11
10
Japan in 1929, at £51.8 million, were almost five times the value recorded for 1913.
9. The total import trade of China from all sources, reduced to 1913 values, showed an increase in 1929 of 23 per cent. over 1913, but during that period Great Britain's direct exports to China, reduced to 1913 values, show a decline of approximately one-third, whilst the imports into China of her competitors increased. The figures are as follows:-
Great Britain, decrease of Germany, increase of France, increase of
Japan, increase of
United States, increase of
Per cent.
33
36
100
52 270
These figures relate to the whole of the import trade of China, but examination of the figures relating to manufactured goods only, reveals that Great Britain has failed in the cotton piece goods trade, and in other manufactures has not advanced as fast as her competitors. In 1913 Great Britain shipped to China (in- cluding Hongkong) 717 million linear yards of cotton piece goods. In 1929 exports of these to China (including Hongkong) were 210 million linear yards only, and in 1930 the amazingly small total of 64 million linear yards was recorded. It is true that in some other items of China's imports, such as metals and machinery, Great Britain shows some increases during the period under review, but these increases have not been sufficient to offset the heavy decline recorded for cotton goods.
10. In our opinion, the reasons for the failure of Great Britain to maintain her pre-war position in the import trade of Japan and China are to be found in the failure of British manufacturers to produce suitable goods at competitive prices and in defective distribution. Above all, price is the governing factor in Far Eastern trade to-day, and will in all probability be so for many years to come.
JAPAN.
CHAPTER II.
THE IMPORT TRADE.
11. Japan possesses four great factors of prime importance for industrial progress on a large scale. They are (a) an intelligent and industrious population inheriting and practising in its daily life a discipline and energy perhaps surpassed by no other country; (b) a supply of hydro-electric power both developed and available for future development; (c) the largest undeveloped world market -Eastern Asia-at her doors; and (d) a geographical position which makes her the natural intermediary between the American and Asiatic Continents. In a comparatively short space of time Japan has built up a textile industry and a mercantile marine to take two outstanding examples-which place her among the great trading nations of the world. These two achievements are examples of the national intelligence and capacity for hard work. The peasant girl working to the limit of her capacity in a cotton mill, has merely transformed her amazing energy from the field to the loom. For her, long hours of work are a commonplace of her daily life, but by entering the mill she attains a modest capital in a much shorter time than she could by husbandry. Similarly with the man, he is eager to learn, mainly as yet by imitating the methods evolved by other more developed countries, and he is an apt pupil. In some major industries output is as high as that of the British operatives.
12. A decade or two ago but few mechanical operations were practised in Japan, yet the machinery sense is already well developed in a wide variety of daily operations. The motor car, the machine tool, the electric motor, the wireless apparatus, the rolling mill, and the latest textile machinery are all a matter of daily use by many thousands, not in all cases to the high pitch of efficiency attained in Great Britain, Germany and the United States, but the progress is sufficient to indicate that the Japan of to-morrow may lead rather than follow. At the beginning of the century the value of Japanese exports of goods of all kinds was approximately £20 million, whereas by 1929 her exports had risen to over £200 million. In 1929 cotton piece goods were exported from Japan to the value of £41 million, whereas twenty- five years ago the figure was £2 million.. Further evidence of Japan's progress is shown by her increasing ability to import not only raw materials required for her major industries, but also high-class goods often luxuries-from Europe and the United States. The importation of the commoner kinds of goods and of many of the better class goods, as well as of machinery, may, however, seriously decline within the next few years owing to the progress made in Japanese industry itself.
201