Directory_and_Chronicle_1939 — Page 382

A4

CHINA

no agreement being arrival at. The Dalai Lama visited. Peiping in 1921 and was received in audience by President Hsu Shih-chang.

FOREIGN TRADE IN 1937

VALUE OF TRADE

•

The value of the foreign trade of China for the years 1935, 1936 and 1937 is given in the following table:

21

VALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA, 1935-37

Bowls A

1935. Million $

1936.

Million $

1937. Million $

Net Imports Exports

Total

Excess of Imports

919

941

576

706

953 1.8387

...awcitat

1,495

1,647

1,791 X

343

235

115 A

megha

As will be seen from the above, the net value of the trade of China, import and export, expressed in terms of standard dollars, was for 1937 $1,791 million, as compared with $1,647 million during 1936. Imports rose from $941 million to $953 million, an increase of 1.3 per cent, while exports improved from $706 million to $838, or by 18.7 per cent. In this connexion it should be noted that, following the Government's monetary reforms of November 1935, the average equivalents of the gold unit was for the years 1936 and 1937 remained stable at $2.260 and $2.271, as compared with $1,866 for 1935, and that the increase in the dollar valuation of imports for 1937 over 1936 was therefore no longer due to a lower exchange value of the standard dollar but may be attributed entirely to an increase in the volume of imports. At the same time exports continued to enjoy the advantage of the comparatively lower dollar. The following table illustrates the adverse balance of trade in standard dollars during the past 28 years since 1910:·

VALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA LESS THE MANCHURIAN TRADE WITH ABROAD, 1910-37

Adverse Imports. Exports. Balance of

Year

Year.

Imports. Expor

Adverse Balance of

Trade.

Trade

Million $ Million

Million $

Million Million & Million $

&

1910.

649 503

146

1924..

1,389 878 511

1911.

650

482

168

1925.

1,242

876

366

1912..

644

485

159

1926.

1,473 934

539

1913...

788

523

265.

1927.

1,298

980

318

1914..

780 449

331

1928...

1,530 1,047

483

1915..

619

546

73.

1929.

1,620

1,070

550

1916.

678

612

66

1930.

1,723

944

779

1917.

697

570

127

1931.

2,002

915

1,087

1918..

707

587

120

1932.

1,524

569

955

1919.

785

739

46

1933.

1,345

612

733.

1920...

997 614

383

1934.

1,030

535

495

1921.

1,233 698

535

1935.

919

576

343

1922...

1,284

764

520

1936

941

706

235

1,251 868

383

1937.

953 838

115

1923.

■

Since the year 1931 the adverse balance of trade has been reduced from $1,087 million to $115 million. In other words, the percentage of Chinese exports to imports has risen from 45.70 per cent in 1931 to 87.93 per cent during the year under review. Furthermore, the adverse balance for the year, 1937, of $115 million may rightly be reduced by $29 million of export duty, which should he added to the outward statistics to obtain the true f.o.b. value of the export trade.