THE FAR EASTERN QUESTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10563, 9 January 1896, Page 3

THE FAR EASTERN QUESTION.

CHINA BECOMING AN EXPORTER

OF WOOL.

One does not require to believe in bimetallism in order to recognise the enormous advantages which the manufacturers in a silver country enjoy in competing with gold countries. The cost of the necessaries of life, as far as the masses are concerned, has remained ab*olnteiy unaffected by the fall in the value of silver, aud the workman is therefore quite content to receive the same wage 3as he did formerly, for their purchasing power, as far as he is concerned, is still the same. But while the wages bill of tho employer in China or Japan has remained actually the same, it stands, in relation to that of his Western competitor, at ouly half the figure to which it formerly amounted now that the value of this silver dollw has falleu from one-fifth to nearly one-tenth of the pound sterling— i.e., from 4s to jittia more than 2s gold. Thus, where, for example, for the production of similar goods to the value of, say, £100, the cr-.it of labour was, ar.d still is, £20 in England and 50dol in Cliina or Japan, tbe real cost in China or Japan is no longer, as it was formerly, £10 in sterling currency as against £20 in Bnglaud, but only about £5. And the same applies to auy raw material required for the purposes of manufacture which both the gold and silver country equally produce. The silver price of Cardiff coal, notwithstanding tho fall of its gold price, has increased from lOdol to 15-16dol silver per ton, while, witb the excellent plant laid down in Japro to work the native mines and the construction of railways to coDvey their output to the chief industrial eentree, the price ol Japan.se coal 'has fallen to Zdol silver per ton, or for tho purposes of competition with gold countries to little more than 6* gold per ton. The depreciation of silver might, in fact, be said to operate as a system of protection in favour of the industries of silver countries as against those of gold countries. Should Cbina ever be oponed up only !o tbe extent to which Japan is already opened ua, the foreign trade of China, on the basis of tho present trade of Japan and of the relative population of the two countries, might be estimated at £200,000,000 per annum.' And why should not that estimate bs realised ? China is endowed far bryond Japan with tbe natural resources wbich favour the growth of natii ual wealth and the development of native industries. She grows her own cotton, whilst Japan has to import it; Bhe-grows silk of a better quality, and might increase its production to almost any extent; the same may be said of ber teas; she is beginning to export wool in spite of the well-nigh prohibitive cost of transport over impossible roads from the frontiers of Mongolia to the coast; the cultivation of tugar and tobacco is capable of enormous development and improvement. Iv fact Shere is hardly any valuable crop which cannot be successfully grown in ono or other region of her vast and fertile soil, nor is tbere apparently a single mineral or precious metal which does not lie buried under its surfacfi —gold, silver, and iron,—and immenso coalfields of a quality unrivalled perhaps out of Great Britain, Tbe trading olasses of China compare by no means unfavourably, both for integrity and, within cettaiu limits, for enterprise, with those of Japan. The people of China are as hardworking and industrious aa the people of Japan, and make in almost every respect equally good workmen, given equally favourable conditions. The manager of oue of the largest cotton mills at Shanghai told me that iv regard to mechanical skill the native hands — whether men, women, or children—can stand comparison with the English hands in any Lancashire mill; they are more quickly trained and far more eaeily managed; they have not so much muscular strength, and caunob perhaps do so much work in the same timo, but they make up for it by their readiness to work longer hours. A similar statement was made to me in a Chinese filature.

As for tho actual supply of human labour, it may be looked upon in China as practically inexhaustible. No sight can be more instructive in this respect than ono which may bo witnessed every day, not in a remote city where labour is a dcug in the market, but in the busiest centre of activity in the whole country— viz., at Shanghai. Some of the local traffic on its Waterways is carried on by »tei-n-'.vbee!ecs, where the motiv.e powt-r is supplied by human labour, steam pressure being replaced by the measured tramp of coolies, who tread the wheel in relays of 36 at a time. Labour is, of course, as cheap as it is plentiful, and is likely to mnftiu cheap for a much longer period in China than in Japan, where the general standard of living is already beginning to rise, and where there are already indications of those labour troubles with which Western countries have long been disastrously familiar. In Chirm., as in Japan) the normal cheapness of labour has of late beea further accentuated iv relation to European labour by the depreciation of silver.—Tho Times, November 20, 1895.