The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1905-07-27
Business Methods n China.

Business Methods In China.
English and American globe trotters
have been heard from so often upon
the subject Of the peculiar ways Of the
heather Chinese that it is pleasure to
turn to Frenchman's story Of the all
around life Of the Celestials. This is
furnished in a recent work by M. Emile
Bard, who is neither traveller nor a
missionary, but business man who
has lived there as trader. Mr.. Bard
reiterates the familiar stories Of Chi
nese etiquette, which holds that lying
is a virtue if politely done, the hon
esty of servants to their employers
and dishonesty with every body else and
their racial impracticability in absolute
ly refusing to admit that 1.-TWO and two
make four
Variations in the value of Chinese
money are explained by Mr.. Bard
The money unit is the tael, which is not
coin, but weight of silver. The
commercial tael is that of Canton and
should weigh 37.783 grains, but usually
weighs only 1888 grains. The tael Of
Shanghai weighs &c. grains, and each
large city has it's own, differing in
value from most of the Others Ingots
of silver are cut from bars into pieces
estimated at SO taels. Each one who
handles the ingots weighs them. Says
MI. Bard:
Banks store their money In cellars, in
boxes carried back and forth by coolies.
This explains the item of transportation
which is deducted from the face of a
Chinese check when it is cashed at a
bank. One can judge Of the complica-
lions consequent upon this system Of
conversion of taels Of different values into
1ngots of different weight and purity, es-
pecially as assayers Of different localities
refuse to honor the stamps of other
cities. Small payments are made by cut
ting up an ingot. The scale used in
weighing these fragments has two sets
of markings-one for receipts and one for
payments.
The national copper coin is extern
sively counterfeited. People carry both
kinds, and prices are unblushingly
quoted in good" and 'bad" coin. Mr..
Bard says that merchant never hest
tates to deliver fraudulent or inferior
goods, if he thinks he can escape de-
lection. He himself has found small
shot in cocoons, the holes through which
they were inserted being carefully sew
ed up and covered with silk. He has
found needles in the stems of feathers,
inserted to increase their weight.
Bricks and pieces of iron are to be
found in bales Of merchandise, finely
cut chicken feathers mixed with elder
down.
This author finds many a good word
to say about the Chinese social sys-
tenn, and he thinks that the yellow
perip' is a question for distant centu-
ries rather than possibility of the
near future. His reasons are those of
man Of practical affairs, as follows:
China has no capital and never will
have SO long as it's finances are so badly
administered, with the mandarins in con-
troll It's people are poor. ~ The whole
government budget is inferior to that of
the city of Paris alone. The danger, If
any, will come from Industries established
with European capital and managed ex-
clusively by Europeans. The only chance
of competitive success even then would
lie in the cheapness of native hand labor.
This Is generally of an inferior quality,
for every sort of work requiring muscular
exertion three Cinnamon being needed to
do the work of one European. This be-
Ing the case, Chinese wages are not much
less than those of Europe In the cotton
mills III Shanghai salaries have quad
rupled in twenty years, while the wages
Of coolies on the Acknowledging railroad
have doubled. 1t would be surprising if
land newly born to Industrial life should
for centuries find itself in condition to
supplant nations having behind them the
experience Of generations of enlightened
capitalists and skilled, alert workmen.