108
Value of wharves, hulk and moor-
inge
143,308.17
Value of properties at Canton,
Kongman and Wuchow
127,146.77
Value of spare gear and stores Value of furniture...
Value of shares of public com-
panies
Value of Chinese bonds Loans on mortgage
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, current account Interest accrued Sundry debtors
Bills receivable Marine and fire insurance premia
unexpired
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
CHINA'S TRADE IN 1908.
Mr. J. L. Chalmers. Statistical Secretary of 16,854.93 the Imperial Maritime Customs, in reviewing the 1,000.00 trade of China as a whole for the year 1908
writes:
654,578.25 359.29
PROFIT AND 1088 ACCOUNT. Dr.
To amount paid repairs to steamers..8 29.288.99 To directors and auditors' fees
Balance to be appropriated, víz, :----
share on 80.000 shares.$100.000.00
To dividend of $1.25 per
To be written off book
value of steamers
20,000.00
To be written off book value of properties and wharves
10,000.00
To be carried to depreci-
To be carried to special
repairs fund...
10,000.00
21,170.01
ation & insurance fund. 10,000.00
To be carried forward to
new account...
Cr.
By amount brought forward from
last account
By net earnings of steamers
By interest on investments
By transfer fees ...
4,750.00
171.170.01
$205,209.0
$205.209.00
GENERAL.
tions from Indo-China.
[August 2, 1909.
THE OPIUM CAMPAIGN.
VALUE OF FOREIGN TRADE.
until
Next follows a review of the Railway situa- tion and then a brief account of the commercial outlook in the provinces, after which the report proceeds:
44
The direct foreign trade for the year gives a net value of H.K. Tls. 671,195,881, as com- pared with H.K. Tls. 980,782,066 in 1907; and it consists of imports to the value of H.K. Tls. 394,505,478 and exports to the value of H.K. Tis. 270.660,403, compared with H.K. Tls. 416,401,369, and H.K. Tls. 564,380,697 re- spectively in 1907.“
SHIPPING.
The year witnessed the prosecution by the provincial authorities of a determined campaign against the cultivation of the opium poppy, the effects of which campaign cannot fail to be reflected in foreign trade in the near future. That the effects will be good in the long run seems also certain; but immediate prohibition must, in proportion to its success, disorganise 322.000.00 The hope of a revival of foreign trade, trade for a time in the opium-growing provinces, which seemed to be justified on a review of whose total income from the poppy can hardly 47,973.48 the conditions prevailing in the beginning of be less than 100,000,000, and may be more than 794.50 1908, was not realised. Depression reigned 150.000,000, taels. The belief was strongly 18,791.57 almost universally from the beginning of the held by influential Viceroys that the 10-years' 30,968.67 year to its close. The continuous fall in the limit allowed by the original Edict for the value of silver was discouraging to the import extinction of opium cultivation was too long, 8,763.50 trade in general, and in the already languid and by encouraging procrastination
state of the market, it played an important part the undoubted popular enthusiasm for reform $2,443.175.73 in the history of an unprofitable year. But the should have died down would in the end increase foreign trade has always had to reckon with the rather than diminish the administrative dif- uncertainties of exchange, which when unfav- ficulties of the undertaking. In accordance with ourable to one branch of the trade is favourable this view the immediate eradication of the to another, as shown by the record value of poppy is now the declared policy in 13 provinces, exports in 1908; and other causes must be sought and in these it is promised that the production to explain the absence of demand for foreign | of opium will cease in 1909, while in others its goods in the face of a flourishing export trade, suppression is to take from one to two years since it cannot yet be adequately accounted longer. Reports from the various provinces for by the development of home industries, leave no room to doubt the vigour and reality of considerable as that development has been. this reform or the earnestness with which the Among these causes the high price of rice was people are backing the anti-opium movement still prominent, in spite of the good harvests of generally; and even if the task of the Govern- the preceding year and the continued importa- ment should not be fulfilled within the allotted A great improvement, time, it may be hoped that the success attained however, has been seen in this respect since the will be such as to bring final victory well within middle of 1908. The retail price of the best sight. Kiangsu rice at Shanghai, which in August was $5.80 a picnl, fell to $4 at the end of December, and at the prosent date is about $3 40; and it may be assumed that a similar cheapening of this necessary article has taken place in all districts that are easily accessible by water transport. At Yochow in September the price per picul is reported to have been $2.20, and at Chungking in the same month it was 8 20,279.30 3250 Auger and more serious obstacle to 149,793.81 free interchange was the depreciation of copper
35,025.39
coins, due in certain districts to scarcity of 110.50
