84 BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA were fighting each other, and price-cutting the larger and better known articles of German origin. They neglected the smaller German manufactures, and the British were able to show better results, but of course not so large a turnover.
A great deal has been said about the German merchant and manufacturer being more inclined to study and deliver the exact requirements of foreign markets than his British counterpart. This charge against the British manufacturer is for the most part wholly false, and in the writer's opinion. has its origin in the fact that Germany has at home a bigger house industry as opposed to our bigger factory industry. It can easily be seen that when a German toy- dealer was asked to supply 10,000 boxes of tin soldiers in khaki instead of scarlet unifoms, all he had to do was to buy khaki instead of scarlet paint, give out
BRITONS V. GERMANS IN CHINA 85
so much paint, and so many soldiers to each family round about, and deliver the goods as required. As opposed to this let us suppose that a Yorkshire manufacturer receives an order for 10,000 pieces Woollen Cloth with the stipulation that it is to be made four inches wider than before; very probably he would have to buy and instal new looms to make this extra width of cloth, and he would likely enough have to refer the order back with the information that he could not execute it unless given a very long time, and a very much higher price. This is undoubtedly the explanation of the bad reputation we have given ourselves. The writer has had many opportunities of putting new and strange requests before both British and German manufacturers, and cannot recollect a single instance in which a British manufacturer showed unwilling- ness to do all in his power and reason to meet
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