The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-29 00:00:00

lATBRESTING LETTER FROM CHINA

(From ae Cyri•espondent.)
SHANGHAI, OCT. 17.
SALANCE Cr TRADE.
The reader who may haply have followed me through
my discussion of the opium trade will probably have
long since forgotten that it came under our consideration
only as one article of import.
If we have to pay 15,000,000/. for tea and silk, and
deliver only 7,000,0001. in opium and 1,500,000/. in
India cotton, and 2,000,0001. in British manufactures,
we have 4,500,0001. still to makeup. Of course, we try
to do this as much as possible without putting our hands
into our pockets. We buy rice at Siam, and, tryina,, to
.
lo
place some of our goods there in return for it, wetcr n
t
ship it to Canton or to any other hungry and ut
infested province, whereof China always has several.
We go into the Straits and buy or barter sharks' fins
and birds' nests, putchuck and catch, buffalo horns and
mother-of-pearl shells), and all such lik.e Chinese delights,
and we proffer them in part payment.. But there is still
a large margin to fill up. No wonder, then, that in the
first three months of this year, 1857, we were obliged to
export 7,639,000 dolt in silver, or diet the drain has
since been going on with undiminished'. strength.
Moreover, we must remember that of the 8,500,0°01.
which we take in opium and cotton from India, we can-
not pay for it all even by the thriving export trade to
Calcutta, nor absorb quite all the balance in rent and
in dividends upon East India stuck. Some silver or gold
must go there also.
Bus another serious inconvenience arises from this
payment for tea and silk in silver bullion. Silver is not
an article which, like birds' nests, the Chinese can make
soup of, nor is it their custom to expend it greatly for
articles of luxury. Their women -wear bracelets and anklets
of it, but the men prefer to gloat over it in the form of
ingots. Now, according to laws from which even China
cannot emancipate herself, it happens that as the rarity
of an article of barter ceases so its commercial value di-
minishes. This is already taking place in China. Nut
only are the exchanges against ore, but people who are
paid their salaries here in silver find that the dollar, so
dear tobuy from England, is becoming daily leglvaluable
inChina. Somoyears ago a Carolus dollar could& bought
at 4s. 2d. English money, and when. you had thus bought
it you could change it for 2,000 of tho copper cash of the
nountry. At the present day, partly by action of the
exchanges, and partly because the people of the interior
once had a superstitions confidence in the-weight and
purity of the Carolne dollar, and preferred it to any
other medium of commerce as the only foreign coin
they knew—just as some of our country people prefer
the notes of a neighbouring bank to Bank of Eng-
land notes or sovereigns—a Carats dollar coats us
here 7s. English money. Wheu you have suffered
this less by the exchange, another less comes upon you
when. you ccehungo it into the Gerdy currency of the
country. Instead of getting 2,000 cash fer it you have
great difficulty in getting 1,200. This second leas arises
partly from the country people having got over their
inordinate love of Cerolus dollar; chiefly from the dirni-
niehed value of silver, and in a small degree from the
increased scarcity of copper crib. This scarcity of cash
also arises from the diminished value of silver. Imme-
diately the re:ative value of silver and copper was
diC-
turbed the Parsees found it profitable, notwithstanding
the Chinese prohibition, to export the cash as metal.
They are now working the same operations is gold.—
buying up all they can get and exporting it to India.
Thus it happens that a man who leas a fixed income
from, England, instead of getting, 2,000 cash for every
4s. 2d., only gets 1,200 cash for awry 73., a differeoco
so enormous that it would be incredible it every tatle of
official figures did not prove the fact.
Strange to eat, that merchants here-draw no conclu-
sions from these premises. Fortunately- for himself,
however, the merchant's optics are those of the lynx
rather than those. of the eagle. Au extremely far.
sighted commercial man must always tun risk of bank-
ruptcy, for the most absulut,cly curtain sequences are
often the most uncertain in point of time. But as time
is the essence of cornunrce, your farsighted merchant
/A wild be ruined while his certain sequence was still in
sight.
They see prices going up enormously, and, with occa-
sional vibrations, still maintaining their advance. They
look upon that as an unnatural state of things in the face
of abundant silk seasons, and they refuse to bi Un-
doubtedly they may thus temporarily reduce prices, for
accumulated stoops must by sold ; but in the long run
pr icy will continue to advance in spite of them, until
theY reach a point at which competition will stop the
pride, oe rather the sale of China silk, and price will
chick the consumption of China tea, This may not he
so Vii;ey far distant, for, if my reasoning is correct, silver
will become dearer in Europe just in proportion as it
beeesetee cheaper in China. This tall of silver was for-
inerly,worth 2,000 copper cash, and is now only worth
1,100.; but the Caineee producer reckons his expendi-
ture and hie returns wily in copper cash. As silver
becomes more plentiful its value in relation to copper
cash goes on diminishing—it takes more silver every year
to give to the peasant who grows silk or tea his remu
narating amount of tho only currency he knows.
If I am right in this position, then, our Britkh mere
chants in China. must admix, what at present soine of
them are most unwilling and most careless to perceive,
that it is vital to their wellbeing to attempt to push our
manufactures into China. We may find a silver Cali-
fornia, but, putting miracle aside, I can see no other
remedy for the present unsatifactory state of things—no
other means whereby the export of tea and silk can go
on—except the sending of cottons and broadcloths and
hardware and lace to Chins. instead of bullion.
Rit.mtoisa XLLE,614.0 von T 1,114 P.S.I.IUIT Olt 113TBI