Awe Fonzicn Teams oF Cuwa—By Romer. Pu. 0, The Commercial 1926, 276 pages deal with statistical dacontrovertible facts, definite, clear: ent, information and only 10' pages with the author's opinions therenent. It his so often been just) the opposite. So much of the literature on China is a recital of what one individual believes to be so and how he would settle all things for, the eternal benefit of all men. Be-ensue Dr. Romer does not do that, his book is worth reading. He gives facts, which any might obtain by digging, dug, into the records. There is no great originality in this book, but: have we in China not suffered enough from brilliant originality Which drags us to unique, if rash, One of the most significant facts Drought out by Dr. Romer is the comparative smallness of China's One is led to believe Commissioners and that China is one of the great world markets, In fact, th vse of the economic boycott as political weapon is on the assumption that China is a vast market upon which the trade and industry of the western capitalistic ations depend. Dr. Sun Yat-sen apparently believed that and the Canton strikers assume that at the present time, Yet, the fact is as Dr. Romer points onl "The foreign trade of China, has, however, never been grey Let' us consider the facts. While China has, within the borders of her broad' country, about 20 per cent. of the world's population, her shave of the world's trade has never reached 2 per cent. It has been pointed out in the fifth chapter that the foreign trade of China was 1.5 per cent. of the ternational trade of the world during the years 1896-1808, and A per cent. during the years 1911-1918. In 1921 the foreign' trade of China was 1.9 per cent. of the world's trade, The statis-ties of the trade per head of population bring out the same fact. The per capita trade of China way 1.09 Haikwan taels in 1901, 212 taels in 1911, and 9.77 taels in 1921, These figures, while they show a considerable growth in the trade which has deen given full recognition in the preceding pages, must for present purposes be compared with similar statistics for other countries, Let the comparison be limited to the countries of the Far East, The foreign trade of India grow from 3 per cent, of the world's trade in 1896-1808 to 85 per cent, in 1911-1913, The foreign trade of Japan grew from 1 per cent. to 1.6 per-cent. during the same years, In 1021 the per capita trade of India was twice as great as that of China and the per capita trade of Japan about 10 times as great."
The amahness of China's foreign trade may be due to many reason but largely because a well developed domestic industry and commerce existed long before the impact with western commerce, and this in-Aigenous trade has not weakened to ah appreciable degree by the import of foreign goods. Foreign imports, as a matter of fact, have een. most successful in such ce modities as do not, or did not for half a century, attempt to replay native goods. To this cause, as Dr. Romer notes, must be added poor communications, debased euro he fact' that the bulk Dr. Remer's history of the tariff problem, broadly and impartially stated throughout the periods under discussion, is a valuable addition to the literature on this subject. will be useful for Chinese and foreigners who suffer from fixed ideas Dut who possess little information the subject to purchase Dr, Remer's book and read therein what. they should know.
The story of the merchant prince and his downfall is told admirably, if without a sob, merchant prince to a broker and from a broker to a salesman is a tragic fall, indeed—something skin to original sin. However, the fall Jof the n: erchant prince was nothing compared to his sufferings at the hands of the manufacturers? agents, who came out to push his particular commodity as though nothing else in the whole world mattered. Busi. ness, however, is business and the goods had to' be sold—so business methods changed and are containing to change, with " large number of individuals competing for a share in the trade.
The rise of Shanghai is noted in the following paragraph!
The statistics of the distribution of the foreign trade of -China among the various countries during the years 1914-1921 show continued decline in the relative importance of Hongkong. This! fact has little to do with the distribution of the trade among the countries trading with China.' What it does show is the deeres ing importance of Hongkong as distributing centre. The com-' parative importance of Shanghai decreased somewhat daring this period, but this one port and Shanghai was s0 much more important than any other port that the slight de. cline cannot be regarded as in-leating any important change. The statistics show a further increase in the comparative importance of the ports of Manchuria and northern China and. of the Yangtze valley.
Dr. Remer's book should find a large audience in these days, when decisions have to be reached on s0 many: political questions which are grounded in foreign trade, It is worthy complement to Mr. Morse's Volumes and in the first chapters! gives an adequate summary of the encyclopedic data his work tains. The business man, who sees his Inbour of years washed away in the Peking flood vf talk, would do well to find out what it is all about in this book.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.