Feb 1.
ConsIDERING how bad business conditions were, it is somewhat surprising to find that the total number of bankruptcies and liquidations which the Mixed Court had to deal with in 1924 numbered only thirty-five, five more than during the preceding twelve months. A number of similar cases, of course, were dealt with by the French Mixed Court, but in importance that quota would be hardly likely to exceed the Foreign Settlement's and thereafter the Magistrate's Courts in the City and Chapei had probably a number to consider. The grand total, however, -that can be envisaged is ridieulously small compared with the aggregate of Chinese merchants who have gone out of business during the' past year, and, such being the case, we, again en-aunter all the drawbacks of living in a non-statistical country. The impression is current among Chinese were some hundreds in number; in piece-goods firms alone it is known that over fifty firms went out of business; and what the total was in other branches of trade can only be guessed. The expression that a Chinese dealer has gone "Ningpo more far" is still unhappily current, and no matter how efficient are the Courts under foreign spices, they can only be considered as dealing with the merest fraction of the liquid tions which take place. Accordingly any resort to them for statistical purposes—as showing the state of business—is useless and all that is left to the compiler of a report is the.inform: tion circulated from one com-. mercial house to another. That: this is tolerably accurate there is no doubt, but every now and again it receives a severe shock as it did on the publication of the Customs returns at the beginning of the year, showing a bigger revenue and bigger turnover of business than ever before. The reply was "unsound business," and it seems difficult to get away from it, A very what this means recently came prominently to the notice of a large foreign firm which had been asked assist in the liquidation of the tocks of a dealer who had been adjudged bankrupt by the Mixed Court. One' of the smaller foreign firms with whom he had been doing business had been in the habit of describing him as their very best dealer—incidentally to the amazement of older established and more experienced concerns—and then he went bankrupt. The firm to which reference was made asked the dealer to call and give them assistance in disposing of his stock marder to reduce the losses to the minimum, but he politely declined on the ground that he had now gone out -of business. This is a very bad state of affairs, giving an instance of commercial morality at a very low ebb, for he was certainly not one whit better: than the people who find it necessary to get to the hinterland of Ningpo, or wherever the "more far" signifies, leaving. their foreign clients in the lurch.
In the one case the man went in for a proper legal liquidation, and having gone through process apparently felt that obligations were discharged, as he took no further interest in the proceedings. In the other the merchants simply disappeared, and that there were only 'y-five bankruptcies in "he Court last year is explained by the fact of foreign firms shouldering their responies, selling imported cargo lon their own account and meeting the difference due to the bank out of their own pockets.
At the same time the Chinese Chamber of Commerce is understood to have adjusted quite a number of such cases—to the detriment of legal incomes we are told—and so the reports in commercial circles are probably quite accurate. And the whole, it must be admitted, does not present an encouraging picture for commerce here.
Before the trade of the port is placed on a sound basis foreign firms have to get awa; from the practice of doing what looks like an easy form of business with the unsound dealers, an example of which we gave above, and it seems a fair question to ask whether there is any evidence of their doing so. It is matter for doubt, for when the armistice ended the hostilities here, both foreign and [Chinese merchants began to talk of the great prospects opened up [for trade, and. what might be expected in a week or two. Today they are much more cautious, regarding the present peace
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.