United
States Legation,
Chefoo, July 10, 1877.
(Received August 18.)
No. 296.][Inclosure.]
[From the North China Daily News.]
It was not be expected that merchants would rush to the new ports, as was
done at the opening of Tientsin and Hankow. The places now opened to
foreign trade are of less importance, and experience has shown that the
value of new out ports is rather as affording fresh points of contact
than as affording remunerative business to resident foreign merchants.
They enable foreign merchandise to be laid down nearer the door of the
consumer, at a cheaper cost, therefore, as regards freight, than if they
were subjected to various transshipments, and with a greater certainty
of escape from likin taxation in transit than
when they are traveling in native bottoms. But instead of buying on the
spot from foreign merchants, the native dealers are tending more and
more to go to Shanghai to make their purchases, availing themselves only
of the machinery
[Page 117]
of steamer
transports to lay down their gods at their own place of trade.
Obviously, the resident foreign merchant, then, has little opportunity;
except at special seasons at Hankow and Foochow during the tea-season,
for instance, there is little occupation except for a few commission
houses. The great bulk of the business is done at Shanghai, which tends
more and more to become a commercial emporium, whither produce is
brought, and whence foreign goods are sent out from and to the whole of
the Yangtze and northern ports. But even taking all of these
circumstances into consideration, it must be admitted that the opening
of the new ports has fallen remarkably flat. It might have been expected
that two or three foreign houses would have been at once established at
each of these new ports in which Shanghai is interested, but W6n-Chow
seems, as yet, to be the only place at which the experiment has been
made. Of Ichang we know as yet but very little. Its chief value lies
probably in its being the head— so far, at least, as the present class
of steamers is concerned—of the navigation of the Yangtze. Sha-si, a
little lower down the stream, which is made only a port of call, seems
to be the chief place of trade. But we may take it for granted that
steamer-agencies will shortly be established at Ichang, and we shall
gradually learn more about its capabilities. Wên-Chow and Wuhu, however,
seem to be the natural outlets for fertile and well-watered districts,
and might become places of considerable trade if foreign energy and
capital were brought to bear upon their development. Clearly they are
not places where foreigners can expect to go and pick up a business
ready made. They are not places where those who have been unfortunate
elsewhere can hope to rapidly retrieve their fortunes. They are sites of
a considerable native trade; but if this trade is to be developed so as
to be of value to foreigners, capital and energy are required to collect
produce which used to permeate through other channels. Both are natural
outlets for tea-producing districts; but such teas as now find their way
to foreign markets do so through other channels—to Foo-Chow, Ningpo, and
Chin-Kiang. For the present year these teas have been already contracted
for, and will follow their old routes. If foreign capital is employed
next year, they can probably be collected at the new emporia, and will
presumably be laid down there at a cheaper price in view of the shorter
distance to be traveled. It is as advantageous to a merchant to buy
produce as near as possible to the place of production, as it is to land
his goods as near as possible to the place of sale; and herein is one
object of opening new ports, multiplying points of contact. Even if
foreign merchants do not attempt to develop a local business, the
providing of greater facility of carriage will no doubt lead the native
dealer to collect produce at the nearer port instead of sending it
overland to the dearer one. Before the Tae-ping rebellion, Wên-Chow
seems in fact to have been the emporium of a considerable tea trade, the
port where the produce of all the neighboring districts was collected;
but this concentration was only an element of temptation to the
Tae-pings; so the producers elected to disperse their trade through the
neighboring minor ports, and it has since continued in the fresh
grooves. The opening of the port to foreign trade will probably have the
effect of again attracting business to its old center.
