Directory_and_Chronicle_1941 — Page 631

FOOCHOW

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The greater part of the importation of this article was effected at Chuanchow, a district not self-supporting and usually supplied either direct from abroad or from Foochow when communications by water are normal. Imports from Chinese ports amounted to $19,464,081 as compared with $17,064,251 in the previous year. Cotton piece goods continued to be the chief contributor with importations of 23,781 quintals valued at $4,112,763, while wheat flour, cotton yarn, groundnut oil, and cigarettes were imported in increasing quantities. Total imports of native cotton yarn alone reached the unprecedented figures in 1939 of 16,942 quintals valued at $2,258,075 as compared with 10,604 quintals valued at $1,425,501 in 1938 and $715,244 in 1937, This figure reflects the great strides made in the expansion of the local cotton piece goods industry. Tea, which in the past had been the chief contributor towards the total value of the domestic import trade, dropped to the relatively insignificant figure of 5,585 quintals due to the continued hostilities, which prevented the arrival of large shipments of tea from tea-producing districts for firing, scenting, etc.

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The principal direct exports were tea, which declined from 38,357, quintals valued at $3.7 million in 1938 to 19,464 quintals valued at $1.8 million in 1939; timber piles, poles, and joists, which increased from nil to $136,130; paper, which increased to $339,064 from $21,759; and oranges, which reached the unprecedented weight of 5,124 quintals. The total value. of domestic exports increased from $16,867,174 in 1938 to $17,045,587, Timber alone contributed over 45 per cent of the total domestic export trade due to the great demand for reconstruction purposes in previously destroyed occupied areas. The other chief exports coastwise were paper, fruits, vegetables, tea, and sugar,

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The year under review was another unfortunate one for those connected with the tea trade. Although the value of tea exported through Foochow showed a not inconsiderable decline in comparison with the figures of the previous year, $1.787,840 against $3,679,959, tea continued to occupy first place in exports abroad and represented 38 per cent of the total value of export trade for the year 1939. Coastwise exports of this commodity also declined heavily from 69,424 quintals valued at $4.7 million in 1938 to 20,026, quintals yalued at $1.5 million. Numerous factors were in operation throughout the year to bring about this situation." Of these, there might be mentioned the institution of regulations governing foreign exchange, monopolistic provincial control of the trade, restrictions on the export of tea to occupied areas, the blockade of the port with its closing in June, and the total dislocation of normal. routes of transportation. The effects of the shifting of dealings in black tea to Hongkong in 1938 were also apparent, for, with the loss by Foochow of its position as a tea transaction centre, greater and greater portions of tea coming from different tea-producing districts which had formerly arrived at Foochow for settlement were diverted to Santuao for subsequent shipment to Hongkong. The decline registered in the tea trade naturally had disastrous repercussions on the jasmine growers, the price of the flower, the crop of which was heavy, falling off very considerably.

The number of vessels which entered and cleared under General Regulations was 468 with a tonnage of 701,876 tons as compared with 887 vessels aggregating 1,266,786 tons in the preceding year. Had the port not been closed to trade from June onwards there is little doubt that the total figures for the year's shipping would have been unprecedented. For the period during which the port remained open, Sharp Peak continued to be the anchorage for steamers. The Min River Conservancy Board's dredger was laid up throughout almost the entire year, and, as a consequence, the river is silting up in various places and creating new channels, rendering navigation even by launch and cargo-boat a hazardous undertaking

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