The quarterly and annal returns of that portion of the trade of China under the control of the Customs Foreign Inspectorate, as furnished by the Custom Houses (now numbering twenty-three), and published with commendable care and punch triality by the Statistical Department at Shanghai, provide as much statistical information as to the nature and volume of the trade between the several Chinese ports and foreign countries as the average reader desires to obtain. But it is occasionally table to have that information imparted in a different and an even more complete way. Thus, instead of the statistics being set forth port by port, each complete in itself, it is of great advantage to have the articles of import and export arranged so as to show at a glance not only the quantity and value of the whole trade in each, but also the quantity and value of each at the respective por is it advan light the statistics of the several articles comprised in those mysterious headings one constantly encounters in the Customs Trade Statistics, "Cotton Goods, Unclassed Woollen Goods, Unclassed "Metals, Unclassed and the still more comprehensive Sundries, Unenumerated."" All this, and much more, is done in the two bulky volumes now before us, each containing some 500 pages; the trade of the year 1885 (when but nineteen Custom Houses were under foreign supervision, and before the Additional Article of the Chefoo Convention had come into force) being that selected for analysis.
Nearly 300 pages of the first volume are occupied by a complete alphabetical list of the imports during the year from foreign countries into Chinese ports, giving the name of each article in English and Chinese; the port of importation and the quantity imported at each port; the country from which it came; its highest, lowest, and average value during the year; the Tariff rate of duty on it, "and the amount per cent. of its value which the Turiff rate represents; and the estimated amount of duty derived from it during the your. Every article, from the most the. wearily of the Chinese Customs Tarif of Tariff Returns: a set of Tables shore in
41858 on the Trade of 1885. (Compiled from Returns of Imports and Exports carried in Foreign vessels in 1885.) Second Issue: in two volumes. Published by the Customs Statistical Department; and sold by Kelly and Walsh, Limited, Shanghai, Hongkong, Yokohama,' and Singapore; also by P. S. King & Son, London. 1889. trifling to the most valuable, is here recorded; not even the four accordions imported at Swatow from Hongkong for 75 tael cents each, nor the two mops imported at Shanghai from Europe for two taels and a half each, being considered unworthy of mention in the list. As examples of the fluctuations in values, may be instanced deer horn cuttings from Annam, which varied at Swatow from 2 taels to 1,000 taels per picul, while rhinoceros horns varied from 40 taels per picul at sume ports to 2,800 taels per picul at others, and Indian cow bezoar from 20 taels to 200 taels per catty! The particulars concerning native medicines occupy 70 pages of the list, while those relating to metals and cotton goods cover 16 and 14 pages respectively. This lengthy import list is classified in three other ways. One re-classification arranges in categories the articles imported according to the amount of duty yielded during the year, from those producing a total of LIK: Tis, 100,000 and upwards, as crude foreign opium (over two million taels duty), cotton piece goods (over one niillion taels duty), woollen piece goods(over Tls. 295,000) and cotton yarn (over Tls. 270,000), to some 320 articles (of which but 'a dozen are mentioned in the Tariff) yielding less than one tael duty. Another re-classification arranges, also in categories, the articles imported according to the proportion which the duty bears to the value, from those having a duty percentage of over 20 to the extensive non-Tariff (and consequently 5 ad valorem) list and to the list of tted free. From this arrangement one learns, for example, that second quality Japanese ginseng shows a percentage of 21.50 of duty on its average value; Turkey red cloths and cambrics, a percentage of between 10 and 15; English camlets, of 8.05; foreign brass' buttons, of 7.45; rude foreign opium, an average of 7.30; white shirtings, of 3.60; cotton of 3.20; and American sheetings, of Still another re-classification, which alphabetically and shows their respect of duty and percentage of average value, and the analysis of the import list is completed.
Having thus briefly described the method of analysing the list of imports into China, we have only to add that the exports from Chinese ports receive a like treatment, except that the native goods for native consumption carried coastwise in foreign vessels are accorded a separate list, in which the amount of export and coast trade duty yielded by each article is shown. In the'second volume will be found an alpha-be tical list of the whole of the exports, covering some 240 pages, of which nearly 100 are occupied by a list of the native medicines; while for the several re-classifications of the list one has to refer back to the first volume. A careful study of these Returns will reveal many anomalies in regard to the proportion of duty borne by some articles to their value, In examining the export particulars, fur instance, one is struck by the fact that black tea, from which in 1885 some four million taels duty was derived, had to bear a percentage of duty to its' average value of 9.90; that green tea Cover half a million taels duty)
wre a like percentage of duty to value of 11.55; brick tea, of 12.45; and dust, of 54.20! We should have mentioned that the Inspector General's circular calling for these import and export statistics from the several ports prefaces the first volume, and this is followed by a carefully prepared abstract of the Customs revenue for 1885, showing the tetel amount of import, export, and coast trade duties collected, and the amounts contributed by the more important articles to the respective totals. More than half the second volume also is occupied by a translation into Chinese of three of the tables appearing in the first volume.
We may say, in conclusion, that the work, asa whole, reflects much credit on the Statistical Department. Issued at a reasonable price ($5), it will be found invaluable to the diplomatist, the statistician, the student, and, above all, to the merchant. Whether it be used as a means of disclosing additional information regarding the yearly import or export statistics, or the value, of a given article; or of obtaining particu: Jars as to some little-known comniodity; or of learning—what is perhaps nowhere else obtainable—the Chinese names or equivalents of the numerous articles; or ut forming a basis for the next revision of the Taritf—it will, we think, in each of these respects, prove of exceptional value.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.