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

we know that Tientsin sends vast quantities of our goods into Shantung via the Grand Canal.

The fact that Chefoo has the smallest population of any open port on the coast shows that it is the interior trade that we depend upon. The Germans are gradually but surely obtaining control of the whole province. The ports north of this will sooner or later become Russian, as the territory which those ports supply is already under their authority. Of what avail will it be to us to have Tientsin. and Niuchwang open if the interior is practically closed.

The Russians now will not recognize a Chinese postage stamp. Letters from China for the interior via Port Arthur or Talienwan must bear Russian stamps or a stamp recognized by the postal union. No one can land in those ports unless he is furnished with a passport. Travelers without passports must return here by first steamer.

A steamer leaves this port daily for Port Arthur and connects with the line of magnificent steamers of the volunteer fleet now making regular voyages to European and Asiatic Russia. One can leave this port at 5 p. m. and the next morning go on board a Russian volunteer steamer, and need not again set foot on shore until Constantinople, Odessa, or St. Petersburg is reached.

TRADE OPENINGS.

Ever since the Philippines came under our flag and Hawaii was added to the Union, I have been waiting to see if some publishing house in San Francisco would show energy enough to start a paper for these markets. A paper containing all the latest telegraphic news from Europe and the United States, from the Orient and the islands of the Pacific, with market reviews published just in time to catch the outgoing steamer for Hawaii, Japan, China, the Philippines, etc., would be of great benefit to merchants in those countries and a profitable undertaking. There are several papers published in London expressly for India, the colonies, and the East. Now that a New York house intends to start a bank in Manila, why should not one be started in China? For nearly ten years I have been urging our countrymen to establish a bank and a newspaper, and many times I have written of the benefits that would accrue from warehouses in Shanghai, Canton, Hankau, and Tientsin.

There is now also a most profitable field for a new line of American steamers from the United States. In fact, there is not shipping enough on the Pacific coast to meet the demand, and cargo is in many cases delayed six months for want of steamer room.

In spite of our large trade, only one American ship came here in 1898 direct from America. I think if ships destined for the northern ports would fill the spaces with old lumber, chips, the refuse of

lumber yards, it would sell at a good profit for firewood, as wood is extremely scarce and consequently very dear here.

Grapevines to the value of over $5,000 gold were imported lately from Austria. A demand for wire fencing is one result of the recently inaugurated vineyards. I think that sheet-iron buildings, if properly pushed, would take in Port Arthur, Weihaiwei, and Tsintau.

The Germans do a large trade in small, round, cheap brass buttons and aniline dyes, in which we might compete.

COUNTERFEITING TRADE-MARKS.

I wish to emphasize that our manufacturers should have their trade-marks and patents advertised on all articles so protected. It is also a good idea to have them registered in the consulates. The consul is then in a position to defend them against fraud, for the Chinese are known to be great imitators, and a great many Japanese goods are imitations of ours, trade-marks and all.

Only the past month, I got the Chinese authorities to issue an order threatening with severe punishment any native dealers having for sale an imitation of a famous make of Florida water. On one of my tours of inspection, I obtained a bottle of this fraudulent water. It was a very close imitation in bottle and label, but instead of New York, it bore the words "New street;" it is made in Japan. Condensed milk is another commodity that suffers in this way.

CHEFOO, May 25, 1899.

JOHN FOWLER,

Consul.

TRADE CONDITIONS IN INDO CHINA.

Under the title of "Commercial information as to French Indo China," a Lyons silk merchant who has spent some years in the extreme Orient has just published a pamphlet, which ought to be in the hands of every American who wishes to do business in that part of the world. I give extracts below:

One of the most important questions is that of credit. In Indo China everybody does business on credit, from the highest functionary to the lowest employee. Settlements are made every month. Retail houses have credit for their goods of from fifty to sixty days.

It requires ninety days to transport goods from Paris to Indo China and ten days more are necessary for unloading and placing in the market. Merchants who can not give over six months' credit can not expect to sell in that market. The English and Germans, those redoubtable rivals in the Orient, are practical. They give one year's credit. An indispensable requisite is to have a large stock of goods on hand. They will always find purchasers and one will be ready at a moment's

notice to take advantage of circumstances. In packing, large boxes should be avoided as much as possible. In Tonkin, where the means for handling and storing are not of the best, it would be well to see that no package or box weighs more than 150 or 250 pounds. French boxes are too heavy and add too much weight to the merchandise.

