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informed that the iron pans in use at Hongkong are mostly made in the Swatow and Canton Consular districts.
The same clannishness that makes the Cantonese monopolise the labour market of Hongkong, causes the various clans that leave this Consular district to keep separate when they go to the Straits.
Certain clans settle in the neighbourhood of Singapore; others in the neighbourhood of Penang.
The clansmen like to purchase the pans they have been accustomed to in their native villages in China, and hence certain villages export certain kinds of pans to Singapore, and other villages other kinds of pans to Penang.
My marking on each pan to which port it is generally exported will prove useful, I trust, to the Birmingham Chamber as a guide as to which port to send articles of a similar nature.
But it would be well for the Chamber to supplement this information by obtaining from all our Colonies in which Chinese reside in great numbers, specimens of the pots and pans and other iron and metal ware in common use amongst the labouring Chinese class.
Since the labouring class of Chinese is the most numerous, the supplying of their needs would naturally lead to a larger trade than supplying the wants of less numerous classes of Chinamen.
(Signed)
I have &c.,
Chas. Gardner.
Consul.