Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 710

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CHINA

The vessels entered and cleared in 1908 were made up of 86,600 Steamers of 77,955,525 tons, and 121,005 Sailing Vessels of 6,035,764 tons; the latter including 4,947,272 Chinese Junk tonnage.

The gross coast trade in vessels of foreign build amounted to Tls. 456,148.581 outward, and Tls. 474,374,651 inward, the net native imports (that is goods not re-ex- ported) at the Treaty Ports being Tls. 178,544,248, and the exports to Treaty Ports Tls. 162,074,691.

The Imperial Maritime Customs revenue for the same year amounted to Haikwan Taels 32,901,895, and was derived from :-

Opium

Duty.

Import Export Coast T'de Duty. Duty. Duty. Foreign Tls.10,486,151 8,098,171 1,147,182 1,283,745 Native...... 1,196,711 2,514,745 709,423 538,471

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Opium T'nage Transit Lekin. Dues. Dues. 3,423,318 1,202,472 1,387,069 448,104 62,443 403,890

Totals

11,682,862 10,612,916 1,856,605 1,822,216 3,871,422 1,264,915 1,790,959 Mr. J. L. Chalmers, Acting Statistical Secretary to the Imperial Maritime Customs in his report on the Foreign Trade of China for 1908, says:

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General. The hope of a revival of foreign trade, which seemed to be justified on a review of the conditions prevailing in the beginning of 1908, was not realised. Depression reigned almost universally from the beginning of th year to its close. The continuous fall in the value of silver was discouraging to the import trade in general, and, in the already languid state of the market, it played an important part in the history of an unprofitable year. But the foreign trade has always had to reckon with the uncertainties of exchange, which when unfavourable to one branch of the trade is favourable to another, as shown by the record value of exports in 1908.

It will probably be right to recognise in the reduced surplus of imports over exports a natural and healthy effort to readjust expenditure to income. The vigorous condition of the export trade and the progress being made in the creation of manufacturing indust- ries are of the best augury for the future. Shanghai distributed to ports in 1908 350,000 piculs of cotton yarn from local mills, valued at Hk. Tls. 8,772,000, or some 88 per cent. more than in 1907, while the distribution to ports of Shanghai Mill flour was 753,180 piculs, valued at Hk. Tls. 2,717,000, or 38 per cent. more than in 1907. Hankow gives details of a great activity, especially in the production of iron and steel at the Hanyang Ironworks from Tayeh ore and of coal from the Pingsiang mines. There is no doubt that in the next few years China will make strides towards the position, as an industrial nation, for which she is destined by virtue of her natural resources and the character of her people, and to this end education as well as official encouragement should be directed. Too much is heard of adulteration, of watered cotton, slaty coal, and dirty wheat; and the splendid tea and silk trades are being endangered by the retention of primitive methods of production in the face of a formidable foreign competition. Railways have been to the front among public questions, but the actual progress made in construction has not been remarkable. So well is it now recognised that railways are necessary to the national growth that the desire to possess them outruns for the present the means of acquiring them, at least on such terms as are acceptable to patriotic and, perhaps, over-cautious Chinese. Foreign capital and professional supervision being, however, indispensable to effective railway development in China, it ought not to be difficult to secure this help on safe conditions. At Shanghai the total volume of trade was about the same as in 1907, but there was a marked difference in the proportions of foreign and native goods composing the total. In 1907 foreign imports amounted to Hk. Tls. 46,000,000, or about a third of the total, and in 1908 they fell to Hk. Tls. 35,000,000, or about a quarter of the whole. The same tendency is seen in Chekiang, where, with an increase in the total trade of 44 million taels, there is a fall- ing off in foreign imports of 1 million. Rice crops were good in this province and fair in the province of Fukien, where, however, there were losses of over a million taels in foreign imports and over 1 million taels in exports, balanced by a gain in native imports. Kwangtung suffered severely from floods in the North River in June, which are stated to have destroyed all crops on the river banks in six districts, and from typhoons in the autumn; but its trade, with that of Kwangsi, was, nevertheless, well maintained. In the net trade of all ports there was a fall in foreign imports from Ilk. Tls. 422,838,531 in 1907 to Hk. Tls. 396,261,991, in 1908. Net native imports at all ports. increased from Hk. Tls. 137,552,030 to Hk. Tls. 178,544,248. The entire exports, includ ing in their sum the total of native imports, rose from Hk. Tls. 391,050,384 to Hk. T.sl 438,735,094. The outstanding feature of the year's trade being the decline in foreign imports, it will be of interest to look more closely at the statistics bearing

on the