Sir Francis Aglen's Recommendations The following letter from our indent was publiehabout whom they had no record.
This, however, for the average. trader is a difficulty that he cannot surmount. If it were possible for foreigners of the present, generation to trade in China for the next century they would still have precisely the same difficulty to contend with in securing credit information of a reliable nature— and I speak with some experience having endeavoured to tabulate' from time to time information on the average run of Chinese ¢rader. The usual agencies for this pur-, pose with which we are familiar' In Western countries simply do not exist, and could not function satisfactorily if they did. The methods Jof running Chinese business organzations again, is altogether differ-Jent from our own. Moreover, even ¢lthe Chinese themselves have for icerturies recognized the difficulty of ascertaining in advance what is the likelihood of being paid for goods by a man who is not personally known to them, and the consequence is that they refuse to trade with him, confining themselves only" to those traders known personally to them or who have established re-
Putations through some guild or} Jother means, rather than run into unnecessary "dangers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.