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XIX.-Trade.
The number of foreign firms in China are-
British
American
French
German
Russian
Japanuse
1903.
1913.
1919.
420
590
644
114
131
814
JÚG
171
71
159
296
2
24 361
1,229
1.760
1.269
4,878
(N.B. The Russian and Japanese figures include many so-called "firms,"
which are merely small retail shops.)
The total value of the trade between China, the British Empire, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom is shown in Appendices X and XI. In 1919 the figures
were
British Empire
Hong Kong
United Kingdom
Taels.
488,004,000
285,126,000
121,478,000
£ 154,534,000
The trade with the United Kingdom being divided between--
Imports from United Kingdom... Exports to United Kingdom
Taels.
64,292,000 57,186,000
90.289,000
38,466,000
20,358,000 18,108,000
Appendix X shows the percentage of shares during recent years of the British Empire, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and our chief competitors in the trade of China.
Appendices II and III give the Department of Overseas Trade list of 18 British general merchant firms in Hong Kong and 115 British firms in China, of The great firms, which 70 are in Shanghai, 13 in Tien-tsin and 11 in Hankow. which are to be found throughout the treaty ports, are Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co., Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, the Asiatic Petroleum Company, the British American Tobacco Company.
The most important British import is cotton goods. The official trade report for 1919 states on expert authority :-
"The British piece-goods trade has definitely and completely re-established itself in China-probably more promptly and thoroughly than anybody in Lancashire or China ever hoped. Japanese and American competition need to be watched, but are not insurmountable difficulties. Neither of them can supplant us altogether, nor we them, because of the varied styles of cloth which we all produce, and the possible development of China's riches will mean that there will be scope for all. Japanese competition is more to be feared than American. because their Government recognises that they must keep on the China market or cease to exist as a great commercial country."
Other important imports from the United Kingdom are iron and steel, and machinery and in all of these the United States of America is a most formidable competitor. The following have been the other principal imports from the United Kingdom; cigarettes, woollen piece-goods, soap, haberdashery, stationery, scientific instruments, explosives, bicycles, motor-cars and cycles, books, paper, furniture. indiarubber goods, hand tools, shoes and boots, leather manufactures, dyes, plate glass and spirits. The principal exports to the United Kingdom were tea, furs, hair and feathers, beans and bean products, vegetable tallow and wax, silk, wool, jute, animal tallows, poultry, game and egg products.
The apparently commanding position of the British Empire in the China trade must be qualified by the consideration that nearly two-thirds of this trade is trade with Hong Kong. Much of the Hong Kong trade is transit trade merely (for instance, the large trade in rice from Indo-China into South China), and cannot be
regarded in any way as British trade. It must be realised therefore that both in exports and imports, China's principal customer is henceforth Japan; that the British Empire comes second, with the United States of America third. The alarm- ing German competition has for the time being, at any rate, been completely swept away: and the Russian and French trades are concerned mainly with tea and raw
ilk respectively, and do not compete with us.
XX-Newspapers.
The list in Appendix XII shows twenty-one British newspapers in China and Hong Kong, of which four are in Hong Kong, eleven in Shanghai, five in Tien-tsin, and one in Hankow.
XXI-Missions.
Apart from religious considerations, the value to the British Empire of the national influence and propaganda which British missionaries carry into the remotest corners of China should not be underestimated. The list given in Appendix XIII, taken from the "Directory of Protestant Missions, 1919," shows the wide dispersion of British missionary work. According to this list, the total staffs in residence in China of purely British missionaries number 1.658; and the staff of the China Inland Mission, which is an international organisation, numbers 680 Thirty different British missionary societies are comprised in this list.
But undoubtedly America holds the first place in missionary, as in educational work in China. According to a United States of America official publication. Protestant mission-workers in China number 5,338, of whom 2,309, or about 43 per cent, are American. Out of gold $7,500,000 spent yearly in mission work in China, North America provides $3,750,000,
Catholic missionaries have claimed the right to "lease and buy land, and build houses in any of the provinces" by virtue of a clause appearing in the Chinese text of the French Treaty of 1860. It was not until the American Commercial Treaty of 1903 was signed that Protestant missions were definitely given the right "to rent and to lease in perpetuity buildings or lands in all parts of the empire."
XXII-Educational.
Closely connected with the missions is educational work. The following figures, though old, are not without interest :-
1876
1899
1906
1917
Year.
Total Number of Pupils in Mission Schools.
American British Continental Percentage. Percentage. Percentage.
5,917
52
37
16,826
58
36
11 6
57,683
50
42
151,000
?
According to "China Year Book."
ཡང་ 1 སྶ
Sir J. Jordan, in his despatch No. 348 of the 23rd July, 1918, states that fully 70 per cent, of the whole foreign education of China is at present in American hands. The whole effort, he notes, is practically sustained by missionary associations, and the Americans can always count on receiving money for any new enterprise they may think desirable, whereas in British missions the eternal want of pence hampers all their efforts. The report on British education in China made by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce in 1918, see Appendix XIV, states
FL
There are under American control in China 7 universities, 15 colleges, 140 middle or secondary schools. In addition, the Y.M.C.A., an Americau organisation, directs ten ordinary schools, four or five medical schools, as well as special schools for theology, agriculture, &c. The number of American men and women employed in these schools is 523. British missionary societies have established about fifty schools, but these are for the most part starved for lack of funds. There are no British institutions, except the recently founded Hong Kong University, which confer degrees."
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