Dlakava, mutta se va kuketish dramaja, kaīna
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BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA
matchless for the complexion) to lower their quality. which has been a standard for over 100 years, in order that he could make a little more profit on his sales. This is what it amounted to, and there is no doubt that the apparent inability of many British firms in China to obtain orders for Manchester manufacturers and their travel- lers is responsible to a great extent for the belief that the Germans were the smartest and most energetic business men in the East. There would be nothing to com- plain of one way or another if the Germans had not cut prices so absurdly, and dis- turbed the sound system of trading em- ployed by the British. Fair competition is a good stimulant in all trades, and for none more so than for our huge cloth trade on which so many persons in Lancashire and Yorkshire depend for their livelihood. But in spite of this dog-in-the-manger compe-
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BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA'
tition we have all along retained the pick of the trade. One does not hear so much, about a British firm quietly selling £20,000 of Calicos at a fair profit, as about a -Ger-. man firm selling £500 worth of. Faney. Shirtings at a huge loss in order to get talked about, but the result of the former transaction may be seen in steam yachts. on the Clyde, and of the latter in the final accounts which the liquidators of German firms in our Colonies will hand over to their
Governments..
That Manchester and Bradford mer- chants have failed to open their own offices in China and trade direct with the native is in no way a reflection on their enterprise. There are many objections to such a proced- ing becoming general, and it has only been done in a few cases with satisfactory results.
We shall no doubt still be told that manufacturers should study the require-
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