Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-19

Consul Simons at Hong Kong makes the fol-
lowing report to the State Department upon
American trade opportunities in China:
AMERICAN PRODUCTS IN CHINA.
As a future market for American and
European products China, with its population
of 400 900 600, offers prospects unparalleled by
any country not at present fully opened to the
markets of the world. If we desire to secure
our proportionate share of this market, how
ever, our merchants must study more carefully
than they have hitherto done both the national
characteristics of the Chinese and the pre-
else nature of their requirements. The
first may be briefly summarized fol-
lows: Intense conservatism, a stolid disre-
gard of personal comfort according to our
ideas). strangely combined in the Weather
classes with lavish expenditure and great
display in their domestic life. and in busi-
ness matters an extreme caution, amounting at
times to utter indifference to the adoption of
modern ideas or inventions. These peculiari-
ties are well exemplifed in the Chinese inhap-
itants of our American cities. who, after years
of contact with their white neiShbors.
still cling to their hard. uncomfortable
chairs and couches. never even substi-
tuting the feather or pillow for their neck
breaking wooden article, while they imported
from Hong Kong alone last year over s40O. 900
worth of Chinese food product and S53 900 of
Chinese medicines.
STUDYING THE SITUATION.
The second point to be considered by the
American merchant in the endeavor to open a
Chinese market for his products is. as / have
said, the precise nature of the requirements
OF the people. For example. in coun-
try where there practically are no wheeled We
bicies and everything is transported on, the
shoulders of barefooted coolies there
is naturally little need of paved
consequently absurd to think of in
Producing expensive American road-making
machinery crushers. ponderous steam
rollers and the like. Yet | am constantly re-
ceiving letters from American manufacturers
asking my assistance in introducing these and
other machinery. such as saw and planning mills.
moving and thrashing machines and harvesters
all equally absurd in their inadaptility to the
requirements OF a country where there are
large farms or plantations and where human
labor is SO cheap as to be drug in the market.
For certain of our products, on the other
hand. such as flour, kerosene oil, lamps. clocks.
watches, knit goods, umbrellas, &C., there
Is already large and steadily increasing
dema nd while L am convinced that many
of our mechanical inventions. such as small gas
engines, foot lathes, printing presses, and espe-
pecially American hand tools and hardware
of every description, would find ready sale
If the Chinese were once convinced of their
utility and economy. This can never be ac-
complished, however, by the policy hitherto
followed by most American manufacturers. of
flooding the country with descriptive trade cir
culars and illustrated catalogues
The one thing needful above all others to
convert the splendid possibilities of the future
into remunerative certainty is personal in
PRODUCTION Of our wares and patient explana-
ton OF their advantages by intelligent
agents. and the custom once secured can
only be retained by absolute integrity and
Fo,r dol
chant as the Chinese shrewd traders, and
their confidence in an individual dealer, once
shaken, can never be regained.
BUSINESS DEPRESSION.
81 regret to say that great depression pre-
walls in ali branches of business. Failures
have been numerous, and that condition known
all over the world as lack of confidence is
widely felt. Stocks of ali kinds even those paw
ing the normal dividends. have fallen enor-
mously, while the number Of companies in pro-
cess Of liquidation is n clear indication of the
absence of that atmosphere of general pros
perity SO essential to the success OF speculative
enterprises.
1.-Two causes are assigned for this undesirable
state of affairs: First the launching of
bubble companies" during the last
few years, which, it is claimed. has drained the
colony of many millions OF dollars; and. second
the ever-recurring question of exchange. Mer-
chants who purchased goods at a time when the
Mexican dollar was worth SIS or 90 cents in
gold must now either dispose of them a. a loss
or advance their prices, and he latter course is
always followed b. contraction in the amount
of salos.
1t is generally believed, indeed, that the
Legitimate" business of the colony has not
greatly suffered. while the shipping, which
Its very existence depends, shows. We have
seen. healthy increase. But the fact re-
mains. nevertheless, that universal dullness
prevails, money is tight and credit con-