6
initiative and support, whereas in every instance the originators have been British, and all are, almost without exception, registered as Companies under British Colonial Ordinances and conducted under British management and supervision.
The picture presented of the German merchant in China is doubtless pleasing to the German eye. To the vision of the non-German it is a likeness so flattering as to be unrecognizable. Shanghae, so far from having at least sixty-eight large German firms, can at the very utmost boast of five such only. Tien-tain is in no sense of the word a germanized city. The foreign population may contain a relatively high proportion of Germans, but those who made Tien-tsin the important port it is, who built up the export trade on which its prosperity is founded, who own the steamers whence the major portion of its municipal revenue is derived, were, and continue to be, British. Imports there are nearly all handled by Chinese, and although 60 per cent, of those handled by Europeans may pass in through German firms, the bulk thereof will be found to be of British origin. The German share of the export trade does not exceed 35 per cent. As for Canton, the right to trade there was purchased with the blood of the British, and the foreign settlement was made by them. Unfortunately, the British merchant was slow to recognize that, when the export of silk and tea fell off, he would have to turn his attention to other things, and it was then that the German was allowed to gain a footing. However, slowly but surely the British merchant is adopting more up-to-date methods, and is still able to hold his own. The Germans might perhaps with greater reason have taken Hankow as an example of their pioneering enterprise, because, after the decay in the tea trade set in and British firms abandoned the port, they set about developing other exports, and have been largely instrumental in reconstructing, on a new basis, a trade which will eventually make Hankow one of the largest trading centres of the Empire.
If to the bome investor the 9 per cent, dividend of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank appears attractive, how would be regard the dividend of the British Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank P And if the German is proud of an export to China of 2,000,000%, the British can contemplate with equal or perhaps enhanced satisfaction an export to this country of no less than 20,000,0001.
The Central Union puts down the annual turnover of Shanghae at 26,000,000l., and claims for the Germans 22 per cent. thereof, or 5,712,000/. To judge from the figures, by "turnover "is evidently meant the gross value of the total foreign imports into Shanghae, and the gross value of native produce of local origin exported abroad. Why the value of native produce imported and re-exported abroad, which in 1903 was repre- sented by 8,000,000, is not included is not apparent. (Shanghae is the great distributing centre for Central and Northern China, and of her gross foreign imports she retains only about 20 per cent.) The writer is not in a position to check the accuracy of the Central Union's statement, but he has, through the courtesy of the leading British Bank, obtained a digest of their mercantile bills inwards and outwards, which, although an imperfect guide, owing to the fact that it is not possible to differentiate absolutely between purely mercantile and exchange bills, yet must afford a very good general indication of the course of trade, and it may fairly be assumed that, could complete returns from all the banks be procured, the resulting percentages would remain constant.
They are as follows:--
7
400
The writer's experience leads him to believe that, great as have been the strides made by German commerce in China, British commerce has kept relative pace, and that the danger which menaces our supremacy is not German, but Japanese and American competition. The German in China is not a better trader than the British. In fact, bad manners and lack of sympathy make him in many respects distinctly inferior to the latter. Being a late arrival on the scene, and finding himself forestalled, as far as the large staples of trade were concerned, he was forced to tap new sources for himself, and this training has, perhaps, made him more adaptable and more ready to strike out in fresh directions. To give an instance, it may be mentioned that a leading article in a Hong Kong paper, commenting, a year or two ago, on one of the writer's reports, expressed the opinion that, in all probability, it would be the Germans and not the British who would act on the suggestions therein contained, and a striking illustration of the truth of this forecast has lately come under the writer's notice. йe does not, however, think that the walls of our commercial Jericho will fall before the blast of German trumpets.
(Signed) J. W. JAMIESON,
Commercial Attaché.
Shanghae, February 3, 1905.
0
British firms
German firins
American firms
French firing
Other firms..
Total
Imports.
Exports.
Per cent.
Per cent.
52-91
57.14
13.27*
28.05
30-47
6-37
0.84
3.32
2.51
5.12
100 00
100.00
On the whole, therefore, we have no great reason to be dissatisfied, and it would appear that we have not yet been completely ousted by our German rivals.
As large quantities of British imports are handled by German firms, 50 per cent. of this amount might be credited to Great Britain.
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