"In the past, a great portion of the nation's capital has been imported from abroad and from the Interior for land investment purposes, Were it not for the enterprise of our foreign friends in stake ing their interests in this side of the globe, Shanghai would not have Assumed the place it now occupies. 'The people of the country, too; have been' concentrating their wealth in this port, a large part of which has tone' into real estate investments.
"We are also aware that part of the capital for settling our unfavourable balance of trade, which should have been sent abroad, has remained here and has been invested. in land, On the other hand, capital imported from hag' helped to. offset the jo trade balance against China, and a good of this capital has again been placed in land holdings, "The depression, which has swept the whole world, ig still holding its grip on China, and particularly {hig most important city of the Far Bast, "It is needless to trace the many contributing forces that help to make the situation what it is, but undoubtedly one of these factors, if not the most preponderant, is the inactivity of the real estate market or the stagnation of the land business,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.