The sun., 1901-10-09

creased from $32, ,639,07T to $3S,945, ,7G3,
a gain of only 1913 per cent, while our
imports from South America showed a
decrease of s.4 per cent Analysis of the
distribution of the $3.50, 100000 of trade,
export and import, between the United
States and Asia and Oceania during the
last fiscal year shows the following main
divisions:
Hawaiian Islands ......... .S34,2l1 900
British Australasia ......... 81, 1I0000
China and Hong Kong. ..... 51,S9I 900
Japan ................... 0d'SIS'VVVoo
East lndles ................ iJ'otoUuV
Philippine Islands .......... S,612OOO
Aslatlc Russia ............. ouoO'oOO
Other Asia and Oceania $3.50. 9,10IO00
iOtdi s........... ''h-coiioo'Ooo
1t will be perceived that what is nsu-
ally designated AZ our trade with the
Orient, namely: with China and Hong
Kong, Japan, the Philippines and the
East Indies. accounts for SOP, 19T 900
of this total, of which SG2, ,101 900 are
export and S140.090,0O0 imports. That
is to say, we bought from these countries
last year SIT 9S3, 600 more than we sold
to them. Other considerations apart, and
proceeding on the theory that all COM
merce resolves itself into barter. there
appears to be here an ample margin for
the doubling of our export trade with
the Orient. The margin is largest i'll the
trade with the British and Dutch West
Indies, from which we buy sugar, coffee.
spices, chemicals. hides. vegetable fibers
and block tin. and to which we sell only
limited amount of cotton cloths. min
eral oils and sundries. In the trade with
China and Hong Kong the exports came
within 81 .10I 900 of balancing the i'm
ports, and in the trade with Japan the
excess of imports over exports was only
S., ,G31 200. The exceptional conditions
under which trade with the Philippines
has been conducted since the American
ocupation render any generalization IN
regard to them premature. The fact may
be noted, however, that while for the last
fiscal year the imports from the I'm lp-
pines were more than double the value
of our exports to them, for the illst ten
months of the current fiscal year exports
and imports about balance each other.
AS to the countries of Eastern Asia. the
fact should he horne iii mind that, though
the growth of the export trade has been
the more rapid, there has been also Il
for 1890 being S21 103,324, against SD
OST. $40 in 1900, for Japan. and $1T.23O,-
216 in 1890. against $2S. 152 3T0 in 1909,
for China and Hong Kong.
4
The expectations of future trade with
these countries must depend upon certain
special conditions which are peculiar to
each. The limit of the expansion OF Jap
anese trade has probably been reached
for the present. Its history is one of the
most remarkable chapters in the CONNER
cial annals of the world. Measured III
the native currency. the fore gn trade ms
increased from 34.000,O0O yen in lSii9 &c
435,OOO,0OO yen in 1899. But the eX'
change value of the yen IN lS99 was
fraction less than 30 cents, while III loos
it was over dollar, so that the increase
instead of being nearly twelye-fold Is, OF
a gold basis, less than siX-foid. In what
ever currency it is calculated, the III
crease is, nevertheless. one to which il
would be difficult to find parallel The
foreign trade of China has increased
from 127 100000 haikwan taels in lSo'
TO 461 900. 900 haikwan taels in lS',9-ai
expansion in taels of 263 per cent. Int
exchange value of the tael was 10 cent
in 1890. against S1.5S in 1863. so tina
tbe gold value of the foreign trade witt
China may be roughly stated at S2oo,
100000 in 1869, against S336, 6,ooo.ooo Il
1899. Taking the latter figure as repre-
senting the last normal year of Chini
trade and the basis on which the posi-
biities of the future are to De estihnateu
the enormous capacity for expansion
which this trade presents becomes strik
ingly manifest China is PRACTICAL.
where Japan was thirty years ago since
were her foreign trade to bear the sam
proportion to population as does tina tnat 90
japan, it would amount to 2,lIoooo'oo
or over six times the maximum II AZ
tanned in the calendar year lS99.
There is nothing chimerical in the ide
that the foreign trade of China may a
tain a relative, or per capita, value ecu;
to that of Japan. The country is inca