The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-11-29
OUR TRADE WITH CHINA
How the Opening of the Country
Would Affect Americans.
GREAT COMMERCIAL CHANGES.
We Would Make Millions I'm building
Steam and Electric Eoads-The Chi
nese Would Soon Adopt American
Clothes and Keep Our Factories
Busy-CAinn's Vast Mineral Wealth.

nese Would Soon ADOPT American
Clothes and Keep Our Factories
Busy-CAina's Vast Mineral Wealth.
"Few people in the United States
have the slightest conception of what
the opening of China will mean to their
commercial interests said leading
manufacturer Of the United States who
has recently returned from six months
tour of the Celestial empire to q New
York Sun reporter the other day. "The
competition for the trade of the orient
IS becoming more fierce every year, one
might say almost every month, and
when the gates are finally opened and it
becomes posi- BILE to trade with China as
we now trade with Europe, the rush for
commercial concessions will be some
thing terrific. at present England is far
IN the lead, followed by America, Ger
many, Japan and Russia in the order
named. Germany is exerting all it's in
fuence toward obtaining and maintain
ing commercial supremacy in China,
and where years ago the shopkeepers
would say, This is English, they now
point to the familiar stamp, Made i'll
Germany AS a result of this effort it
may be noted that three years ago the
number of vessels entering and clearing
from Chinese ports showed 81, $40 flying
the British flag and 1855 flying the
German flag, while in 1897 the number
of British vessels fell to Is, 973, while
the Germans increased to 2, 0l6. Japan
and Russia are also rapidly forging
ahead.
Japan has been so busy for the last
few years in supplying its own market
that it has not entered into full compe-
tition with the other nations of the
world for the China trade Japan has
still a considerable home market to sup
ply, and it is to this market that her
energies will be devoted principally for
the next decade. Tho japanese, how
ever, are well aware Of the commercial
opportunities of China and of the adj
vantages which Will result to the nation
first occupying the ground. AS they are
the shrewdest people Of the eastern
world, the rcadicst to adapt themselves
to European customs, the most skillful
workmen and the best traders, they
have amply earned their title of the
duheeS VI til0 ORIENT.
Russia will not enter into COMPETE
tion in manufactures for many years to
come, but in other lines her competition
is to be dreaded by Americans, possibly
more than that of all the other nations
combined. Russia has vast wheatfields,
the products of which she will be en-
abled by the new Transsiberian rail.
road, with its connections, to lay down
at the doors of the Chinese as far south
as Picking, and by means of the new
American railroad as far as Canton. By
the same means she will be enabled to
transport the products of her iron mines
and coal mines and her oil wells, and
by exerting her power force the Chinese
to admit them at the lowest rate of inn
port duty. Already Russian petroleum
has begun to undersell American oil,
and between the Russian and Samaritan
oils the American oil is apt to be forced
out of the market entirely. Although
1897 was a bad year for import and ex-
port trade of China, the Importation of
oil increased 32,000,O00 gallons. In
1894 the importation of American oil
amounted to 81, 600, 600 gallons, of Rus
sian oil 1900, 900 and of Samaritan oil
only 100000 gallons. In 1897 the inn
portation of American oil had fallen off
to 4S, 100000 gallons, while that of
Russian oil had increased to $4,000, 900
gallons and that of Samaritan oil to a..
O0O,O 900.
When one stops to think of the i'm
mensity of the Chinese market which
still is yet untouched by European COM
MERGE, one is lost in wonderment. The
most conservative estimate of the popu-
lation of China is 400, 900, 900 souls.
China proper is about 1,475 miles in
length and i, 800 miles in breadth and
contains an area of 1,34S, $40 miles,
covering a territory in which the tea
plant and the cocoon are produced at
one extreme and fur bearing animals at
the other. at present its agricultural
resources have been only slightly devel-
oped, SO far as commercial purposes are
concerned, although, owing to the den
sity of the population, it has been nee
essary that every available foot of terri
tory should be highly cultivated. The
mineral wealth of China, which isyast,
has practically never been touched.
Although, owing to the great popula-
tion and the cheapness of living, manu-
featuring in China could be carried on
at less expense than anywhere else OH
the globe, and the raw materials, such
as cotton and silk and iron, are right at
hand, manufacturing as we know it has
never been undertaken in China, and
the day must come when the primitive
hand loom must give way to the ma
chinery driven by steam and electricity.
"The density Of the population and
the possibility of the agricultural and
mining resources of interior China not
only guarantee that railroads will be
extremely profitable, but offer the
greatest field in the world for electric
railroads, which could run from town
to town and village to village, forming
q system which could be spread all over
China like network. The building of
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