CHINA
589
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Hk. Tls. 76,835,124 over 1913. It should be noted that this remarkable advance has taken place in spite of the practical elimination as an import of opium. which in 1913 represented a value of over 41 million taels and in 1919 figures for Tls. 246,000 only. Of the total, 647 million, cotton goods provided no less than 210 million; metals, 56.6; kerosene oil, 46.7; sugar, 35; cigarettes and cigars, 21.8; locomotives and railway cars, 15; machinery, 14; coal, 12.5; fish and fishery products, 11; paper, 10.2; and motor-cars, 2.1 million.
•
.
Exports.-The total value of exports abroad of Chinese merchandise in 1919 is given as Tls. 630,809,411, equivaent at 6s. 4d.- the average rate of exchange for the year to £199,756,331. In sterling this represents an advance of 55 per cent. over 1911, of 228 per cent. over the pre-war year 1913; in silver, of 30 per cent. over 1918, and 56 per cent. over 1913; and is far the highest figure recorded in the his- tory of the country. To a very considerable extent, no doubt, this remarkable in- crease is due to a general rise in prices, but by no means entirely-as .will be seen from the following comparison of the quantities of the 10 chief exports in 1913 and 1919:---
1919
Raw silk Seed oils...
...
...
Beancake
...
Beans
...
Wheat
...
Flour
...
Raw cotton Sesamum seed
1913
...
...
Piculs
149,000
165,000
...
""
1,287,000
4,433,000
...
11,818,000
20,725,000
...
""
10,325,000
15,119,000
...
...
...
...
""
1,848,000
4,453,000
...
...
119,000
2,694,000
...
...
...
...
739,000
1,072,000
+
***
...
2,035,000
2,838,000
...
...
...
Pieces
1,442,000
690,000
7,794,000
Tea
...
Goat skins
...
...
•
13,832,000
The returns for this division of trade show increase or recovery in all articles of any importance except tea and certain metals, the demand for which ceased with the signing of the Armistice. In other respects the table presents no unusual feature, unless it be the unprecedented exportation of cereals, including over a million piculs of rice, the embargo on which was removed in favour of Japan in order to meet serious shortage in that country caused by excessive exportation and the partial failure of the crop in 1918. Silk and its products remained by far the most valuable of China's exports, raw silk alone representing over 100 million taels. Next in order of value came seed oils, 46 million; beancake, 44 million; beans, 39 million; cereals (including flour), 36 million; raw cotton, 30 million; skins and hides, 26 million; seeds and seedcake, 25 million; eggs and egg albumen and yolk, 25 million; tea, 22 million; metals, 22 million; wool, 14 million; sugar, 9 inillion; frozen and preserved meats, 8 million; cotton goods, 7 million; coal, 7 million; straw braid, 7 million; tobacco, 7 million; cigarettes, 6 million; groundnuts, 6 million; lard, 4 million; bristles, 43 million; fibres, 4 million; china- ware, 3 million; grasscloth, 3 million.
Summary. The outstanding feature of the year's trade was the astonishing vitality of exports in face of heavy freight charges, high aud fluctuating exchange, slowness and irregularities of mails and cables, and, at times, lack of tonnage. This activity was, of course, largely due to exceptional conditions in Europe and America, and it would be rash to count on a continuance of the demand for China's products regardless of price. Successful efforts are being made to develop production in all parts of the world-notably in Africa-where the fluctuations in exchange and the heavy burden of inland taxation and poor transport facilities that handicap China are little, if at all, felt. To meet her future competitors on equal terms China must reform her present system of inland taxation and improve her internal transport. Her traders and producers will also do well to organise effec- tive measures to check adulteration-of which frequent complaint is heard on all sides.
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The extraordnary activity of the export trade, combined which the high tael exchange, reacted favourably on imports, which, but for the difficulties of all kinds experienced by manufacturers in Europe and America in meeting orders-for machinery especially-would have assumed much larger proportions. The increased interest taken by America in trade with the Far East was reflected in the frequent visits of her financiers and men of business, the establishment of two new powerful banking corporations-the Asia Banking Corporation and the Park-Union Bank,-with branches in all the principal trade centres, and the opening of a large
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