332
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BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA hundred or so Germans in Hongkong was in the aggregate very considerable indeed.
In the export of Chinese produce the liquidations reveal the same foolish com- petition to secure business at all costs. What they thought would be gained by doing such business is difficult to compre- hend. To give definite instances, it has transpired that one firm actually did a turnover of four million dollars a year in Silk, and yet out of this only earned enough to pay the cost of running the de- partment. Another firm did a huge export trade in Chinese produce, and the total profits were seldom over £300 per annum. In many instances continued and serious losses were the order of the day, yet they stuck to it, and without making any at- tempt to change their methods were con- tent to do the business at great loss, or often on a margin which was quite inade-
BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA 23 quate considering the risks taken. Here was a branch of trade in which they had almost forced British competition out of many lines, but they never seemed to take advantage of this in order to make a fair profit. The more one examines the results of their trading, the more incomprehensible the whole matter becomes. Several firms made a feature of deals in Chinese Tin. The losses they made in these transac- tions were generally appalling, but in the most favourable circumstances their profits were miserably inadequate. In one specific instance, the result of a long sequence of large and important deals was a profit of 3% on the turnover.
From the foregoing it will be observed that the one idea of the German firms was a big turnover irrespective of profits made, and a few examples of what this led up to may be interesting and instructive, as