Retailers Happy in Spite of Business Depression: Plenty of Money Available In times of business depression countries which conduct—their operations upon a statistical basis pay very nearly as much attention to the condition of retail trade as to wholesale. naturally retail buying gives a fair indication of the greater or smaller wage-earning capacity of the worl and then when there occurs such an event as a consumers' strike, which was one of the phases of the past year, the retail trade deserves an even greater degree of attention than in normal times. In Shanghai we heard the suggestion of a consumers' strike, but it never got be-youd the state of suggestion. in view thereof, and of the undoubted business depression which has hung over the port for about a year past, it has been thought worth while to make an inquiry, similar to those constantly carried out in other countries, as to the state of the retail trade here. The results are of considerable interest, not only as indicative of the habits of Shanghai but of the actual prosperity of the community.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.