*July 29, 1897.]
CHINA OVERLANTRADE REPORT.
95
expended seems to hayeen recovered, with a 6,000 picule a year used in the towns, villages trifle more.
(6.) Re-exports. remarks,
GST TRADE.
(a.) Original ipments Coastwise and (b.) Reshipments twise do not call for special notice.
Chinese prices. The business is being very keenly pushed by the Californian milling people, they being the ones who, for American reasons, profit least by the European rise. Matches, which are made locally, and badly, in several places in the district, notably about Fatahan. tend to drive foreign matches down in, and perhaps out of, the market. On the other
(0) Cogise Arrivals. -The one feature hand, that imported matches can and do go in worthy ofecial note is the large import of to the interior with the privileges of a beans areas from the northern ports. Of transit pass, which the native articles cannot course ring the Japaneses occupation of get, is a great advantage to the foreign, Mancia the farmers had not the inclination, mainly Japanese, articles. Kerosene oil has ever they were in the position, to do much; enormously advanced. To it also the transit bu 1895 they returned and good crops were Pass system has done a good turn, for by this paced, perhaps as the result of a year's means much of the oil arriving here now goes ow. This caused a large export to southern up the North and West Rivers, and it is prob- orts and an import here greater than needed. able that increased quantities will be sent in the he result was low price and loss to the dealers. future. The duty on an increased import is,
sene used in the
INLAND TRANSIT,
and country in this province, most of it about Canton. There are even indications that it may be exported for morphia manufacture, for it is said to be as rich in the narcotio alkaloids as Turkish or Indian.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The
The condition of the province is in no sense satisfactory. Brigandage, piracy, and robbery are rife, even in the city and suburbs; and such offences go unpunished in many cases finances are in a very depressed condition, due principally to the demands made for interest and principal of loans connected with tile Japanese indemnity, and the officials respon sible for the finance, especially when they see the West River likin slipping away and the transit pass everywhere asserting itself, are getting near their wits' end. It is for them
a
however, hereafter more likely to swell the re- (a.) Inwards. During the year the transit ceipts of the new Samshui and Wuchow Custorquestion has been forced on the local authorities Houses quan of this office. Most of the ker with considerable vigour by the Acting British comes by junk, and Consul. In consequence, the right of foreign trade is in the hands of asyarts waren, in goods, to claim transit pass pinibges so now return for a monopoly, guarantees $160,000 & admitted and the passes are coming to be res year as likin on all that passes under their pected in the interior. The position is so clearly cognizance-in other words, all that comes in.
defined that during 1897 a considerable transit 10.) Exports.-These may be for convenience | business is very likely to be done in the Kwang for its service have been regularly met and
provinces. In 1896, 86 passes, cov ring over Hk. Tls. 50,000 worth of goods, were taken out. (b.) Outwards. No outward passes were issued, though I understand the matter is under discussion. There seems to be a hitch over the question of making applicable to this port the Chinkiang rules as they are or with modification. No Chinese has so far applied for a transit pass here.
SHIPPING.
The year's figures "beat the record.” Though sailing vessels appear occasionally and are entered in our returus as such, they are always towed here from Hongkong by steam-lanches for a ship sailing to this port is, I may say, nowadays unknown.
PASSENGER TRAFFIC.
Passenger traffic does not grow as one would expect. Nearly 80,000 fewer Chinese travelled between here, Hongkong, and Macao than in 1895. The rates are very high, being over a cent a mile for natives, unless they are pre- pared to take such comfort as can be got by spreading their mats on the steamer's lower deck, where they are carried for half as much. As to the foreigner, he pays more to be carried leisurely to Hongkong than he would pay to cross the Irish Sea-a greater distance-in an express steamer.
TREASURE.
