-
CHAPTER II
REASONS FOR THE PREVAILING IDEA THAT BRITISHERS WERE NOT SO WELL EQUIPPED AS THE GERMANS FOR TRADE IN CHINA.
IN
** The English are ab-olutely compelled to rely **on the "ld of foreigners. Besides, the German “merchant is generally considered to be more reliable
and industrious than the English,"
(BERNHARDI again.)
recent years a general impression has grown up that the Germans in India, China, and the Far East were the most successful of all traders. This erroneous impression seems to have penetrated into most unexpected quarters, and there is no doubt that the idea has been carefully fostered
342
BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA 43
to some extent by the Germans themselves, partly through the medium of their world- wide correspondence, and also by means of more indirect methods. For the most part, however, we have our own Consuls, Trade Commissioners, and Attachés to blame for this extraordinary state of affairs. Our national habit of self-abasement has been indulged in by Consuls and others in their reports to such an extent that when all faults are carefully considered and deducted from the total of our grand achievements in the world's trade, it will be found that a lasting and serious injustice has been done to our own interests, principally by our own hands. We are far too prone to decry ourselves from the housetops, and one trade report comes after another blaming us in hackneyed phrases about our lack of enterprise, our failure to ad- vertise in the language of the country, how