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BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA
When the liquidations were commenced it was generally thought that new and suc- cessful methods of doing trade would be brought to light, but, greatly to the surprise. of those merchants and accountants who were appointed liquidators, the average re- sult of their investigations was a more com- plete knowledge of how not to do business.
The disclosed results of their trading were so poor and feeble as at first to lead to the supposition that all the Germans in Hongkong had been heavily subsidised by their Government in some way, possibly with the object of a complete subversion of British trade. Enquiries were set on foot in many directions with a view to discovering whether this was the case or not
The re- sults were somewhat negative. Although many interesting and peculiar circum- stances were unearthed, the investigations. were made at too late a period to be of
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BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA
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great practical value. It is merely necessary to state that up to the present it has not been possible to prove that any direct subsidy was made by their Government, but certain matters have come to light showing that in many cases indirect but extremely valuable assistance was given them in their trading, and this probably accounts for many of them not having thrown up the sponge long ago. This indirect assistance will be described in detail later.
The existence of a general and organ- ised plot to subvert British trade is hardly credible in view of the fact that their huge, cheap, and unprofitable sales of goods to Chinese in the main consisted of Manches- ter and Bradford goods. Manchester and Bradford merchants have certainly to thank the Germans for selling their goods for next to nothing, and often at a heavy loss, but the Colony of Hongkong did not profit thereby, by reason of the neglected principle
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