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strong feeling was expressed. Nor is that a matter for sur- -prise, seeing that it is the high American price and that alone which keeps the ore on the market in Kuangtung at a figure which makes business with the Ministry impossible. It is difficult to see what justification there is for com pelling merchants to be at the expense of offering their wares to Mr. Watson in Liverpool when they know that Mr. Watson in New York will pay from £45 to 265 per ton more for the identical goods.
It is therefore again submitted that the only equitable solution of this matter is either to fix the British and American official prices by international agree- ment; in which event, owing to the cheapness of production, a figure considerably lower than the present American figure could probably be maintained; or to allow all and sun- -dry to ship to America without restriction until prices there are lowered by the law of supply and demand.
5.
Thus
It may be well to call attention to the important part played in this matter by the rapid rise in the sterling value of the dollar. To the miner, the Chinese middleman and the official tax-gatherer alike a dollar remains a dollar irrespective of its sterling value. while the price of wolframite on the local market has for two months past remained in the neighbourhood of $1,100 per ton, the merchant who is selling to a gold standard country has now to realise £12 per ton more on his cargo if he is to make the same profit as he would have made in the middle of June.
Herein lies one of the most exasperating effects of the "first offer" rule. The British merchant
buys his ore when exchange is at 38, 5d. $1. Instead of
being able to arrange all his financing on that basis, hẹ
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