There is a marked advance in the export, which is double the average of the past few years. As the province has to remit some two millions of tuels for the service of
divided into three classes; silk, principally for the Continent of Europe; tea, entirely for London; and general cargo, the bulk of which goes to America. In silk the principal features to note are the generally lower prices than those prevailing at the end of 1895; the abstention from the market of buyers for the United States until the time when the Presidential election was assumed to have settled the fiscal and currency policy of the nation; the frequent and sudden fluctuations in prices, which made time purchases risky and in most cases unrema nerative. The year's crop is reported to have been small, but in consequence of old stocks having been drawn upon, the season's differing from the year's-export was somewhat in- creased. It is said not to have been a profitable period for the Chinese. The merchant to whom I referred for information regarding tea de- scribes it as "sorry" trade, and as the export is annually diminishing, as the demand is limited to the requirements of a very few people, and as the profits barely pay charges and commissions, it is no wonder the tes business attracts no new votaries and discourages the old traders. The quality of the first crop was poor, but the later yields improved as the season went on. Fashion in England and taxation in China (which of course presses heavily on the lower grades) are the reasons given why Canton tea, which is as good in the main and of its kind as it ever was, is gradually disappearing as an article of commerce. The export shown in our returns, particularly the comparative table, is calculated to mislead: very little tea goes by steamer. The practice here among foreign- the recent loans and thereby adds so much to ers is to buy tea f.o.b. ship in Hongkong, the outgoing funds, it may be that this accounts The Chinese sellers find it cheapest to send it for some of the increase, especially as probably alongside the vessel by junk from here, in the financing of such business has not yet been that way saving in freight and transhipment settled and is conducted in the crude form of charges, and perhaps duty. Regarding mis- silver shipments. The mint is continuing its cellaneous exports, I may say briefly that Cassia work and is now turning out cash as well as products were of poor quality and high priced. silver coin. In 1896 it produced more dollars Matting shows a record export, especially and less subsidiary coin. to America; this is one of the articles against chopped, defaced, and deformed, and simply The subsidiary which the United States is for some reason accepted at bullion value. calling for "protection." It is proposed to fix coinage seems to meet a want, and a good deal the duty at 7 gold cents per square yard- of small business is done in cents instead of which would be equal to about the actual cost cash. Unfortunately, there are many unofficial of production, with a probable effect on the silver coins in circulation, but the law against trade which I need not even hint at. The ship-counterfeited as os has been enforced, and. ment of fans, fire-crackers, canes, bristles, I hear, in some cases has been and such wares has been fairly maintained, and in all these business was up to average. An interesting fact comes to my notice concerning silk piece goods and embroideries, once a great Canton speciality. The trade almost left Canton and went to Japan, where the manufac- turers laid themselves out to produce low-priced goods and to cater to foreign tastes, to such an extent indeed as to make people somewhat tired of cheap Japanese ware. Now, since the war, everything has so increased in price in Japan that Canton looks like getting a chance again; but as the old trade went, so the old workmen disappeared, and it is. at presenè question whether orders can be executed even if offered.
OPIUM.
The dollars are
serious question, which it will require very capable men to grapple with, as with likin no longer to be depended on it seems that nothing short of an entire change in the freni system will be anything but a hand-to-month policy- with the hand mostly empty. The local loan raised here in 1894, of which the Commissioner is bursar, has done well. The various payments
the interest duly paid. It is a curious feature how tardily bondholders come for their interest; though three payments have been made, the interest coupons of a certain number of bonds have never been presented. The institution for raising healthy silkworms, referred to in the 1895 report, has been in difficulties. Those carrying it on incurred the lill-will of some literati, who pressed them in every way possible, even invoking foreign aid against them. They were obliged to leave their quarters, and I have grave doubts if they can get new premises in that neighbourhood.
The usual résumé of the value of the trade appended :-
Net Foreign Imports, market value Net Native Imports, market value
Net Imports
Deduct Duties and Likin paid at Canton
Deduct 7 per cent. for importers' profit, eto
Net Imports, minus Duty
Hk. Tis. 12,199,086
13,504,726
25,703,811
959,695
24,744,116 1,732,088
Imports, value at moment of landing........ 23,012,028
Original Exports, market value Add Duty paid at Canton........
Exports, plus Duty
Add 8 per cent. on market value for ex-
porters' profit, etc
Exports, value at moment of shipment
Hk. Tls.
20,456, 32
660,522
21,117,054 1,636,523
22,753,677
KOWLOON TRADE REPORT, 1896.
The following is the report of Mr. H. M. Hillier, Commissioner of Customs at Kowloon, for last year:
1
LOCAL.
There is a decline of something less than Hk. Tls. 1,000,000 in the value of the year's trade, distributed in the following proportions between its three divisions
Hk.Tis
Imports: From Hongkong to China... 434,935 Export: To Hongkong
,,
China to China...
Total
449,537 [112,500
Hk. Tls. 996,972
These figures represent a loss of a little more than 2 per cent. of gross volume of the trade of the preceding year, and before deducing (a.) Foreign and (b.) Native, for they may from them any conclusions as to the general be spoken of together. Of the former the conditions of the trade of that portion of China import decreases every year and the use of to which access is attained through the water- the latter grows. I have little doubt that ways about Kowloon, the statistics of the junk the decline in the foreign drug is permanent, trade of Kowloon should be studied side by side and that it is the improved quality, cheaper with the returns prepared by the Customs at price, and therefore increased use, of the native Canton of the trade with that port in vessels of article which is driving the Indian out of the foreign type. The two are so intimately asso- market. All native opium here is called Yunciated that any slight change in the fiscal or tv, because it comes down the West River commercial circumstances of either may partially from the Yunnau direction. It pays about divert the current of trade from the one channel 11s. 6 a picul in kwangsi and about Tls. 14 to the other, and a loss on this side may appear in Kwangtung. The Kwangtung opium likin as a gain on that. As a case in point I may receipts are variously
mentionan interesting circumstance in the year 5 history, which, though pertaining more pro- figure is not above
perly to the annals of Canton, had the effect of
Buying prices in all these sundry goods rose as Tis. 80,000 per annum, and at Tis. 50,000 to
the cash exchange went up. Stil the money
I believe the latter mark: that would mean
I
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