silver, but in general to the excessive outturn from the Mints. The value of these coins fell steadily, and at the close of the
year one dollar exchanged for 135 copper cents (10-cash pieces)
the on
Middle Yangtsze, for 126 on the Lower Yangisze, and 8607,500.00 for 128 at Chefoo, while the rates reported from southern maritime provinces vary from 110 to 8607,500.00 117. This, as closely touching the great mass of the people, appears to be one of the most $587,500.00 serious aspects of the currency problem--a problem which, from all points of view, calls urgently for solution. But while according full value to these and other reasons for commercial depression, it will probably be right to recognise in the reduced surplus of imports over exports a natural and healthy effort to readjust ex- penditure to income. In 1905 the war remit tances," estimated by Mr. H. B. Morse at a $250,000.00 possible Hk. Tls. 150,000,000, gave to the import trade an impulse which continued to be felt $250,000.00 after the special conditions to which it owed its origin had disappeared. with the result that $250,000.00 importations were largely in excess of market requirements and have been disposed of with $250,000.00 ever-increasing difficulty and loss. The vigorous condition of the export trade and the progress being made in the creation of manufacturing industries are of the best augury for the future. Shanghai distributed in 1908, 350,000 piculs of cotton yarn from local mills, valued at Hk. Tls. $12,645.83 8,772,000, or some 88 per cent. more than in 1907, while the distribution to ports of $25,344.81 Shanghai Mill flour was 753,180 piculs; valued at Hk. Tls. 2,717,000, or 38 per cent. more than $ 5,344.81 in 1907. Hankow gives details of a great activity, especially in the production of iron and steel at the Hanyang Ironworks from Tayeh ore and of coal from the Pingsiang mines. There is no doubt that in the next few years China will make strides towards the position as an industrial nation for which she is destined by virtue of her natural resources and the character of her people, and to this end education as well as official encouragment should be directed. Too much is heard of adulteration, of watered cotton, slaty coal, and dirty wheat; and the splendid tea and silk trades are being endangered by the retention of primitive methods of production in the face of a formidable foreign competition.
DEPRECIATION AND INSURANCE FUND. Dr.
To balance...
Cr.
By amount at credit By amount brought forward from Profit and Loss account for half year ending 31st December, 1908.
20,000.00
$607,500.00
EQUALIZATION OF DIVIDEND fund. Dr.
To balance...
Cr.
By amount at credit
8PECIAL REPAIRS fund.
Dr.
To sundry disbursements... To balance..
Cr.
By amount at credit By amount brought forward from Profit and Loss account for half
$12,698.98
year ending 31st December, 1908. $20,000.00
$25.344.81
HALF-YEARLY DIVIDENDS,
We e are officially informed that, subject to aúdit, the Directors of the Hongkong, and Whampoa Dock Co., Ld., will recommend at the forthcoming meeting a dividend of 3 per cant. $1.50 per share.
}
+
With regard to Shipping Mr. Chalmers reports:
Entries and clearances totalled 207,605- steamers, sailing vessels, and junks-and the falling off, as compared with the figures for 1907, of 10,327, was due to the smaller number of junks recorded at Mengtsz, Kowloon, and Shanghai. The total tonnage, 83,991,580 tons, was, novertheless, once more the largest on record, showing an increase of 3,881,865 tons. At Dairen there was an addition of 1,389,000 tons, and at the Yangtsze ports an addition of 2,787,000 tons. Tonnage under the British flag increased by 1,089,000, and, with a total of 34,405,761 tons, was 41 per cent. of the whole: while the Japanese flag with a total of 18,055,138, or 21.5 per cent. of the whole, shows a gain of 2,456,925 tous, of which 1,103,000 tons were added at Dairen. French shipping increased by 360,000 tons, principally at Yangtsze ports, showing a total of 5,071,689 tons, and under the Chinese flag 400,000 tons were gained by steamers, while In China, as elsewhere junks lost 140,000 tons.
over supply of tonnage, there has been an resulting from the excessive shipbuilding of recent years, and freights have been low.
BALANCE OF TRADE.
The value of net foreign imports (c.i.f. value) exceeded that of exports abroad (f.o.b. value) by Hk. Tls. 117,845,075, or 42 per cent., as com- pared with 74 per cent. in 1907, 75 per cent. in 1906, and 97 per cent. in 1905. The excess of imports over exports is thus being reduced each year, a dit is now in fact smaller than in any year since 1990. Deduct, further, the net export of treasure, and the balance of liabilities in the trade of 1908 is reduced to Hk. Tls. 105,230,640. To the report for 1904 there was appended an estimate for 1903 of China's commercial assets and liabilities, which considering the many in- tricate problems involved and the insufficiency of reliable data, was probably as close as approxi- mation to fact as was then attainable. In the lapse of five years much has been changed, and a revised estimate, were it possible to offer one here, would no doubt show con siderable additions under certain headings and deductions under others. It is, for example, probable, on the side of liabilities, that expen-
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