cheap silver-paid skilled operatives into competition with the textile industries of the gold wage-earning classes of Europe and America, and the effect will be felt more acutely and cause greater consternation than the presence of Chinese labour abroad whenever it comes into rivalry with the handicrafts of Occidental races.
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