Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-28

Our Cotton Goods in China.
NesU York Times
In its recently issued report on "The
| Cotton Goods Trade of the World" the
| State Department devotes considerable
space to the condition and prospects of
our trade with China. 1t is clearly evil
dent that there is q great trade in cotton
goods awaiting us in that part of the
world, not only in China, but in other
parts of the vast Asian continent, but
there are some obstacles to its present
growth. AS regards China, the vastness
of the future market is easily demon
strated by a few figures. There are
400, 900, 900 people in the empire. They
| clOthe themselves almost entirely with
cotton. Each person requires twenty
yards per year. making an annual de-
mand for 5000 100000 yards. But the
imports amount to only about 500, 000,-
900 per year, or enough to supply %, 000,-
600 people, leaving 375, 900, 900 Deepen
dent on the productions of the native
hand looms. The problem of our manu-
tacturers is to put Americau-made cloth
on the backs of these 375. 000, 900 China
men. The grandeur of this calculation
recalls at once the method by which the
profits on Colonel Sellers "eye water
were figured out to be something like
sixteen hundred million dollars for Asia
alone, but within the limits of sober re-
atty, there is wide and hopeful field
for American enterprise in the direction
these figures indicate. The obstacles to
| the immediate expansion of our China
cotton goods trade are quite we'll under
stood. Our prices are too high for com
| petition with our chief manufacturing
rivals or with the hOmespun fabrics; and
the British merchant, as usual, has a
pretty firm hand on the market.
Our cotton piece goods are the best in
| quality which the Chinaman can get. If
the sale of goods depended simply on their
merits, therefore, we ought to drive all
competition from the market. But the
| laws of commercial morality are reversed
in China The honest, all-cOtton, SER
viceable American goods are hard to sell,
while the deluded Celestials eagerly buy
the tiimsy and almost worthless British
goods, made of cotton adulterated with
fifty per cent. of clay "sizing," which
comes out at the first washing. The
| British practice of adulterating cotton
| piece goods for the Chinese market is no
| secret. 1t is openly discussed and de-
Tended in consular reports, and has long
been one of the acknowledged facts of
the cotton trade. The practice arose dur
ing the war of the rebellion, when Great
| Britain had monopoly of the Chinese
| trade. Raw cotton was then scarce and
| high, and British manufacturers began
to make special grades of goods for
China, consuming from one-third to one
half less cotton, and giving the goods
the usual weight and frmness by the use
of clay sizing. The profits of this out
| rageous fraud were enormous, and still
continue SO; for when, some years after
the close of the war, our cotton manu-
| features once more found their way to
the Chinese market, it was found that
the natives actually preferred the worth
less British article, or, at least, could not
be made to see that they would save
money by buying American all-cotton
| goods even at the higher price
The average price of the adulterated
| British plain piece goods shipped to
China in 1880 was 4. SO cents per ward
and OF printed piece goods OH cents
American plain goods sold at z 80 cents,
and prints at IL cents. Our prints, it
will be seen, are cheaper than the British
| prints, while our plain piece goods are
| priced at nearly double what the CLAY
sized stuffs sell for The report of the
| State Department, considering the cues.
ton whether we can sell our superior
| cOttOns at ANYTHING like WI at the British
inferior goods are quoted at, asks, if we
cannot, whether it will pay to manufac
tuIe special goods for that market. and
if we can hope by so doing ''to compete
with British manufactures who have re.
duced adulteration to science?" This
! opens the question of American adulter-
alton. British COnsuls have often de-
clared that American cotton weavers
could never get possession of the Chi
nese market except by the free use of
| clay. So far as we know our cOnsuls
have uniformly recommended the con
traiy course-a continuance in our pres
| ent honest way of dealing with the Chi
nesc. We cannot meet the British manu-.
facturer with his own disreputable
weapons and beat him. He is too skill
full in their use and has too many i'm.
pOrtant advantages. The American
| Consular view is in perfect accord with
| the opinion expressed bv an English mer.
chant, that ut is the quality alone that has
| put the Americans where they are in these
their hold at once"
Our hold" is not as yet very firm. In
1879 Great Britain sent 454, O4O. 500
| yards of piece goods to China. and we
sent but %, 600, 900 yards. But it is to be
noted that this is five times as much as
we sent in 1876, while Great Britain's ex.
ports for 1880 were %, 900, 900 yards less
than in 1879. The British manufac.
turers not only adulterate their goods,
but they counterfeit American trade
marks to a large extent. Nevertheless,
it cannot be said that their trade is grow
ing in China, while ours certainly is.
There are several factors in the problem
besides considerations of price aud quail
| ity. There are very few American mer.
chants in China and our manufacturers
are imperfectly represented We are in
this respect at a great disadvantage as
compared with our competitors. The
American trade is pressed only when the
home market is dull, very little attention
being paid to China when cotton fabrics
are in good demand here This inter-
mittent activity is fatal to the establish
ment of permanent trade, as our own
merchants have been repeatedly warned
by the United States Consuls. With
patient. intelligent and persistent effort
we can build up very profitable market
in China for cotton goods of good
| quality. 1t is certainly wiser to make
the attempt honestly than to resort to
| GLOW