IL
APPENDED to Mr. Taylor's report, which we have already noticed, are as usual a series of very complete comparative tables. There who are directly interested in the foreign trade of China have, of course, already provided themselves with this brochure, but the general reader will find some notes on them worth a cursory glance. We have already dealt with the comparative tables of the annual value of the foreign trade for 13 years and the Customs revenue for the same period. Two pages are devoted to the annual valtte of the trade with each country for eight years. Taking the first and last of the eight years, we extract the following figures, in Haikuan taels 1892. 1899. British Empire...171,500,000 286,200,000 United States". 16/800,000 44,000,000 Continent Europe, nas} 22,300,000 46,900,000 sin excepted Japan. 14,800,000 53,100,000 Russian Empire. 7,600,000—22,100,000
oral, fore 7.700 countries... f23%700,000 460,500,000
When we see that the trade last year of the whole of the Continent of Europe, excluding Russia, amounted to something less than 47 million taels, while that of the British Empire was over 286 millions, we cannot feel somewhat reassured. Japan, it will be seen, has passed the whole of the European Continent, Russia, excepted.
Three pages are devoted to a comparative statement of the net import of foreign goods, quantities and values, in 1899 and the previous year. Of opium, 59,100 piculs were imported, against 49,785 piculs in 1898. In cotton goods, there was practically no difference in grey shirt-Ings, but an improvement in white, dyed, and. Japanese. There was a considerable decline in English 'T-cloths and a marked advance in Japanese; and a considerable advance in English, Dutch, and American drills, English jeans, and Indian, American, and Japanese sheetings. The prosperity of the country or at least so much of it as is within reach of foreign goods at all, is shown by the large increase in the import of fancy goods, such as chintzes, handkerchiefs, towels, etc, ete.; while there was @ concurrent increase in the demand for the yarn from which native cottons are partly woven, the comparative figures for the respective years being, in piculs:—1899.
1898.
English Indian -.....1,906/426 1,399,930 Japanese... 779,700 485,244 Another proof of prosperity is the increase in the import of woollens, cloth only excepted. On the other hand, there was a considerable decline in the import of metals, except iron sheets and plates, lead,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.