Directory_and_Chronicle_1915 — Page 745

746

CHINA

579,448,851, and showing an increase of 123 million taels, of which 98 million is assignable to foreign imports and the remainder to exports.

"Revenue. The total collection was Hk. Taels 43,969,853, showing, as compared with the collection of 1912, an increase of Hk. Taels 4,019,240, and as compared with that of 1911-also a record year-an increase of Hk. Taels 7,790,000. Thus the two years have seen a rise in Customs revenue of over 21 per cent.

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Foreign Trade.-The value of the direct foreign trade was Hk. Taels 973,468,103, exceeding the total of 1912 by Hk. Taels 129,850,669. Net foreign imports amounted Hk. Taels 570,162,557, increasing by Hk. Taels 97,065,526, and exports to Hk. Taels 403,305,546, increasing by Hk. Taels 32,785,143.

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"The position of Hongkong as a transhipping port between China and the countries with which she trades has recently received some attention in the local Press, and it may be well to point out again, in the words of the Report for 1996, that the discovery of the true producing and consuming countries for the foreign trade of China is impeded by the intervention of various shipping ports, the application of the principles of extraterritori- ality making it difficult, if not impossible, for the Customs to go behind the documents showing the ports of actual shipment and actual consignment, and quite impossible to obtain trustworthy and uniform statistics of the countries of origin of China's imports and the real destination of exports of her produce.' Hence it is inevitable that a large proportion (in 1913 it was over 29 per cent.) of the foreign trade should be credited to Hongkong, and it is possible that an unwary student of the figures may make the mistake of classing the whole of this trade as British, though it is nowhere so classed in the statistics. Imports. The net quantity of foreign opium imported, that is, released from bond on payment of duty and likin, was 18,138 piculs, showing, as compared with the importa tions of 1912, a decrease of 3,792 piculs. At the end of 1912, in consequence of the anti- opium measures adopted in China, the trade in opium had come to a standstill, the price of the drug had fallen heavily, and in view of the uncertainty of the situation the large stocks were causing anxiety. About the 1st March, 1913, however, a change came over the market, stocks began to pass rapidly into consumption, and prices rose from that date until, at the end of the year, they stood 100 to 130 per cent. higher than a year before. This result directly followed the suspension of auction sales by the Indian Government. Only 2,760 chests of Malwa were certificated for export to China in 1913, as against the 16,580 chests of Malwa and Bengal opium contemplated by agree- ments, while it is announced that no certificated opium of any description will be offered for sale in 1911. The stocks of all kinds of foreign opium not passed for consumption at the end of the year may be put down at 14,529 chests, of which 9,9183 chests were in bond at treaty ports, chiefly at Shanghai, and 4,580 chests were reported as the balance at Hongkong 1,000 chests may be added to represent opium en route and duty-paid opium in dealers' hands, making the total 15,529 chests, which at the present rate should be worked off well within the current year at prices which may be expected to go on increas ing as the stock dwindles. By the end of 1914, therefore, since there are to be no consign- ments from India during the year, the trade in Indian opium will have come to an end, or to a halt, from exhaustion of the supply.

"The Hongkong Government has decided to discontinue the long-standing system by which the right to boil opium in Hongkong was leased to a farmer, and to constitute the trade a monopoly under its own control as from the 1st March, 1914.

"The moderate importations of cotton goods and reduction of stocks throughout the country in 1912 prepared the way for great activity in this branch of trade in 1913, when the total value of cottons imported reached the record figure of 182 million taels, exceed- ing even the total of 1905 by about a million taels, and that of 1912 by 33 million taels. The principal descriptions of plain cottons, namely, grey and white shirtings, sheeting drills, jeans, and T-cloths, have been imported in the past five years in the following quantities:-

British American.. Japanese

1909 pieces 10,691,448

1913

1910

1911

1912

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3,856,231 1,396,297 133.855

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147,952

6,511,126 11,317,630 9,618,386 11,705,426 1,385,819 1,988,061 1,930,836 2,281,123 2,389,693 2,832,625 3,043,747 5,716,594

21,935 26,807

40,054

Indian

Total.....

16,077,831 10,431,590 16,160,251 14,619,776 19,743,197 "The total for 1913 is the highest since 1906. The leading varieties of fancy piece goods show proportionate advance, the combined increase under cotton italians plain and figured, chintzes and plain cotton prints, and turkey red cottons being 1,825,000 pieces, valued at more than 7 million taels.