The markets of Tonkin and of Anam are open to a large variety of goods, but I will here refer to what is of especial interest to Lyons. Silk naturally comes first, and the articles most in demand are: . Black and colored satins, from 46 to 58 centimeters (18.11 to 22.8 inches) wide at from 1 to 3 francs (19 to 57 cents) per meter; polonaises unies and glacés, from 50 to 52 centimeters (19.6 to 20.4 inches) wide, up to 11⁄2 francs (29 cents) per meter; black, colored, and glacé taffetas for petticoats, from 46 to 56 centimeters (18.11 to 22 inches) at from 39 sous to 3 francs (39 to 57 cents) per meter; black and colored damasks 55 to 56 centimeters (21.6 to 22 inches) at from 21⁄2 to 5 francs (48 to 96 cents) per yard; printed foulards and pongees, 54 to 56 centimeters (21 to 22 inches), at from 1.05 to 3 francs (24 to 57 cents) per meter; crepes and light articles for undergarments, 48 to 50 centimeters (18.88 to 19.6 inches) wide at from 1 to 1.30 francs (19 to 25 cents) per meter; black cottonback velvets from 46 to 48 centimeters (18.11 to 19.6 inches) wide at from 3 to 6 francs (57 cents to $1.15) per meter.

Articles embossed with false silver and gold work are extensively used in the ornamentation of pagodas and theaters, but nothing can be done in this line unless a large stock of goods is kept on hand.

The mandarins wear clothes of a dark violet color. This kind of goods should be sprinkled with designs of flowers, wide rather than long, ornamented with suns, dragons, Asiatic birds, peacocks, etc. The prices should be kept within the limit of from 6 to 12 francs ($1.15 to $2.30) per meter (39.37 inches). It is recommended to work tussah in this way, as it is cheap and has weight. The great desideratum is that the article be of silk and have some thickness. I would advise that such stuff be made in four or five colors or shades, with large flowers and light leaves, flowers in yellow, three tones of red and three of green. Make all of fine figured work, from 82 to 83 centimeters (32.28 to 32.46 inches) wide, preferably on a dark-blue background.

An important article is mosquito netting 2 meters (78.74 inches) wide, a heavy material, such as is now furnished by England. The French are now shut out of the Chinese market for this article, on account of the cheapness of the English goods. Cheap parasols would find a good market in Indo China. They should be of a richly colored material.

What is said in relation to Indo China applies with equal force to China proper, with its 400,000,000 population. France has an inestimable advantage over us in Indo China, on account of her tariff, which favors everything that is French and closes the doors as hermetically as exclusive tariff laws can close them upon everything that is not of French manufacture. But our manufacturers have an even chance in the race with all the great nations of the world in China, and will continue to have it as long as the open-door policy prevails. The vast population of China is only just beginning to develop its purchasing capacity. It is the richest field for the investment of money in industrial pursuits and for the consumption of the products of industry that the world has ever known. The wealth of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and

other nations is moving in a continuous current toward the industrial fields of China. The part the United States will hold in the future in this great market must depend entirely upon the efforts that are made within the next few years, while the field is open to all. JOHN C. COVERT,

LYONS, June 26, 1899.

Consul.

CINCHONA BARK AND QUININE IN JAVA.

Consul Everett writes from Batavia, June 16, 1899:

In a report last year (page 266 of CONSULAR REPORTS No. 217, October, 1898) I gave an account of the experiment in making sulphate of quinine in Java. The subject seems to have attracted some attention in the public press and among manufacturers, and recently I received an inquiry from a Philadelphia manufacturer* asking if it were not possible to import cinchona bark direct from Java without the intervention of the European trust, which is, and has been for a long time, crushing both the planters here and the European and American importers.

At first, the quinine factory at Bandoeng, Java, was successful, but the trust has again scored a victory. It seems that the syndicate of German manufacturers intends to lower the price of cinchona bark on account of the renewed large shipments from Java, and the planters here are again in the power of the trust, notwithstanding the extremely small supply of bark in Holland. The auction in May amounted to only 38,067 pounds of quinine of factory packing and 4,813 pounds of quinine of pharmacists' packing (quills).

The shipments of bark from Java in March were to the amount of 977,000 Dutch pounds (about 1,074,700 pounds); in April, 1,300,000 Dutch pounds (1,430,000 pounds); and in May, 1,150,000 Dutch pounds (1,265,000 pounds). This quantity was too large, although the demand for quinine is very great, and all the factories in Europe have more work than they can handle. But these large shipments put the German manufacturers in a position to draw on their own stock, in case the importers, on account of the low bids at the auction, do not feel inclined to sell. The syndicate has a stock of cinchona; just how large no one knows, but probably about three or four months' supply. Whenever the syndicate wants to depress prices, all it has to do is to bid low at the auctions, and, in case the importers do not care to give up their bark at such low prices, to make up the deficiency from its own stock.

*To whom Advance Sheets have been sent.