CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
accusations against Great Britain are so entirely uncalled for that they arouse a just acquire influence in Korea, and gave up indignation. She has never sought to Port Hamilton when the occasion for hold- ing it censer As for her trade, it is singu- larly small in Korea, there being in the entire country only two British mercantile firms established. For the information of the Russian Press we may state that no British armed force is maintained in the country, and British instructors are not en- gaged in Anglicising the Korean army!
INTERESTS AFFECTED BY THE EXCHANGE QUESTION,
1
October 27 1897.] FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN KOREA, The opening this month of the ports of Mokpo and Chenanpo in Korea to foreign trade has, with characteristic jealousy, been seized upon by Russian journalists as a proof of British and Japanese encroach ments in the peninsular kingdom. A Seoul correspondent of the ovoe Premya has written to the effect that this is the result of a conspiracy between British and Japanese officials, the former to push British trade, the latter to make a pacific conquest of the country. The Japanese, he asserts, are gradually establishing garrisons in different parts of the country under the pretext of safeguarding Japanese interests, and the British are seeking to convert Korea into
A Shanghai contemporary has published one of their best markets,
If there were
a tabulated list of the various interests that any truth in the last assertion, it would re- would respectively benefit, not be materi- quire a great deal of patient effort and much ally affected, and be adversely affected careful nursing, for the trade is at present by an increase in the gold value of silver. very small and likely to remain so, as the The compiler can hardly be complimented country is poor and the people have few on his perspicacity, the list being open to wants and purchase scarcely any of what grave objection. To take one instance, we may be accounted luxuries. The Japanese are told that steamers owned in England but have large settlements at the different trading locally and earuing freights in silver." treaty ports, and require a good number would benefit. So they might for a time, of policemen to maintain order. If in but how long would the benefit last? Only addition they employ a few troops as so long as would be required to attract to garrison they are quite right, since China some of the large number of vessels they have considerable interests to pro-always waiting for profitable employment; tect against much Chinese intrigue and upon the arrival of these, freights would Russian craft. Japan has not, however, drop to their old gold level, or perhaps be- lately made any attempt to subvert the in- low it, owing to the increased competition dependence of Korea, and it will be high resulting from the presence of a larger num- time to cry out when Korea herself feels ber of steamers on the const. hurt. As for Great Britain endeavouring to create a market for her exports in Korea, she does this in every country, and will con- tinue to do it. But she has never claimed for her subjects any advantages which other foreign traders do not enjoy in consequence of the opening of the country to foreign trade. Here again the other Powers are indebted to England and the United States, for it was through the exertions of these two Powers, backed by Japan, that the whilom Hermit Kingdom at length opened its ports to foreign trade. Neither Power ever sought any exclusive advantage, and every one of the Great Powers is on the same footing. How then by any stretch of the imagination Great Britain cau be accused of attempting encroachments in Korea passeth, as Mr. GLADSTONE would say, the wit of man to discover.
These snarls and libels come with a pecu- liarly bad grace from a Power which is constantly scheming not only to secure pre- dominance in Korea, to the exclusion of all other countries, but is also laying careful plans for the annexation of Manchuria, if this can be brought about by bluff and bounce. Russia is patient and hath a frugal mind. She can wait years in the hope that events will so shape that at the right moment she can advance with safety and without shedding the blood of a Cossack or spending a rouble. The magnificent move played by her in 1860, after the Anglo-French War withChina, when by carefully calculated pres- sure she induced the Government of Peking to sign a treaty rectifying the Siberian frontier in such fashion as gave her a vast slice of territory on the Amour equal to a small kingdom, cannot of course often be safely repeated, but something like it was covertly obtained at the conclusion of the Chino-Japanese War, where for acting the part of the honest broker she is looking forward to a deferred payment which will embrace what is now left to China of the family heritage of the Ta Tsing Dynasty. Any complaint of British or Japanese aggression from such a source therefore comes with a specially bad grace. The
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of spinning and weaving for themselves, quite independently of considerations turn- metals. ing on the relative values of the precious
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO.
