Shanghai merchants, both Chinese and foreign, have also played a prominent part in keeping the wheels of trade moving, and last year they managed to overcome many of the obstructions which existed in 1938. Shanghai still continues to maintain its paramount position in Chinese trade, its total for 1939 being within £5,000,000 of that for 1936, the last year to be unaffected by the conflict, while the clearances of ships from Shanghai for foreign countries was in 1939 only 6 per cent. lower than in 1936, In regard to the financial position, both the Chairmen of the Chartered Bank and of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank referred to the establishment of the Chinese Currency Stabilization Fund in April, 1939, Sponsored by the British and Chinese Governments. The hope was that the [existence and management of the Fund would impart stability to the external value of the Chinese currency, and thus assist in the development of trade between Great Britain and China, with, of course, corre-spending benefits to banking. However, owing to many adverse factors and a tendency on the part of the Chinese to seek safety in commodities or foreign currencies, exchange depreciated badly, the Chinese dollar eventually falling to 3%d. Nevertheless, with the outbreak of the European war and an improved trend in exports, conditions became steadier.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.