20
trade in which China plays no part is not less than
20 million dollars greater than the portion
exclusively Chinese.
10. We have seen that the inter-Chinese trade
At a guess we may put the
cannot exceed $14,050,000.
actual figure at $10,000,000. Then the wholly non- Chinese trade would be $30,000,000 and the trade which
consists of an exchange between China and the rest of the world, via. Hong Kong, would be $74,000,000. Broadly 2/3 of Hong Kong's visible trade is as
intermediary between China and the outer world, 25 por
cent as intermediary between non-Chinese countries,
and
rather less than 9% as intermediary between one
part of China and another.
11.
The importance from the currency point of
view is obvious. In so far as Hong Kong is
intermediary between China and the (gold-using) rest of
the world, an exchange between gold and silver has got
to be made at some stage; whether the fence is climbed
this side of Hong Kong or the other seems immaterial.
For the inter-Chinese trade it is simpler for Hong Kong
to be on silver, so avoiding a double gola-silver
exchange, but for the more important non-Chinese trade,
it is, for a similar reason, desirable that Hong Song
should be on gold.
exact;
The figures deduced here are by no means
they are based on 3 months' statistics only and
the fact that Hong Kong's trade is not wholly an
entrepot trade, has in the main been ignored. Also
it has not been possible to take into account "invisible"
exports
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