Silk trade which we publish to-day will be read with interest by foreigners and shouldreceivethe earnest attention of the Chinese authorities, silk merchants and producers. It tells the same tale of the silk trade of this part of the Empire which has been told of the tea trade of all China. Bad methods of preparation, and frauds on the part of some of the natives who are connected with the trade, and too heavy taxation on the part of the officials have inflicted such serious injury on the silk industry that immediate reforms in both respects are necessary. The manner in which the Japanese, who as traders are despised by the Chinese, have possessed themselves of a large part of the American silk trade is remarkable. If there is one part of the enormous self-complacency of the trading Chinese and of the officials, who condescend to interest themselves in commercial matters, beyond the exactions which may be imposed on them, which is fixed and sure, it is that in everything that concerns the making of money the Japanese are vastly their inferiors. Even in Japan they take little care to conceal this arrogant conviction, while in China they assert it as a matter of dogmatic belief. The encroachments they have made on some parts of the trade of Japan and possibly of Corea support to some extent this view of their own excellencies, but these fuecesses are but trites compared with the northern nen teas and silks to a the fact that Japan dispossessed very large extent in the American markets. Japan has been able to do this by, to. use a common phrase, "careful attention to business." Her teamen have listened to the advice of foreigners, and have improved the production and make of the leaf, and the same wise methods have been followed in the silk trade and with the same results. Until some two years ago the officials in this country looked on the decadence of the tea trade with the utmost indifference, and when the Inspector-General of "Customs drew the attention of the Tsung-li Yamen to the condition into which it had fallen and the ruin which menaced it, no great exertions were used to improve it, or adequate measures adopted to enable it to compete with India and Ceylon.
Nothing has been done to help the silk trade which in one important h is imperiled. The remonstrances of merchants, and of the press have been unheeded, and consequently a great source of wealth to this and the adjacent evince has to a lange extent been lost.
may yet be recovered, but to do this it will be n to replace the indifference to the trade on the part of the officials; and better methods of mani-Ponest ways on the part of the producers wulation, especially in reeling and more and dealers must be adopted. And to cure the evils which have all but ruined the trade reforms should be undertaken without delay.
The matter is so! important that it should receive the attention of the Tsung-li Yamen, but as that body is slow to move, and is unacquainted with such affairs, the Viceroy of the Liangkiang might take steps to rectify the negligence of his subordinates tricts a thei share of the work of and compel the lo in the silk dis-
restoring North-China silks to their roper position in the markets of the est. Proclamations are useless; rogues neither tremble before nor obey them, more effectual means must be adopted, and we are inclined to think that it would be wise on the part of the Viceroy to engage a competent foreigner to instruct the natives as to what is needed in the way of improvement. Such an aplutment might at first excite some jealousy among Chinese, and would no doubt be opposed by all those who profit: by fraud or who are too indifferent to care about the reputation or the ruin of a part of the silk trade. But the Chinese generally have lately shown so strong and intelligent a desire to adopt Western methods and improvements that the opposition to such an appointment would probably be short-lived. And it may be taken for granted that a foreigner in this position would have much more weight with the Chinese than one of their own countrymen, supposing that one could be found capable of discharging the duty. It is evident that something must be done, and that quickly, and that as the ways of reeling silk which have hitherto been employed have reduced thetradewith the West to a mere shadow of what it was, and if left unimproved will probably ruin it altogether in a few years, some methods as yet unadopted in China must be used. And us the new season will begin soon, the opportunity is favourable for introducing The Memorandum shews very clearly the decadence of the export of silks to America, the causes which have led to this, and points out the means by which the trade in them may be restored. An export which has fallen from 52 to from 15 to 25 per cent. of what it was eleven years ago, while that from rival markets has increasing in the same time, and is certain to be still further increased, requires strong measures for its revival if not for its preservation from extinction at ano very distant date. Had proper measures been adopted eight or nine years ago when the export from Japan began to increase, Northern silks would doubtless have held their own. If these measures are taken at once, and the quality of Northern reeled silks is brought up to the standard of those shipped from Japan, we should doubtless soon see a t increase in our export figures. ere is not only the success which has attended the enlightened efforts of the Government of Japan and of the Japan-jose merchants concerned in the silk trade to stimulate the Chinese officials, but there is the t improvement which has taken place in thevsilk trade of Canton from the same causes. The Canton men began to introduce improvements some years after the Japan-nese had done so, and during the last. three seasons their filatures "have_ gradually," the Memorandum says, "been working their way into consumption, are now assuming an important position and have a value of $80 a picul over silks reeled in the old style." But a greater success, as far as rice goes, has attended the filatures ere, as their reeled silks "command Tls. 200 a picul above the silk reeled up-country by natives." Why an industry which promised so well has not been completely successful here and become of great importance to the trade of the port, and conduced largely to the benefit of the people and the province, is notorious, and we may deal with it hereafter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.