Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 772

CILINA

679

In connection with the remark that in 1899 the influence of railways began to be felt, it may be pointed out that in 1898 the sterling value of the export trade showed an increase since 1880 of only about £350,000, while the next 15 years saw a further increase of £38,000,000-an increase that would have been larger but for the Revolution of 1911 and the rebellion of 1913. A great proportion of the exports from China are of a bulky and inexpensive character, and an increase in the trade is dependent upon improvement in transport. Under the conditions generally prevailing the difficulties and cost of transport limit production to the needs of circumscribed areas, and it is only when new country is opened up, by the opportunities offered by a new port or by the coming of a railway, that producers find it profitable to extend their operations. To meet the national obligations an increase in exports is absolutely necessary, and it is encouraging to see that such increase may be confidently anticipated to follow the development of the railway system. At the same time it is a most unfortunate circumstance that a condition of exchange favourable to imports is unfavourable to exports, so that the difficulty of disposing of produce for export, of which the gold price has risen with exchange, reduces the purchasing capacity of the producer aud tends to check imports. Owing to the distance of China from European markets, involving higher freights, and to a fiscal system that not only imposes export duties but also internal taxation on goods in transit, Chinese products can only enter into competition with the West when exchange is favourable and lowers the gold price or when a shortage in other quarters has sent up prices abroad.

The table of imports is curiously illustrative of the conditions prevailing in the country and of what the trade really means. The Chinese are now, assuming the population to amount to 400 millions, purchasing foreign products to the value of about 3s. 9d. per head per annum. Of this not very extravagant expenditure about 1s. 3d. is spent on cotton goods, leaving 2s. 6d. to be judiciously laid out on necessaries, such as metals, coal, kerosene, matches, rice, and sugar, or to be squandered on such bixuries as birds' nests, cigarettes, opium, soap, and elephants' teeth. The tentative adoption of Western culture is to be traced in the importation of railway plant, electrical materials, telegraph and telephone appliances.' machinery for various purposes, printing and lithographic materials, and paper; while the craving for personal adornment, nor always wisely directed, finds satisfaction in the purchase of foreign hats, shoes, and clothing, haberdashery, hosiery, lace and trimmings, looking-glasses, perfumery and cosmetics, and ani ine dyes. The houses of the wealthy are now maile bright with window glass and kerosene lamps, furnished with clocks, enamelled-ware and gramo- phones, and made beautiful with elegant drawing room suites and radiant carpets. But for centuries the Chinese have found their own products sufficient for their needs, and the sluggish advance in the importation of foreign goods is due to the fact that a demand has to be generated by introducing novelties to potential purchasers and arousing their interests and widening their wants-a very slow process in a country where the means of communication are so defective. When, however, the Chinese are offered an article that fills a want and is easily disposed of the demand for it in- creases by leaps and bounds. The table that follows will show what is meant, the blank spaces being understood to mean, not that there was no import, but that it had not attained sufficient importance to be separately recorded:-

1890

1900

1910

1913

1914

Hk. Tls. 45,020,302 75,606,360 130,682,634 182,419,023 178,259,045 6,872,084 9,178,452 18,907,802 28,973,156 28,420,632

15

Cotton Goods

Metals and Minerals .....

Candles...

59,878

356,110

Cigarettes

11

16,690

1,011,653

949,464 579,787 808,687 6,902,246 12,589,300 13,321,616

Coal

Tons

306,027

864,158

Condensed Milk in tins Dozens

37,283

112,194

Dyes, Aniline

Hk. Tls.

889,619

1,696,628

1,443,896 325,397 2,718,438

1,690,892

1,600,954

Electrical Materials

Flour

17

Kerosene

Galis.

Leather

Ficuls

Matches...

Gro-s

483,720 5,401,820 17,091 118,216 1,387,267 2,322,339 2,726,394 775,548 3,329,868 3,444,407 10,300,612 9,015,310 30,828,724 83,580,024 161,389,583 183,984,052 225,464,201

7,716 14,815 59,926 109,295 4,146,895 9,274,108 24,727,231

522,584

3,250,305

91,056 28,448,155 20,408,313

Needles

Mille

2,286,748 2,813,980

5,117,586

4,929,710 2,466,182

Rice Soap Sugar. Timber

Pic Is

7,574,257

6,207,226

9,409,594

5,414,896

6,774,266

Hk. Tls.

193,309

753,289

1,884 658

2,684,511 2,529,972

Piculs Hk. Tls.

209,121

1,291,289

4,311,328

834,148 1,034,567

4,266,033

7,111,728 6,080,484

5,111,497 6,251,781