Directory_and_Chronicle_1935 — Page 393

CHINA

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and closed at Francs 5.46; and on Yokohama, it opened at Yen 0.931 and closed at Yen 1.08 It will be seen that the widest range for the year in any of these exchange rates was between the Standard dollar and the depreciated United States dollar, this being easily understandable with the London-New York cross-rate opening at U.S. $3.34 3/16 and closing at U.S. $5.15, after having risen to over U.S. $5.50 to the pound sterling on several occasions.

THE SUMMING-UP

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In his summing-up on the conditions of trade in 1933, Mr. MacEwan writes:- Two main points emerged regarding the trade of China during 1933. One was the unexpectedly encouraging nature of the statistical findings from the national standpoint for it was shown that, even without the help of the figures for the former vast outward shipments from Manchuria and the Kwantung Leased Territory, reduction of 222 million dollars has been effected in the country's adverse balance of trade during the year under review, and that the value of the nation's export trade improved by 43 million dollars in comparison with the figures (excluding Manchuria) for the previous year. The other was that while the survey revealed net results that must be regarded as economically satisfactory to the country as a whole, it also dis- closed the fact that part of the export trade was conducted along lines that must have proved unremunerative to the actual producers, and that this aspect of the situation was having a somewhat disquieting effect on commerce and industry. With regard to this second point, however, it would seem well to remember that the years of the great depression have been extremely difficult ones for agriculture and for all industrial undertakings, large or small, long established or newly established, in every land: so difficult, indeed, that output has had to be restricted, in some cases by legislative measures, and in all countries a "state of emergency" has had to be declared, so to speak, in the whole field of agriculture and industry. Bearing in mind then, that the difficulties of the existing economic situation are not peculiar to China, it seems quite possible that unnecessary alarm has been aroused by the present state of agricultural affairs in this country. Few indeed are the manufacturing concerns of agricultural communities throughout the world that can lay claim to profits made during the past few years, and surely none have escaped the painful process of readjusting costs to present selling prices. While the year under review saw a con- tinuation of industrial expansion in China despite the universally unpropitous conditions, admittedly it was a critical period for some of the major manufacturing industries, owing to the loss of the Manchurian and the Jehol markets, and to the fact that the prices even of domestic fabrications were beyond the purse of the mainly rural population of the country, on account of the poor monetary returns recently received by them from their agricultural labours. With the exception of the Jehol- Manchurian situation, however, the experiences of this country, as has been stated, are almost exactly paralleled by those of the rest of the world at the present time, and, as no nation surpasses this country in business acumen or power of recovery, it is not likely that the lessons of the depression will be lost to Chinese industries or that these industries will fail to emerge successfully from present adversity to eventual prosperity. There is evidence in plenty of the determination of some of the leading export products to keep their hold on the markets of the world even in face of the poor prices offering, and, with world commodity price-indices beginning to show a rise for minerals, textiles, and even cereals, there should be little doubt about the eventual outcome. Chinese silk, a luxury article during the depression, is still being sold to foreign countries to a value of nearly 58 million dollars; cotton yarn, after supplying home needs, is now sold abroad to a value of 40 million dollars; while, in the agricultural and mining districts, many products such as tea, wood oil, raw cotton, ores and metals, bristles, hides, skins, wool, and almost all classifications of oil seeds, left the country in considerably increased quantities during 1933. Meanwhile, to complete the parallel drawn between the case of China and that of other countries, Government intervention in matters concerning trade and industry was a pronounced feature of the year. A still stronger protective tariff was imposed on imports into this country in May, behind which barrier the domestic production of cotton goods, chemicals, dyes, and other com- modities now subject to a heavy duty handicap on import from abroad, should con- tinue to expand, and in other ways the Government continued its efforts through the National Economic Council, and with the invited help of experts from the League of Nations, to foster agriculture, sericulture, and the development of domestic manufɛe-