240 to 400 dozen tins a month of this milk. I know of many other

instances.

On several occasions I have lamented the lack of trade papers, price lists, etc., sent to this consulate. I may not require a particular quotation in a year; but when I do want it, I want it badly.

For instance, a merchant came to me one night saying, "I have to cable for 700 tons of a certain kind of lumber; to whom shall I send?" I looked through the small assortment of papers on file here and finally had to refer him to Shanghai. Later, I was called on for 50,000 tons (not barrels) of cement. I sat up until 3 a. m. look

ing for an address, because the merchant said “this is only the beginning of an immense order." I could only show him an advertisement in a New York paper. He cabled to London.

For four months this winter, I was in communication with Chinese inland who wished to buy corn. For many reasons, it was difficult to persuade them that American corn was as good as theirs; as a matter of fact, the shelled corn sold here is one-third rubbish. Another thing that made them suspicious was that I would not go into the deal with them. The fact that I am on oath, not to mention a bond, not to go into business had no influence. Finally, another party brought a guaranty for the equivalent of $75,000 gold, placed it in my hands, and calmly told me to buy 60,000 bushels of corn, to have it here in five weeks. I did not have the name of a single dealer in the West. I did the best thing that I could; I begged for ten weeks and sent the cable to Washington,* and got no reply. It seems no one wanted to sell corn. Yet this was for 1,500 tons (and two more orders have been received since), and if carried through would have opened a market of 29,000,000 people who subsist on that article of diet entirely, and at a time when there was none of their own and the prospects of a poor crop this season.

That little experience in trying to open a new market for my countrymen cost me $40 gold (out of my own pocket).

But American merchants are discovering that there is a vast field on the other side of the world, and many are doing their utmost to capture the trade. Since our military operations have been carried on in the Philippines there has been an increasing stream of merchants from the United States, visiting this as well as the other northern ports of China.

It is absolutely necessary that our people keep their business in their own hands. A prominent lumber house on the Pacific coast had for a long time been represented in China by a foreign firm, but within the last year has had its own representative out here, a wideawake New York man; his company now has all the lumber trade, and it has increased to enormous proportions.

* See CONSULAR REPORTS No. 225 (June, 1899), p. 391.

A traveler for a San Francisco firm, discussing this subject, said recently:

Every American who comes here knows that you are right. I was sent out to appoint agents for our house and went to nearly every firm in Shanghai. They one and all declined or laughed at me, saying there were too many agencies of that line already. I determined to show them that there was room for another. I hired an office for six months in Shanghai. I went at it in the good old American way, and, although I've been here only a few months, I have sold $100,000 worth of goods and now intend to remain in the East for five years.

TRADE WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

To return to the customs report: Having shown the value of the net imports specified as American and those specified as Japanese, I find the following net imports specified as English:

Of course, this by no means includes all the English trade, for here, as in our own case and to a lesser extent in the case of Japan, there is a vast quantity of imports of English origin not so designated.

TRADE WITH BRITISH INDIA.

In the following table I include all the opium as Indian (British), although some of it is Chinese and Persian.

Indian imports into Chefoo during the calendar year 1898.

The value of imports known to be of Asiatic (mostly Chinese) origin, not included in the Japanese or Indian tables above and in the sale of which we do not compete-such as sharks' fins, dried

Balance for all the world, origin not intimated in reports.........

2, 519, 753

A large share of this last belongs to us, to Great Britain, and to Japan. The value of the shirtings and T cloths in this classification was $830,253.71, not a dollar's worth of which was sold except by the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. Yet if, for the sake of argument, we allow that Germany sold everything else in the doubtful column, those figures still fall below our known imports by $611,761. Again, if we credit the imports of unknown origin to England, the total English figures would only exceed those of the United States by $314,380.

Value of direct imports for the calendar years 1897–98.

*The average value of the haikwan tael in 1897 was estimated by the United States Director of the Mint at 73.9 cents; in 1898, at 70 cents.

The imports from Hongkong are all reshipments from foreign. countries or from other Chinese ports. A large proportion of the exports from Canton are reshipped at Hongkong. The same rule applies to the Philippines, Straits Settlements, Swatow, Amoy, Macau, etc.

Comparative table of imports which name country of origin.

This table shows that English goods declined, the only exception being a gain of 5,800 pounds of cotton yarn. India lost over 5,000,000 pounds in yarn. America and Japan increased in every line.

It will not be long at this rate before the United States and Japan will supply the market entirely, unless we are shut out when Germany and Russia get their ports in order.

CHEFOO'S SHARE OF CHINESE TRADE.

The subjoined table shows Chefoo's share of the entire Chinese importations for 1898 of merchandise the origin of which is named:

Thus, of the imports specified as American, over 11 per cent of the entire amount imported into China was taken by Chefoo alone. Of the imports classified as Japanese, Chefoo received 13 per cent, while of the merchandise specified as Indian only 0.024 per cent came to Chefoo (excluding opium); and of those goods designated as English, only 0.047 per cent came here.

The value of the United States imports into all China for 1898 is given by the customs as 17,163,312 haikwan taels ($12,014,318), while the value of those goods specified as American sold in Chefoo was 3,263,837 haikwan taels ($2,301,261), leaving for the other twentyfive ports 13,899,475 haikwan taels ($9,729,633).

While the above shows how valuable Chefoo is to us as a market, it must not be supposed that our entire trade for this district has been included. The southern part of the province receives its supplies via Chinkiang and Shanghai, while the northern part is supplied from Tientsin; and it is known that a most extensive trade in our goods is now being done via Tsingtau. I think that this province bought at least one-third of the entire American exports to China in 1898.

We know positively that 90 per cent of our cotton goods are taken by the three ports of Chefoo, Tientsin, and Niuchwang, and