Arizona republican., 1909-06-07
THE LARGEST CONSUMER
A State of Affairs Accounted For by the Large Importa- tions Immediately Follow ing the Termination of the War in the Far East.

" dSnlnSlOI, June b.-CtllHd iSs a rule, the largest purchaser of American cOttons, but in the years 1907 and H90S the exports of cotton cloths to that country fell to a small fraction of those of the immediately preceding years. Exports of cotton cloths to China averaged in the fis- cal year 1905 and 1906 4S6,000, 900 yards per annum; in 1907 and 1908 they averaged but 6S,000.000 per an mum, or one-seyenth as much as the average of 1905-6. In the fiscal year 1906 the quantity of cotton cloths exported to China aggregated 49S,- 521,4O2 yards; in the fiscal year 1908. only two years later, the quantity was 49,S76,671, or just one-tenth as much as in 1906.
 This large falling off in the eX- ports of cotton cloths 10 our formerly largest customer, China, was due, chiefly at least, to the fact that the imports of that country in 1905 and 1906 were abnOrmally large and far in excess of the actual cOnsum
 ing power of that market. North China, especially Manchuria, sup plies the principal market of that country for American cottons and when the termination of the Russo Japanese war indicated that the doors of that section would be again open ed to commerce the importatiOns of cottons and especially American cot tons. into China were enormously in creased, and as a consequence our exports of cotton cloths to China advanced from seventy-seven million yards in 1904 to 475,O00,O00 in 1905 and 499, ,OO0, ,O00 in 1906, while Chinese imports of cottons from other coun- tries also enormously increased.
 This large increase of importatiOns proved to be far in excess of the consuming power of China as a whole, and especially of North China whose fiscal conditions had been so affected by events during the war as to reduce its purchasing power be- low the estimates upon which the large importations had been based. As a consequence, cotton goods from all parts of the world, and especially from the United States, accumulated in enormous quantities in the go downs" as the warehouses of the Orient are designated. Thus the large reduction in purchases of cotton by China which followed this eXces- sive importation of 1905 and 1906. and the consequent fall of our eX- ports to that country in 1907 and 1908. Occasioned little surprise to those familiar with the facts above noted; while the increase in the current fiscal year, 1909, is in turn the natural result of the absorption in that country of the accumulated stocks and a return to normal de- mands upon the sections of the world from which China has been ac- customed to draw her supplies of foreign made cotton cloths.
 The April export statement of the bureau of statistics of the depart ment of commerce and labor shows clearly the marked increase of ex- ports of cottons to China and the return toward normal conditions In the single month of April the quan
 tity of cotton goods exported to China was 16, 7S634S yards, against r. 237,119 in April Of last year, and in the ten months ending with April, 1909, the total export of cotton cloths to China was 100, ,l16, 737 yards, against 30,597, 101 yards in the cor responding period of 1908. This to- tai of 100 million yards of cottons sent to China in the ten months ending with April, 1909, is larger than in any corresponding period prior to 1899, and has only been exceeded on six occasions, namely in 1899, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1905 and 1906. For the month of April alone the exports of cottons to China are larger than in that month of any prior year except 1902, 1903, 1905 and 1906.
 The cotton goods trade with China has shown during the last decade a much greater fuctuation than that with other parts of the world In the decade ending with 1899 there was a steady upward trend, but no violent changes. In 1899, however, the exports suddenly increased, be- ing more than double those of the | immediately preceding year. while in 1900 they were slightly less than in 1899. In 1901 the total dropped to less than half that of 1900 or 1899: | in 1902 and 1903 it again attained a higher mark than in any earlier years, il 1904 it dropped to about One-fourth that of the average of 1902 and 1903; in 1905 and 1906 was. as already indicated, by far the l largest in the history of that trade: | in 1907 and 1908 dropped to a small l fraction of the 1905 and 1906 aver