to
British North Broneo would seem to be getting on when we find the community de- manding more effective representation on From a letter reproduced in our columns the Council and complaining of the taxation.
yesterday from the Singapore Free Press it would be seen that a public meeting was held at Sandakan last month to protest against certain taxation proposals, and the question of representation on the Council was touched upon by the Chairman in the course of his speech. ('ne of the industries affected by the new taxation is that of tim- ber cutting, an industry which has made good progress and is full of promise. The correspondent says:-" Of course it is only fair that the Government should "share in increased prosperity of any trade "in its territory, but it is a question whether it should not be satisfied with the indirect advantages which must accrue to the revenue from an increased population and "circulation of money, instead of running "the risk of killing the goose which lays the golden eggs by shoving up the direct taxes. No fortunes have yet been made in Borneo in the timber or any other trade, and, for the present, I am of opinion that it would be to the advantage of the Go- vernment The division
nurse and encourage the" of the list that is least open to objection is "industries of the country, and not to crush that of the interests that would not be or even hamper them with hasty taxation." materially affected in the long run. In fact, But as the Government of British North if stability of exchange could only be secured Borneo is a Company formed for the pur- the particular rate would not very much pose of earning dividends for its share- unnatural that some matter to any interest, except to the holders it is not holders of silver, as trade will adapt difference of opinion should be exhibited itself to any rate, The rate being high regarding the extent to which the Govern- or low may confer some temporary ad- ment should nurse infant industries and the vantage or disadvantage upon this or point at which it should seek to draw a The British that interest, but it must necessarily prove substantial revenue for them. only temporary, as the process of ad- North Borneo Company has hitherto been justment closely follows upon each fluctua- tolerably patient in waiting for returns on tion. The Mercury's list of those whose its investment, but there is no blinking the interests would not be materially affected fact that the Company's object is to make in the long run is as follows:-"(1).-Im-money out of the territory Herein lies the
porters of English and American goods, for though silver prices are slow to "rise and adapt themselves to a low "exchange, they are quick to fall on a "higher exchange. We say 'importers' as the importer's interest is the margin "(always slender) between the price paid at home and the price received from the native, and whether low exchange causes poor profits to the manufacturer or high exchange enables him to get a better price, it is not the importer (the inter- mediary) who reaps the advantage. (2).- Importers of Indian yarn and opium, the cheapening of which by a higher exchange will certainly be met by a corresponding, though probably much slower, fall in the "price of local cotton and native drug. (3).
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£ C
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disadvantage of Company administration, and it is much to be regretted that North Borneo is not governed as Crown colony, when there would be no in- ducement to bleed its infant industries. It is possible, however, that in the long run the demands on the Borneo revenue for dividends to the shareholders may not prove more onerous than the demands of the Im- perial Government on Hongkong for mili- tary contribution. In course of years the revenue of North Borneo will no doubt be- come as large as Hongkong's revenue at the present time, and the same amount that Hongkong has to pay as military contribu- tion would suffice to pay the North Borneo Company's shareholders a dividend of seven or eight per cent.
MR. CHATEr and inCREASED ΤΑΧΑΤΙΟΝ.
Cotton mills in the East, which, so long "as the price of cotton is consistent with "that of its products, will still hold the "field. During the period of transition
(23rd October.) "there might be some disturbance of finan-
Some comment has been occasioned by the "cial conditions, but prices could not fail
to adapt themselves to the new situation." statement in the Governor's telegram to the Secretary of State in connection with Cheap silver has been much dwelt upon as an element of prosperity to the infant cotton the Diamond Jubilee memorial to the effect industry of China, and it is not improbable that the Hon. C. P. CHATER had promised that the course of exchange has somewhat that in the event of the Government's con- accelerated the establishment of the in-tribution causing a deficit in the budget the dustry, but with an abundant supply of said deficit should be made good by an ad- labour, the raw material at land, and a dition of 81 to the municipal rates. large market, it was inevitable that sooner or evident that there must have been a misun- later the Chinese should begin to think I derstanding somewhere, as Mr. ÜHATER
It is
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