Directory_and_Chronicle_1941 — Page 702

A460

MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

in the latter half of the year resulting from foreign exchange control, embargo regulations on imports, lower purchasing power, the war in Europe, and the insuffici- ency of transport facilities, the total value of the trade of the port was approximately $6 million higher than in 1938.

The value statistics as recorded by the Customs were as follows: direct foreign imports, $21.9 million as compared with $11.5 million; coast wise importations of Chinese merchandise, $22.4 million as against $19.8 million; direct exportations to foreign countries, $34.9 million as against $40.7 million; and exportations coastwise of Chinese produce, $5,000 as against $1.1 million. The development of motor trans- port, the building of projected railways, and the expansion in construction work generally were the main factors responsible for the increase in the import trade. Thus the import of gasolene at 13 million litres was three times the figure for 1938, Yunnan having become the entrepôt for distribution to Chungking, Kweiyang, and other places in the interior. Following the rapid development of highways, the demand for motor vehicles and auto parts increased to an unprecedented scale; and the same reason, coupled with the crection of new factories, accounted for the increased importation of lubricating oil, the figures for 1938 and 1939 being 383,000 and 960,000 litres respective- ly. The trade in cigarettes, mostly of Hongkong origin, was abnormally brisk, the quantity accounted for being 266,000 mille-five times the import of the preceding year. Artificial indigo imports advanced in value from $315,000 to $796,000 and aniline dyes from $207,000 to $607,000, the main cause of the increase being the clos- ing of practically all other routes of importation from abroad. Among other foreign imports showing increases as compared with 1938 were medicines, drugs, etc., not otherwise recorded, valued at $1.08 million, machinery valued at $1.5 million, paper valued at $576,000, and cement at 81,888 quintals as compared with 58,412 quintals. In the coastwise import trade, cotton yarn declined in quantity from 104,324 to 87,566 quintals, due primarily to congestion on the Yunnan-Annam Railway, but cotton piece goods were valued at $6.3 million, showing an increased import of approximately 50 per cent,

Contrary to expectations, the year witnessed a considerable shrinkage in the export trade. With the exception of wood oil, medicinal substances, and antimony, the export abroad of the staple articles such as tin slabs, bristles, wolfram ore (tung- sten), and leather and hides mostly registered decreases, the principal cause being the enforcement in July of the Government's regulations governing the settlement of foreign exchange on native exports. The result was a temporary suspension in the exodus of Yunnan products. The export of tin slabs, the mainstay of the export trade of Yunnan, amounted to 69,863 quintals, a decrease of 22,741 quintals or about 25 per cent as compared with the previous year. This decline was due partly to Government control and in part to untimely rainfall in the Kokiu mining area which rendered the washing of the ore difficult. The London quotation, which continued to assume an upward trend, rising gradually from £212 per ton in January to £230 in August, soared to £268 early in December, but finally returned to £248 towards the close of the year. Of wolfram ore (tungsten), another staple export, the total quantity exported declined from 10,073 to 8,892 quintals. The demand for antimony regulus, mined in Southern Yunnan, was greatly augmented by the European War, exports rising in quantity from 3,472 quintals in 1938 to 4,309 quin4als. The export of wood oil from Yunnan to Hongkong was brisk, the total quantity amounting to 36,686 quintals as against 18,942 quintals in 1938, due largely to the diversion of Szechwan and Kweichow products from the Yangtze and Kwangtung ports to the Yunnanfu- Haiphong route on their way to foreign markets. The Trade Commission of the Ministry of Finance handled all the year's exports of wood oil to Hongkong, whence about 80 per cent was forwarded to the United States of America. Exports in bristles, mostly sent to the United States via Hongkong, declined from 4,654 to 2,443 quintals; the bulk of the year's shipments originating from Szechwan. In con- sequence of the increased arrivals of medicinal substances from Szechwan, the export of this commodity through Yunnanfu amounted to almost $1 million as against $317,000 in 1938. The port's coast wise export trade dwindled into insigni- ficance due to the disturbed conditions along the coast and the embargo on the export of certain goods to occupied areas.

1

Although Yunnan had considered self-supporting in respect of food supply in previous years, 15,522 quintals of rice of Indo-China origin were imported during 1939. This was due not so much to any decline in the production of native crops as to the influx of population, the depreciation of the national dollar, and difficulties of