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“...advanced from 4,121,655 to 6.317,698 pieces, British jeans from
41,083 to 360,858 pieces, and that the import of Dutch and American
jeans has about doubled ; yet, considering these figures in con-
junction with what follows, it is hard to resist the conclusion that
they point to some modification of the conditions hitherto
obtaining.
While the total import of yarn lags considerably behind that
of 1899, which was higher by some 40,000,000 lbs., it has since
1900 continued to rise, the Chinese mills are running steadily, and
the raw material thus supplied is all converted into native cloth,
in many respects more suited to the needs of the people than the
foreign article. The Blackburn Commission pointed out that
fully 70 per cent, of the population in the interior is wholly clad
in native homespuns and the remaining 30 per cent, but partly
clad in foreign cottons. A Chinese will say that eight-tenths of
the clothing of the inhabitants of Manchuria is made of native
cloth and that only two-tenths...”
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“...further light would be shed on the
changes which native habits are undergoing.
Harris. After what has been stated above, it will suffice to say that
the import of British yarn fell some 2,700,000 lbs., and that the
import of Indian and Japanese yarn advanced by 22,500,000 and
3,000,000 lbs. respectively. The output of the Hong-Kong mill
appears to have been consumed locally, as the increase over 1901
is only 122,500 lbs.
A new factor to be reckoned with is the establishment of yarn
spinning mills in Tonkin. There are three of these in operation,
spinning principally Indian cotton with 51,104 spindles, and the}''
are making efforts to capture a portion of the Yunnan trade. It
is open to question, however, if that province could take large
quantities of the relatively high counts (20's) spun in and used
throughout Indo-China, 10's being more adapted to the native
looms.
"Woollen The import of woollen goods goes on diminishing, the one
•goods. item showing any appreciable advance being...”
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“... \
other foreign novelties, shaving soap is being adopted, and the \
remarks he makes concerning the assistance which an attractive
package affords to the sale of anything offered to the Chinese, are
worthy of attention. It is significant that the large importations
of soap have led to the establishment of soap factories in China
itself, and as the proprietors are not above putting foreign marks
on their inferior products, they easily impose on the ignorant country
buyer.
In addition to the mills at Shanghai, a flour mill is in operation Flour,
at Wuhu, and doubtless the cheaper laying-down cost of their
outturn may have caused a diminished demand for imports from
abroad. Still Canton took in "1902 855,000 cwts. more than in
1901, and exceeded her average consumption of the last five years
by 700,000 cwts.
In connection with what has been said in Part I regarding \
the advisability of China's adopting a gold standard, the following ^
analysis of her foreign import trade in the course...”
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