7th Nov.
Tuene are five other subjects which must not be passed over without notice in Mr. Jamieson's Report to the Foreign Office on the 'I'rade of Shanghai for 1892, Silk, "'ea, Local Industries, the Woosung Bar, and the Mixed Court. Silk, says Mr. Jamieson, proved a very profitable trade to all engaged in it on this side, during the season 1892-93. It was a season of healthy, continuous demand at steadily advancing prices, standard grades of white silks being quoted at the close 30.to 40 per cent. higher than the lowest point in June, 1892, the fall in exchange during the interval being about 6 per cent. 'The {informant whom Mr, Jamieson' quotes goes on to say: " Undoubtedly, the remunerative prices we have been able to offer the dealers have drawn down almost every available bale of marketable white silk, and it is more than a matter of probability that the prices. which we close the season 1892-93 will stimulate production to a considerable extent in the coming season of 1898-94." We understand, however, that one season of high prices has no effect in increasing the production, as one season of low prices has no effect in checking it, A series of years of high prices might gradually increase the production, as a series of years of low prices might check it, though it has to be remembered that foreign buyers do not take more than one-third of the total production, the other two-thirds being consumed in China. In 1874, common Tsatlees, which are to-day worth say Tis, 300, fell to is, 225, a price at which the Chinese aver that they cannot be produced; but so far from this year, the crop of 1875 was estimate causing a shorter crop in the following at $0,000 bales, and 72,000 bales were actually exported. The concluding paragraph of Mr, Jamieson's remarks on silk will interests students of the currency problem. "'I'he cost in Ching of a standard grade of silk, say a bale of ''I'satlee which now stands at 430 ltacls to 440 taels with exchange at 83. 10d. was very nearly the same twenty years ago when exchange was over 63. But whereas, in 1870, 20s. gold in een well called, will probably; London would barely buy 11b. of such silk, it will to-day buy nearly 141b. "That is to say the purchasing power of silver has remained constant, whereas that of gold, goad this particular article has increased nearly 50 per cent."
The wretched condition into which China tea has fallen, as far as the London market is concerned, is well known, and we need not refer to it again. In 1892 there was also an enormous falling-off in the export to Russia, but this was only temporary. There is a grain
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.