July 1.
Bustvess men in Shanghai, both foreign and Chinese, are becoming, seriously alarmed over the present tendency among a section of the Chinese community to indulge in what must be described as speculative company promoting. It is a very curious phase of business life, for at the moment two entirely different classes of companies are in favour, and while one may be useful and beneficial to legitimate business, the impression is abroad that in the great majority of cases the other is not. These two classes of enterprise are trust companies and exchanges (either stock or produce) and the onlooker must have had_ his curiosity aroused by the number of either promoted during the past few weeks. Now we have absolutely nothing to say against trust companies or exchanges as such, for they have a distinct place in the life of the community, but what we would wish to warn the public against, is their unnecessary multiplication. As soon as that has taken place business is transacted on fictitious lines, and though appearances may indicate prosperity they are deceptive, and a crash is likely to occur sooner or later. We must not be taken as condemning every Chinese company that has been floated within the past few weeks. That would be altogether wrong, but we believe that certain among them are mere profit-catching concerns started to take advantage of a boom period, and should accordingly be scrutinized carefully. Further there is a wild trend towards speculation abroad today and that being so, caution in business is doubly necessary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.