284
94
also for lining the native style long gown. The growth of the knitting industry is shown by the figures for yarn imports given in Tables XIII and XIV of Appendix B, the whole of these yarn imports being knitted.
CARPETS AND RUGS.
191. China has long been famous for carpets, woven or rather knotted by hand on a thick cotton warp from hand-spun wool yarns. These hand-spun yarns are now being replaced increasingly by machine-spun yarns, but the actual weaving "' remains a purely hand process. The last 6-7 years have seen the establish- ment of mills in Tientsin in which woollen carpet yarns are made. Cost of production is very low.
According to information received, the average earnings of weavers (all male) in the carpet trade of Tientsin may be taken as 14 local dollars per month, which includes food and lodging. As to factory woollen spinning, we are informed that the ordinary worker earns from 16-20 local dollars per month and the foreman 40 local dollars.* The average working hours per day on single shifts are 12. Mills run two shifts when necessary and make 23 hours per day. The price of the yarn dyed and delivered to the weaver was equal to 1s. 3d. per pound at the time of our visit, (December, 1930.)
192. These machine-spun yarns give an improved appearance to the carpets, as against hand-spun yarns, and they are therefore tending to replace the latter and have entirely ousted the small imports of carpet yarn which previously came from Great Britain. As previously stated, Chinese carpets are of the hand-knotted type with a long pile. The make lends itself readily to the reproduc- tion of almost any design, no matter how elaborate, and by reason of the hand-work, bulk quantities are little if any cheaper to pro- duce than single carpets. They are, in effect, non-competitive with the British machine-made carpets, except to a slight extent in our own home market, as the landed cost into Great Britain puts them in the luxury class. Over the period 1925-29 inclusive Great Britain imported approximately £304,000 worth or an average of £60,800 per year. There are some factories at or near Peking and in Shanghai, but by far the greatest production takes place at Tientsin, where the industry is stated to find employment for 11,000- 12,000 workers in weaving alone. No particulars are available as to the number employed in spinning and finishing processes.
PART II.-The Chinese Market for Wool Textiles. 193. China has a population of between four and five hundred million people, accustomed from long ages to wear clothing of cotton or silk.
* See note to paragraph 189.
A
a
95
The Chinese climate is more extreme than the European climate in corresponding latitudes. Harbin, although south of Paris, has Siberian winter, and the port of Tientsin, in approximately the same latitude as Lisbon, was ice-bound at the time of writing this report (February, 1931). Cold wintry weather is experienced at Shanghai in the earlier part of the year, although the latitude is the same as that of Cairo, and in the interior the weather is still more severe.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Chinese have begun to appreciate the value of wool as an article of clothing, and in- dependently of the increasing adoption of the Western style of dress there will continue to be a large growth in the demand for wool textiles of all kinds. The rate of development of this demand is, of course, contingent upon the improvement of means of com- munication for opening up the interior, and this again depends in a large degree upon internal peace and security.
194. The demand for wool yarn, consequent upon the recent growth of the knitting industry, gives an indication of the potentialities of the Chinese market for imported wool textiles in the future. It is true that there is a tendency in China to foster native industry, but it is perhaps scarcely to be expected that China can hope in a few decades to build up a Chinese wool textile industry capable of serving more than a portion of the demand.
It is therefore, of the utmost importance that British spinners and manufacturers should be ready to meet the demand when it comes. It will be shown below, however, that Great Britain at present is rapidly falling behind in cloth imports into China, and that drastic changes are, therefore necessary if our country is to have her fair share of the Chinese wool textile trade in the future. The low purchasing power of the Chinese masses is shown by the rates of wages quoted above. China is, therefore, necessarily a price market so far as bulk lines are concerned, and only those nations which can produce at competitive prices can hope to secure the trade.
YARN.
195. China imported 1,952,000 lb. of wool yarns in 1913 and 13,119,000 lb. in 1929. The imports in 1929 were abnormally large, being 5,000,000 lb. more than in 1926, the previous largest year. According to the report issued by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce to the British Economic Mission, the trade runs in cycles of three years-one good, one average, and one poor year. Taking imports by value we get as follows, for worsted and woollen yarns
Average imports for 1912 and 1913 Average imports for 1925, 1926 and 1927 Average imports for 1926, 1927 and 1928 Average imports for 1927, 1928 and 1929
£
197,000
891,000
1,098,000
1,336,000
285