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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841–1941
COLONIAL REPORTS—ANNUAL.
(3.) A decrease in the rice imports of 8 per cent.
(4.) A decrease in the timber imports of 18.7 per cent.
(5.) A decrease in the hemp imports of 42.3 per cent.
(6.) An increase in the general imports of 9.8 per cent.
(7.) Also small increases in case and bulk kerosine and in liquid fuel.
The nett decrease in import cargo is 123,335 tons or 3.4 per cent.
In exports there appears to be an increase of 150,823 tons or 7.7 per cent.
In transit cargo, a decrease of 9,163 tons or 10.4 per cent.
The import trade was very depressed throughout the year. In the interior of China there was much poverty, and trade was hampered by unauthorised exactions on goods beyond the confines of the Treaty Ports. The fall in the exchange of silver and the high values ruling on the home markets—especially in raw cotton and all cotton fabrics—also militated severely against this branch of trade.
The opium trade was far from prosperous during the past year. In the Bengal drug, owing to large stocks early in the season and a declining exchange in the latter half of the year, the business done, though considerable, was productive of loss to both importers and native dealers. The demand for Malwa was poor and disappointing, and the prices obtained left no margin for profit. Owing to the Formosan Government being practically the only buyer of superior Persian, the rates for this drug fell from $825 per picul, the opening quotation, to $640 per picul in the latter end of the year.
As regards the trade in Indian cotton yarn, the year under review shows a decidedly marked improvement over the previous twelve months.
The imports to Hong Kong and Shanghai, which showed a shrinkage of close upon 60 per cent. in 1900, increased again over 100 per cent. during the past twelve months, whilst sales in Hong Kong showed an excess of 45,715 bales and those in Shanghai of 69,083 bales.
A great and important movement has taken place which has opened the whole of the markets of inland China to the world. Manufacturers on the spot will certainly be unable, at least for some time, to meet the greatly increased demand which will thus be occasioned; and in the meantime India may fairly hope to reap some share of the harvest, more especially if Lekin—a veritable millstone round the neck of this trade—is effectually removed.