The herald., 1898-09-04
THE MARKETS OF CHINA
THEIR ATTRAcTIvENEss TO
AMERICAN TRADE
A STEADY GAIN FOR THE U. S.
The Advancing Price Of Beef-The
Country Banker-British Board
Of Trade Returns
OFFICE or THE HERALD.

OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles, Sept. 3, 1898.
The success Of the United States in the in
vasion Of the markets of China Is illustrated
by some figures Just prepared by the treas
ury bureau of statistics, showing that our
exports to that market have Of late In
creased much more rapidly than those OF
other parts Of the world, and that the heavy
falling off in imports OF certain lines of
goods into China In the last year has not
been as seriously felt by the United States
as by other nations with which we
come In competition. An examination of
our exports to China during the fiscal year
Just ended, says Bradstreet's. shows a
marked Increase In large numbers Of ar
ticles, and that the reduction in cotton
goods. which has caused the slight decrease
In the total. is much less proportionately
than that Of our chief rivals in supplying
the cotton goods market of that county.
While our total export to China during the
year just ended fell Off little less than
$,O00.o 900. the fall In cotton goods alone was
81, $50 900. thus showing that the falling off
in this class OF exports was responsible for
the reduction In the grand total of our ex-
ports to that country. A further examina-
tion, however, OF this reduction in cotton
goods exports to China shows that 1t was
Incidental to an enormous reduction Of
cotton piece goods importations by that
country. and that the United States suffered
less by that reduction proportonately than
did other countries with which she is
competing for that market. The recent re-
port on the trade Of China, published by
the inspector-general OF chinese customs,
says OF the import trade in cotton piece
goods: 1.-The year 1897. owing to the fall in
exchange and the heavy stocks carried over
from 1896. was one of the worst on record
for the piece goods trade" That the re-
ducton In imports In cotton goods was
partly due to an increase OF cotton manu-
factures in China. as we'll as heavy stocks
carried over from the preceding year. is
shown by further statement contained in
the same report. which says that the impor-
tation Of raw cotton increased more than
60 per cent in 1897. and that Of Japanese cot
ton yarn more than doubled. That the
American imports of cotton goods suffered
less than those Of other countries is shown
by paragraph Of the report in question,
which says: "The trade in cotton piece
goods shows, as was expected. falling off
however, continue to increase in favor.
these being almost the only exception to the
general decline. The favor which the
American goods find in the Chinese market
Is due to their cheapness." -.'--
Another evidence that American goods
exported into China have suffered less by
the general reduction than those Of our
chief rivals for that trade Is shown by a
~ China
during the past six months with those of
Great Britain to China during the same pc
riod. The June statement Of trade and
navigation Of the United Kingdom. which
covers six months exports by articles.
specifies the amounts Of cotton and woolen
goods and manufactures Of metal exported
to various countries. This shows that the
exports Of these articles to China and Hong
Kong in the six months ending with June
Tell off nearly 100000. or over II per cent.
as compared with the corresponding six
months Of the preceding year. Our own
statement Of exports to China and Hong
Kong includes, beside manufactures Of cot
ton and metal, provisions, breadstuffs, ma
val stores, manufactures of tobacco and
manufactures Of wood, the list containing
double the number Of articles of that named
decrease In the list Of articles named In our
own reports amounts to less than $500, 900,
against the net decrease of nearly s., 900 900
in a much smaller list Of the exports of
Great Britain in the corresponding period
pf time. Our own statement of the COM
merce Of the year shows an increase in ex-
ports Of flour, bicycles. carriages and cars,
fruits and nuts, telegraph instruments, tede-
phones, scientific instruments, canned beef,
bacon, hams, butter, cheese, seeds, tobacco,
lumber and other articles to China during
the year just ended as compared with the
preceding year.
The steady gain which the United States
Is making In its effort to obtain a share Of
the market which China affords is shown by
the following comparison Of our imports
into China and Hong Kong from 1880 to 1893
with those Of Great Britain during the same
period. The table, 1t will be observed,
shows an Increase Of over 800 per cent in ex-
ports from the United States to China and
Hong Kong during that period and a de-
crease Of Is per cent in those from the
United Kingdom to the same market in the
same time.
United States figures include domestic and
foreign merchandise. while those of the
United Kingdom include domestic mer-
chandise only.
Exports from United States and United
Kingdom to China and Hong Kong from
1880 to 1888:
United United