A Holiday Week: Fair Business in Cotton and Yarn: Prospects Still Hopeful Sept. 29.
There is little business ever done in a week which includes a Chinese festival day, for; even though foreign firms may be willing to carry on, Chinese dealers and others invariably make a week of it. The Mid-Autumn Festival marks a Chinese settling day, so there was additional reason for suspending active operations for a whole week. Thus -there is little to say about the markets, for there were no piece goods auctions, there was no call for indent business, and the export trade still is in a cheerless condition. Since Tuesday there has been some life in the Chinese Cotton Exchange and on some days quite a considerable amount of business was put through, the sales on Thursday, for instance, amounting to 34,000 piculs. There was also a little doing in yarn, though the demand was less eager.
The settlement appears to have passed off without any trouble, for merchants of standing evidently find money easier to obtain than does the Peking Government. The generally satisfactory response made to Sir Robert Ho Tung's preliminary suggestions for a round-table conference has had a great effect in the markets, and those who closed down for the holiday believing that once again there was a fair chance of a business revival have secured much evidence since re-opening to lead then to think their hopes are certain of realization. The conditions are very favourable, for there has been so much buying from hand to mouth, and the time must come shortly when there will be a flood of wholesale orders from up-country, if only the merchants there receive an. assurance that their goods will be safe from ro! bery or incendiary ism. The general opinion is that next week there will be a vastly improved demand at better prices.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.