134
THE HONKGONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
August 19, 1896:
THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI | gross imposition. When the Chinese Tele- turers have begun to realise and
BANK MEETING.
The half-yearly meeting of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank is always looked for- ward to as an occasion of interest, not only by the shareholders in that prosperous institu- tion, but also by the commercial public, who are so largely dependent upon the Bank for financial facilities. As Mr. GILLIES aptly put it in seconding the adoption of the report, credit is the life breath of industry, and in this colony that life-breath comes in great part from the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. And, for tunately, the Bank is in a position to extend credit liberally, for although the réduction in the rates of interest on
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deposits has caused some diminution both in gold and silver deposits, the Bank still has to complain of having too much money rather than too little for its requirements. From the depositor's point of view cheapness of, money may be the reverse of satisfactory, but it means extension of trade and industry, though the margin of profit in many cases has a ten- deney to contract in sympathy with the decline in the rate of interest. That the latter will before long show a further decline there can, we think, be little doubt, for, as Mr. MCCONACHIE, the Chairman, said at Saturday's meeting, the tendency of a long continuance of very cheap money in Europe will be to turn attention to other fields. China and Japan have been brought very prominently before the world in late years, "and the consequence is that the profitable "seclusion we formerly enjoyed is being sadly interfered with." The phrase "pro- fitable seclusion" is a neat one; it expresses a state of things that is passing away, and which is no doubt regretted by many others as well as the Bank. Competition in all departments of business promises to become keener and keener with consequent diminution of profits. Mr. McCoNACHE, however, is of opinion that the Bank will hold its own no matter what competition inay come its way, and it is in the same spirit that others must face the changing circumstances, under which they will have to work against strong opposition instead of enjoying semi-monopolies in profitable seclusion." But interference with the “profitable seclusion " formerly enjoyed by the China merchants has been going on ever since the Suez Canal and the telegraph cables revolutionised the condi- tions of trade; the process seems at present to be receiving a fresh impetus, but the process itself is not new, nor is it a subject for regret from a public point of view, not withstanding that many particular interests may be adversely affected. Fewer fortunes are made now than formerly, but for the community as a whole life in the Far East, and especially in such centres as Hong- kong and Shanghai, has become better worth living than it used to be; and as the present is superior to the past we have no doubt the future will be superior to the present, notwithstanding the continued loss of our profitable seclusion.
THE INCREASE IN CABLE RATES.
the
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graph Administration fixed 82 a word as advantage of their opportunit their rate for messages to Europe the Cable now establishing considerable trade. Companies took messages at the same rate, According to official figu
which we abandoning the charge for difference in reproduce in another column from u Saigon exchange which they had formerly made, contemporary, the French and on that basis they have continued to trade of that port during show handsome earnings and have paid hand- months of this year was 64 per nt as some dividends. Now, however, the competi- against only 21 per cent. in the corre tion of the Chinese lines has been reduced by sponding four months of 1895. France is a readjustment of the rate of exchange at now sending out piece goods in large quan- which it has to pay for the transmission of tities and in unbleached goods in particular telegrams beyond its own system, and the seems to be altogether ousting the foreign Cable Companies have promptly taken article. All this is no doubt highly satis- advantage of the situation to once more factory from the French manufacturers raise their rates, giving as their excuse for point of view, but the unfortunate natives doing so, not the true reason, namely, the of Cochin-China are heavily and most "cornering." of the Chinese telegraphs, but unjustly mulcted in order to bring about the fictitious reason of the continued de- such a state of affairs: either they must go preciation of silver. As the Chamber of without foreign goods which they were Commerce forcibly points out, the price of formerly in the habit of using or they silver, so far from having declined, has pay an exorbitant price for them- The advanced from 1/11 .. in February, British Consul at Saigon in his report for 1895, to 2/21 at the present moment, a rise last year says- The tariff established in of some 14 per cent. Moreover, the