CHINA
A 5
The considerable reduction effective in the adverse balance of the merchandise trade account (vide above) was unexpectedly opportune in view of the fact that the Manchurian ports formerly contributed almost half of the export trade of the whole country. A formidable debit balance remains as usual, however, and how China has equalised her international account for so many years in face of the deficits shown in her visible trade accounts in the foregoing tables is a matter for serious conjecture. A country's international account being composed not only of her visible imports and exports of goods for which statistics are available, but also of her so-called invisible imports and exports for which accurate statistics are seldom available except for the larger governmental transactions, a nice balancing of debits and credits is largely a matter of estimate in any land. One thing is regarded as certain, however, and that is that any country showing a deficiency in her account must be prepared to equalise it by exports of treasure. In this connection, attention has already been drawn to the fact that China has now become an exporter instead of an importer of silver. From the gradual change exhibited by the statistics in this respect during the period of the trade depression, it certainly would appear that China is no longer able to continue her former large purchases of silver and may even be experiencing difficulty in balancing her international account other than by commencing to export part of her stocks of the metal, but, on the other hand, since the combined figures for the next export of treasure in the form of gold and silver during the year under review showed a decline in value of 35.6 million dollars compared with the figures of the previous year, it cannot be said that the treasure statistics offer any direct evidence that the country was feeling the strain of her yearly adverse merchandise trade balance more during 1933 than in 1932. Moreover, it is important to remember also that there have been other periods in her history when speculative sales of silver have caused considerable balances to appear in favour of the outward movements of this metal, and that there was a strong incentive to such sales during the year under review. (Šee Treasure and Exchange).
DIRECTION OF TRADE
The following table shows the direction of China's foreign trade for 1932 and 1933 and her balance of trade in merchandise with each of the countries listed for the year under review. The figures given in this table are, as usual, the net total values, that is to say, they record the sum of the imports less re-exports and the sum of the exports less re-imports.
The Direction of China's Foreign Trade
In thousands of Standard dollars (000 omitted)
NET IMPORTS.'
NET EXPORTS
1933.
COUNTRY.
1932.
St. $ per cent.
Australia
63,331 3.87
1933,
St. $ 85,726
per cent.
St. $
6.37
1,761
1932.
per cent.
0.23.
Belgium
21,343
1.31
28,201
2.10
4,298
0.56
1933. St. $ percent. Imports. Exports.
1,426 0.24 84,204 4,202 0.68
Excess of
Luxemburg
1,823
0.11
3,047 0.23
24,002 3,047
British India
101,797
6.23
72,206 5.37
33,559
4.37.
28,822
Canada
4.71 43,384
25,817
1.58
23,735 1.76
3,414
0.44
4,067
0.66
19,668
Cuba
41
50
41
0.01
63
0.01
18:
Denmark
416
0.03
703
0.05
2,239
0:29
2,182
0.36
Formosa
1,479
3,909
0.24
2,338
0.17
11,045
1.44
3,471-
0.57
1,133
France
23,962
0.47
23,595 1.76
35,549
4.63
32,213
5.27'
8,618
French Indo-China
81,323 4.98
Germany
111,576
6.83
Great Britain
184,905 11.31
75,254 107,653 153,557
5.59 3,914
0.51
3,992
0.65 71,262
8.00 11.41
46,477
6.06
20,783
3.40
86,869
58,525
7.62
48,723
7.96
104,834
Hongkong
90,030
Italy
21,542
5.51 1.32.
44,174 3.28
117,587
15.32
120,729
19.73
76,555
16,569 1.23
5,828
0.76
5,15+
0.81 11,415
Japan
227,149
13.90. 180,798 9.72
167,459
21.82
Korea
5,667
0.34
Macao
1,395 0.10,
95,800
16,66
31,998
30,951
4.03
17,641
2.88
16,2.16
4,152
0.25
2,141 0.16
3,652 0.48
4,012 0.65
1,871
Netherlands
13,609
1.83
10,674
0.79
17,157
1.71
12,167 1,99
C
1,493
Netherland India
New Zealand. Norway
Philippine Islands..
Russia and Siberia Siam
I
91,277
: 5.58
79,222
5.89
8,538
1.11
189 7,182
0.01
303 0.02
379
0.05
7,382 1.21 71,810
318 0.06
45
0.44
6,101 0.46
1,148
0.15
S.S. & F.M.S.
Sweden
Switzerland
6,910 4,981
0.42
3,722 0.23 4,058 24,852 1.52 21,935
37,987 62,150 3.80 61,992 4.61 6,023 0.78 19,026 1.16 14,209 1.06
13,107 0.92 12,430
0.30 1.63
9,973
1.80
331 0.05 5,414 0.89
5,770
4.95
5,911 0.97 16,024 5,823 0.95
1,386-
56,169
1.71
13,632 2.23
.577
354
0.05
342
0.05
12,088
".30
11,536 0.86
626
0.08
291
0.05
11,245
U.S. A.
418,192
25.59
Other Countries
296,101 22.01
93,383 12.17
113,065
18.48
'183,036
13,894
· 0.85
55,861 4.15 56,571
7.37.
53,771
8,79
2,091.
Total
1,634,727 100.50 1,345,567 100.00 767,535 100,00
611,828 100.00 733,739
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