The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-24
FOREIGN TRADE
 TOWARD ORIENT

It is evident that the foreign trade of America is at the end of xthe first period of it's development and now confronts new phase of extension likely to be quite different from the war-stimulated activities of the half decade or so since war interrupted the worlds established trade relations. Up to this time, our expanded foreign trade has been largely in the direc- tion of Europe and South America; in the coming years it will be the Orient that will claim an increasing share of attention from American ex- porters and importers.
 The decision of the National For eign Trade Council to hold it's 1920 meeting on the Pacific Coast, and to devote the major part of the con vention's time to matters dealing with trade in Pacific countries and the Orient generally is a timely re- cognition of the importance of Paci- fic trade and of the part it must play in the future development of Amer ican business. It must be recognized that Europe will, in the nature of things, regain a great deal of it's former trade with less developed parts of the world as soon as in dustry again becomes reconstructed in the nations of that continent. Signs that are significant of this trend are already visible and show that, in spite of the demoralization of the war years, the manufa cturers of Europe are very much alive to the renewal of their former trade affili- ations.
 Conditions in the Orient, however, bear a different complexion. That part of the globe has experienced an economic awakening of which the world at large has little comprehen- sion as yet, but which will undoubt- ed1y play a most important part in 1 the readjustment of American for eign trade to postwar conditions. The awakening now so evident in such nations as, China, the Straits ] Settlements, British India and a few l others was brought about by a num- ! Der of factors, but the leavening of 1 the movement came from the in
 crease in the value of silver, the fa- ! vorite commodity and medium of ex- 1 change of these countries.
 To more than half of the worlds i population silver is the life blood of trade. Although principally found
 in the United States, Canada and 1 Mexico, it eventually finds it's way tc ] the Orient, where it performs double l duIy dS St COulIAOulIy aIu q cur
 rency. In it's first role, it affords the 1! business men of the Orient thelr | speculative medium to a more com plete extent than is afforded by any commodity or agency in the western i world, and in it's second role it gives the means of boarding wealth, and affords a medium of exchange with 1 out which trade between the Orient l and the Occident would come to 2 i standstin.
 The rise in the value of silver
 since the low figure prevailing ir 1915, which was the lowest in more
 than two centuries, to the quotations
 now prevailing has introduced into 1 Chinese and Oriental life a factor ot ] unexampled strength. No single 1 event in recent history has so closely
 affected the actual day-to-day live:
 of the 800,00O,O 900 human beings o- the Continent of Asia as the increase i in silver values. To this vast horde with living conditions far below anything ever conceived in Europe ol America, a trebling of wages ant prices, and an insistent world de
 mand for native products ha
 brought about a regeneration that il
 one of the most profound and far
 reaching results of the world con
 flict-
 To peoples whose every commer
 cial transaction is handled in silve
 or in currency Ibased on silver, i
 is not difficult to comprehend tn
 remarkable character of the after
 math of a triple increase in tn
 value of that metal. For instance silver's average price in the Unite
 States in 1915 was 51.S cents pc ounce, compared with an 'averag
 for 1918 of 9S.4 cents per ounce, an a fluctuating value that in 191 reached $1.S7 1-2 per ounce. An in teresting corollary and side1ight O the same matter is contained in report from Consul General iThoma
 Sammons, at Shanghai, in which tn : rates are given for the official cor version of the Chinese haikwan tat ? into American currency. The valu of the haikwan tael in United State