de- "1887 has never ceased to cause complaints preciation of silver in 1895 did not prevent "by local merchants; it is stated that in the Companies from reducing the telegraphic" eight years imports have fallen from rate to Europe from $2.30 to $2.00 per f. 120,000,000 to f. 37,000,000, and that word. The depreciation of silver must "the number of patentes' in Saigon and therefore be set down as a contemptible" Cholon have diminished fifty per cent." subterfuge. The Companies enjoy practi- Such is the price that has to be paid for the cally a monopoly, and they are evidently fostering of French trade. The high duties determined to squeeze all they can out are not imposed, as in protectionist coun- of it. The prospect of their reconsidering tries, in the interests of local industry, their action will, we fear, be a remote one, but are simply a form of levying until they are assailed by competition from tribute on the natives for the benefit some new quarter. The foreign mercantile of manufacturers in France. Our French communities of the Far East are, unfor friends regard with extreme jealousy tunately, helpless in the matter, but it is England's colonising energy and say we possible that in the course of a few years want the earth" To that we can only action may be taken by the Japanese Gov-reply that it would be a very good thing for ernment that will afford some relief. When all parties, from a commercial point of view, the Pacific cable from America to Australia if we had what we are accused of wanting, becomes au accomplished fact Japan will for then there would be no restrictions on no doubt establish connection with it trade; whereas France's avowed object in via Hawaii. The exorbitant charges for colonising is to oust foreign trade, and in telegrams to Europe and America now im- particular British trade, no matter whether posed must constitute an appreciable handi- she can establish trade of her own or not. cap to Japan's commercial and industrial development and the Mikado's Govern- ment will be compelled to take what steps it cau to secure for Japanese trade the benefits of telegraphic facilities at rea- sonable rates; and in those benefits foreign merchants in China and Japan would share. It is rather humiliating that in a British colony we should have to look to a foreign Government for relief against an oppres- sive monopoly in which a great British Company is the chief partner; but that Company unfortunately does not seem to realize that its monopoly carries with it corresponding responsibilities. The result of its shortsighted policy must inevitably be to invite opposition, and the opposition, when it comes, will be a strong one.
The vigorous protest made by the Hong- kong General Chamber of Commerce against the increase in the charges for cable mes- sages is fully justified by the circumstances of the case and will be heartily endorsed by the public. Cheap telegraphy is one of the great desiderata of modern commerce and a sudden increase of 37 per cent. in the rates, made without any sufficient reason, is a
THE DIFFERENTIAL TARIFF IN INDO-CHINA AND FRENCH TRADE.
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. A thoughtful and well reasoned article on crime and punishment is contributed by
Mr. H. B. SIMPSON to the last number of the Contemporary Review. The problem of how to deal with criminals has engaged much attention in Hongkong, and although the local conditions are so widely different from those prevailing in England Mr. SIMPSON'S conclusions are in principle equally or even more applicable here than they are at home. The first portion of the article is. devoted to a refutal of the fanciful theories of the Lombroso school. It is not, says Mr. SIMPSON, moral monsters or degenerates that English legislators and administrators have to consider, but men whose passions are a little stronger, whose wills are a little weaker than those of their respectable fellow-citizens; men who would have been - respectable citizens themselves if it had been The differential tariff established in Indo- a little easier for them; who are criminals, China appears now to be producing the not because they have been guided effect for which it was intended, namely, at the start by directly criminal that of encouraging French trade and keep-dencies or any anti-social instincts, but ing out foreign goods.. For a long time the simply because they have yield only effect was to eripple trade in general, or too readily to motives which French manufacturers being unable until confess and most of us have at times recently to compete with foreign goods to. Born criminals there are, but they notwithstanding the advantages afforded comparatively fare, and it is not v them by the tariff, and the only immediate ence to them that the general trea result was to cause a large decline in im- criminals must be determined. ports, the high duties charged rendering ment, it seems,
says Mr foreign piece goods too expensive for native can prevent crime by consumption on the same scale as formerly, forming, or by coe Gradually, however, the French manufic-deterring others,... or
cing
Ided
we hove
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