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4.
2.
For example, the total market value of the
shares of local companies (other than financial institu-
tions) listed by the Stock Exchange amounts to approximately $150,000,000, although an appreciable portion of the assets of such companies is represented by property. Similarly, the estimated total value of money invested in Chinese factories or in Chinese industry in the Colony amounts to about $50,000,000 which is only a comparatively small sum. Here again a substantial portion of such money is undoubtedly represented by the property or buildings of such factories.
5.
The total note issue, which is backed by silver and by sterling securities, amounts to about $160,000,000 but even this sum, large as it may appear, is for the most part held outside the Colony and only a small portion (authoritatively estimated at 25%) is owned
within the Colony.
6.
These comparative figures serve to make it abundantly clear that a very large portion, if not the bulk of the wealth of the Colony, is represented by property.
7.
That this must be so is hardly surprising in
a territory where there is little agriculture, almost a complete absence of any trace of mineral wealth, and where industry is still only in its infancy.
is