Strong Suspicions, of Hoardin, 1g; of Godowns Full and Rice Boats Still Undischarged: The Increasing Costs of Recent Years: Civil War and Opi jum-Growing a Big Factor With a persistent rumour in while in other parts of China the Girculation to the effect that rice picul varies from 123 3 to 220 Ib. hoarding is going on extensively at The Middleman's Squeeze the present time, and that, private exploiters of the staple foodstat® of In many cases the Chinese rice China are the contributing, if not farmer does not own his land, but the alroot causes of the present high! rents it from the local gentry. A price of the staple, it ig interesting portion of his crop must be remitted, draw a few comparisons between therefore, to the landlord in lieu ries traffic in the past and at of rental for land. Nor does the resent time, farmer reap the rewards of high A. report in the "North-Chino pricej as apparently tie leakage goes on somewhere along the line! Herald" of 20 years ago. states "Yetween farmer and consumer. that considerable. concern was istered at a sudden leap in price!
The principal hangs importing rice Der picul of rice from $480 to $7.20.! in Shanghai are located near the But. whatever step were taken to! minimize the causes of rise in price the Settlement and a0. Go-Stone Bridge (of, Sinza, Road) a at that time, it can be sees that downs are in Nantao and Chapei hele mounting, having once begun, with only a few inside the Settle-continued at times gradually, a ment. It is here that the main others sporadically, until the pretransactions in rice traffic go on. fent unprecedented' level of $17.40 [Other elements in these transactions} Hee picul has to be registered. Tu) must be included, also. There is, 1916, the price was $7.78 t> yield for example, the cost of transport to the mext noteworthy increase in ation which' in 1919 was prepared 1920 to $10.25, in 1923 t" $12.50,! fon the following basis: $12.80 1924 to $13 and 1925, an average $20 per 100 piculs by boat; $25 ta of $12.15. $40 by rail, with a likin toll of 12] cents per picul. The actual trans Civil War and Opium ortation charges have now been sassed by 25 per cent. according That there are artificial way of ito a reliable source of information. creating this price Level and that 1 Prices are fixed daily by the Rice these methods are being put into Guilds of Nantao and Chapel. They expert practice in the rice trade has. are regulated, principally, by the caused comment before this uppiles arriving into Shanghai. According to those who have studied When rice is plentiful the prices tthe problem of maintaining the food. stuff of China at a reasonable price-fall and when scanty supplies are level, the explanation can be received the prices tend to go up, following the economic law. Tt is] attributed at the present time to the) believed, however, that there is a fact of restriction of the area in amount of "beating—the which rice is ordinarily planted, x in other large scale result of civil war, and the use' of the land generally under rice cultiva ation for poppy growing.
Export Prokibition In Shanghai, including the Inter-] national French Con-Settlemer: adjoining districts, some 10,000 or slightly more piculs per day of rice! are consumed, 'The figure has ins creased since 1919 from 8,000 piculs. Tt is authoritatively tated that' Kiangsu province supplies the larg. est proportion of rice for Shanghai, Dut actual districts from which rice is received here are Wusih, Chang.) sha, Sungkiang, Wuhu, Kiukiang,' Soochow, Quinsan, Tsingpu and Fengking. In last year's survey of crops from these rice, growing: districts a by no means "bumper" crop was registered, the reports of, production ranging' from fair in some places to bad in several, Reports for the present, however, would indicate a normal' crop this) year,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.