"CHINESE ETHICS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 40, 16 August 1919, Page 10

"CHINESE ETHICS

INTEGRITY OF MERCHANTS

N. S. BAUKER'S TESTIMONY.

Dealings v/ith tha merchant of China have always been, marked by cordiality and honour, on the part of the Chinese, once tbe bargain is agreed on. In a review of Trading in. China, issued by that great American financial institution, the Guaranty Trust Company, of New York, it is stated that :'"Three basic elements govern Chinese business—personality, education, and honesty. Regarding the first, your representative in China must be a man of education and tact. The quality of aggressiveness which makes for success in the United States must be toned down in dealing with the Chinese, a dignified race that abhor the breeziness of a certain, type of salesmen. On the other hand, they have a profound reverence for a man of learning, ahd, if he is familiaT with their customs, business relations will proceed smoothly and profitably."

I An outstanding feature of the Chinese I character is his commercial honour, and he demands an equally high standard from the foreigner. One deviation from ' absolute integrity on the part of your representative would probably destroy your business in China. The Chinese merchant is noted for. liberality in all his dealings, is tenacious as to all that is material, with comparative disregard for trifles, never letting a transaction fall through on account of, punctilio, yielding to the prejudices of others wherever it can be done without material disadvantage. Judicial procedure being an abomination to respectable Chinese, their security in commercial dealings is based as much upon reason, good faith, and non-repudiation as is that of Western nations upon verbal finesse in the construction of contracts. THE IMPORTAJNT "CHOP." Of immense importance in the Chinese trade are the questions of trade-marks— called "chops" in China.—packing, and advertising.

Tli6 natives who eventually consume, the foreign traders' products are, to a great extent, illiterate. In purchasing their needs they invariably call for "Gold Fish," "Cloth," "8 Fairies Oil," "White Horse Dye," etc., rather than " Smith and Jones' Cotton Sheeting," "Watson's Oil," or "Williams' Dye." They identify an article by its label (" chop ") and any commodity's quality is made known through the coutntry, from mouth to mouth, by such words as "Gold Fish Cloth wears very well"; " I dyed some cloth two years ago with White Horse Dye and the colour is still brilliant" ; etc. The name of tha manufacturer is immaterial, being unknown to the purchaser, and " chops " are so valuable that foreign' merchants ana insistently urging the Chinese Government to enact more stringent legislation against their being, pirated. They also 'follow up any infringement of their " chops," sometimes maintaining a staff of special employees to ferret out cases c-f infringement. A " chop " that has gained a footing insures a continued and constantly increasing sale of the commodity bearing it. Vice versa, a bad " chop" means reduced sales and eventual extinction of the product it covers. GERMANS IN CHINA. Before the war German and British engineering combinations were highly successful' in China, aad in three years' secured engineering contracts' in that country valued at .^90,000,000. One German combinition included forty-seven engineering firms, in. addition to Krupps, and there were also represented in the organisation two shipping houses, one marine insurance firm, one life insurance company, and one fire and building insurance company. The combination had branches with one or more Chinese, who spoke German, in charge of all important Chinese cities.

The Germans began.,.by saving the' Chinese trouble. Thus, if there was a mining venture, the representative of the allied German manufacturers would go to the local governors or parties interested and'offer to take the whole job, i.e., sink the shafts, develop the mines, put in all the equipment, build the railways m boat lines, erect power plants and equip . them, put up workmen's dwellings, and finance the undertaking. Such an organisation was prepared to sell a Chinaman a five-cent handsaw or develop an entire province^ The Anglo-Chinese Engineers' Association is a similar organisation, made up of a strictly non-competing group of 76 concerns making machinery, railway supplies, engineering material, and tools, it is British. This organisation has branch houses in charge of Chinese-speaking European assistants at selected ports and industrial centres, with a managing director in Pekin. In large cities such as Pekin, Hankow, and Canton it has competent mechanical engineers with Chinese experience, while the selling staff includes man with intimate knowledge of the localities in .which they are employed. THE CHINA MARKETS. Dr. Wu Ting Fang, formei* Minister to the United States, remarked upon the outlet for trade in China. He said: .

" The Chinese nature is not much different from that of other human beings. What at first is a luxury soon becomes a necessity in China, as elsewhere. I have seen this demonstrated in Shanghai. A young merchant from the interior comes to Shanghai for the first time. He is taken' about and entertained by the local merchants. He is introduced to some of the delights of the modern civilisation. After that he is never the same man. He longs for luxury once he has tasted it. He likes the cigarettes; he likes the scented scaps, the wines, the perfumery, foreign clothes,, automobiles, upholstered furniture. It is largely beyond his reach because of its cost, but as he begins to feel better financially he. adds to his stock of foreign introduced luxuries, a^nd enjoys them."