SERIES of four articles giving a very comprehensive survey of the World's trade and Coi cree during the past year and the outlook for the future, will pear in these columns. The first of which is appended.
The past year has been particularly unfortunate for the Shanghai investor for the disas er of war and the enormous destruction it has brought in its train has coincided with a salami tous drop in share and commodity markets abroad. Local debentures and equities of every type, Chinese Government and Railway Bonds have slumped.
Rubber shares have followed the drop in the raw article and investments on the London and New York Stock Exchanges have also severely declined.
No matter how diversified in character and widespread geographically his investments may have been, sharp depreciation can scarcely have been avoided, The domestic outlook is quite in-dudable for it is bound up with the fortunes of war: even the future of developed so that a period of continuing prosperity was the common anticipation. the currency is far from secure, The situation abroad, however, is arenable to rational discussion. Such a survey falls naturally into three parts; the activity of industry and trade; the production, consumption and prices of commodities; and the Course of the security markets. The first is of pre-eminent importance, for prosperity depends on the volume of production "and trade and is not primarily a function of price; nor does it need continuously rising markets.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.