1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS—ANNUAL.
worst years they have experienced for some considerable time—a condition of things which is illustrated, to some extent, by the returns of the Imperial Maritime Customs for Kowloon and District, the statistics shewing a decrease in the value of imports from Hong Kong to China amounting to 434,935 Haikwan Taels or some £72,722 as compared with the year 1895.
I learn on reliable authority that all classes of goods—yarns, piece-goods, metals, and sundries—were imported on a very limited scale, and sales were generally unsatisfactory, being confined, for the most part, to the supply of immediate wants. Shipping employed in Eastern waters shared correspondingly in the general depression, freights being very scarce, and rates unremunerative. The dulness in demand and general absence of all speculative enquiry are commonly ascribed to the after-effects of the China-Japan war, but reasons may possibly also be discovered, so far as the experience of British merchants is concerned, by the light of subsequent remarks and statistics illustrative of foreign competition.
The opium import for the year shews a decrease of 2,400 chests, and importers have sustained losses owing to the unfavourable rupee exchange without a corresponding rise in the price of the Indian drug in the China market. The price of the Indian product has, however, necessarily risen sufficiently to give an impetus to the production of the native drug, and the shortness of the Bengal opium crops year after year and the diminished auction sales of the Indian Government, added to unfavourable exchange conditions, are factors affecting the price of the Indian drug to such an extent, that, if such conditions continue, the native product must eventually entirely supplant the imported drug.
A noticeable feature of the year was the marked displacement of Indian cotton yarns by the Japanese product in the Chinese market, and although this fact may be in some measure accounted for by the unfavourable exchange which similarly affected the opium import, and by the closing of the Bombay mills, which tends to further penalise importers from India, there is every indication that the Japanese have taken full advantage of the situation, and there is little doubt, I fear, as to the ultimate result of the competition.
The main exceptions to the general dulness in demand during the year were the Flour trade and the Kerosine Oil trade. The former business yearly increases, and yielded very handsome profits owing to the high prices of wheat caused by the Indian famine. The kerosine trade also continued to be brisk, and the demand for the Sumatra product is advancing rapidly in China, and is being developed by German agency in this Colony.
Before concluding these general remarks on trade, it may be of some interest to quote the following extract from my speech to
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Page 171
1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS—ANNUA L.
worst years they have experienced for some considerable time- a condition of things which is illustrated, to some extent, by the returns of the Imperial Maritime Customs for Kowloon and District, the statistics shewing a decrease in the value of imports from Hong Kong to China amounting to 434,935 Haikwan Taels or some £72,722 as compared with the year 1895.
I learn on reliable authority that all classes of goods-yarns, piece-goods, metals, and sundries-were imported on a very limited scale, and sales were generally unsatisfactory, being confined, for the most part, to the supply of immediate wants. Shipping employed in Eastern waters shared correspondingly in the general depression, freights being very scarce, and rates unremunerative. The dulness in demand and general absence of all speculative enquiry are commonly ascribed to the after-effects of the China-Japan war, but reasons may possibly also be discovered, so far as the experience of British merchants is concerned, by the light of subsequent remarks and statistics illustrative of foreign competition.
The opium import for the year shews a decrease of 2,400 chests, and importers have sustained losses owing to the unfavourable rupee exchange without a corresponding rise in the price of the Indian drug in the China market. The price of the Indian product has, however, necessarily risen sufficiently to give an impetus to the production of the native drug, and the shortness of the Bengal opium crops year after year and the diminished auction sales of the Indian Government, added to unfavourable exchange conditions, are factors affecting the price of the Indian drug to such an extent, that, if such conditions continue, the native product must eventually entirely supplant the imported drug.
A noticeable feature of the year was the marked displacement of Indian cotton yarns by the Japanese product in the Chinese market, and although this fact may be in some measure accounted for by the unfavourable exchange which similarly affected the opium import, and by the closing of the Bombay mills, which tends to further penalise importers from India, there is every indication that the Japanese have taken full advantage of the situation, and there is little doubt, I fear, as to the ultimate result of the competition.
The main exceptions to the general dulness in demand during the year were the Flour trade and the Kerosine Oil trade. The former business yearly increases, aud yielded very handsome profits owing to the high prices of wheat caused by the Indian famine. The kerosine trade also continued to be brisk, and the demand for the Sumatra product is advancing rapidly in China, and is being developed by German agency in this Colony.
Before concluding these general remarks on trade, it may be of some interest to quote the following extract from my speech to
163
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