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at the other large Treaty Ports but it is specially notice- able at Cnaton, perhaps because the port is in addition overshadowed by the great market of Hongkong. I refer to the old compradore and native dealer system of selling, which has resulted in the creation of close and powerful buying rings in almost every branch of the import trade, in the creation of a number of unnecessary and obstructive middlemen and in the drwsing of a fence round the actual consumer, which it is hopeless for the average non special- ised firm of importers to attempt to evade. Nor are the vested interests created purely Chinese. An instance
recently occurred in Hankow where foreign interests at Shanghai allied to Chinese effectively stopped the institu- tion of a periodical piece goods auction at the inland port. ! Similarly, the manager of a firm in Canton who should try to develop a direct trade here in some kind, say, of 'fancy' piece goods would probably soon find his activities checked by his principal in Hongkong acting under pressure from the ring of Hongkong dealers. It is to the interest of the Chinese dealers, or at all events they conceive it to be so, to get as close to the Foreign manufacturers as they can and they are only debarred from direct trading by the impo sibility of obtaining banking and other facilities. They have been so far successful that the foreign merchant is most cases retains no interest in the goods beyond Hong- kong, is ignorant of their destination ens still more ignor- ant of the conditions governing the demand in the consuming districts, changes of fashion and the like. The system has become so identified with foreign trade at the Treaty ports that it is no exaggeration to say that it rarely occurs to the majority of merchants that their sales fall far short of the possibilities of the market, or that in the
organisation
na Joqmi
1