In was not to be expected that mer chants would rush to the new ports as was done -at the opening of Tientsin and Hankow. The places now opened to foreign trade are of less importance, and experience has shown that the value of new outports is rather as affording fresh points of contact than as affording remunerative business to resident foreign merchants. They enable foreign merchandise to be Jsid down nearer the door of the consumer, at a cheaper cost therefore as regards freight than if they were subjected to various transshipments, and with a greater certainty of escape from lekin taxation in transit than when they are travelling in native bottoms, But instead of buying on the spot from foreign merchants, the native dealers are lending more and more to go to Shanghai to make their purchases, availing themselves only of the machinery of steamer transport to lay down their goods at their own place of trade. Obviously the resident foreign merchant, the, has little opportunity; except at special seasons—at Hankow and Foochow, during the ten season, for instance—there is little occupation except for a few commission houses; the great bulk of the business is done at Shanghai; which tends more and more to become commercial emporium whither produce is brought, and whence foreign goods are, sent out, from and to the whole of the Yangtze and Northern ports. Bat oven taking all these circumstances into consideration, it must be admitted that the opening of the new ports has fallen remarkably flat. It might have been expected that two or three foreign houses would have been at once established, ut each of the three new ports in which Shanghai is interested; but Wenchow seems, as yet, to be the only place at which the experiment has been made, Of Ichang we know as yet very little; its chief value lies probably being the head—so far at least as the present class of steamers is concerned—of the navigation of the Yungize. Shase, a Jittle lower down the stream, which is made only a port of call, seems to be the chief place of trade. Bat we may take it for granted that steamer agencies will shortly be established at Ichang; and we shall gradually learn more about its capabilities. Wenchow and Wuhu, however, seem to be the natural outlets for fertile and well-watered districts; and "might become places of considerable trade if foreign energy and capital were brought tobeer upon their developement. Clearly they are not places where foreigners can expect to go and pick up a business ready-made, They are not places where those who have been unfortunate elsewhere can hope to rapidly retrieve their fortunes. They are sites of a considerable native trade but if this trade is to be developed ea as to be of value to foreigners, capital and energy are required, to collect produce which used to permeate through other channels. Both are natural outlets for tea-producing dis. trict; but euch teas as now find their way to foreign markets do so through other channels, to Foochow, Ningpo, and Chinkeang. For the present year these teas have been already contracted for, and will follow their old routes. If foreign capital is employed next year, they can probably be collected at the new emporia; and will presumably be laid down there at a cheaper price in view of the shorter distance to be travelled. It is as advantageous to a merchant to bay produce as near as possible to the place of production, as it to land his as near as possible to the place of sale; and herein is one object of opening new ports—multiplying points of contact. Even if foreign merchants do not attempt to develope @ local business, the providing of greater facility of carriage will no doubt lead the native dealers to collect produce at the nearer port, instead of sending it overland to the dearer one. Before the Taeping Rebellion, Wenchow seems in fact to have been the emporium of @ considerable tea-trade—the port where the produce of all the neighbour. ing districts was collected; but this concentration was only an element of temptation to the Taepings, so the producers elected to disperse their trade through the neighbouring minor ports, and it has since continued in the fresh grooves. The opening of the port to. foreign trade will probably have the effect of again attracting business to its old centre,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.