Want of Uniform Monetary Standard.
30.—In the same direction, too, it may not be amiss to give expression to the general mercantile complaint of the absence of a uniform and international decimal monetary system. Not only are many firms ruined by unexpected and often unaccountable fluctuations of exchange between the 29 principal currencies of the world, but the clerical labour involved, not to speak of constant misunderstandings, is stated to be most prejudicial.
This can be appreciated when it is considered that trade in the East is conducted in rupees, piastres, Mexican and American dollars, Japanese yen, silver shoes, shapes, and bars; Haikwan, Shanghai, and Tientsin taels—the latter unrepresented by coins or notes, and all varying in value from day to day. The Shanghai tael, for instance, which was worth 4s. 3⅛d., on February 28th, 1890, rose to 5s. 3⅛d., by September 5th,—a difference of 23 per cent.,—and fell back again 13 per cent. in the next two months. The rupee, too, worth 2s. at par, was at a discount of eightpence in 1889, but early in 1890 all but touched 1s. 9d., until, in November, it fell to 1s. 5½d.—each penny of fall occasioning not only great loss to individuals, but it is calculated many thousand lacs of rupees to the Indian Government.
It is difficult to say which decimal system has the most advocates,—probably dollars and cents,—but all agree that pounds, shillings and pence, and English coins on which the value is not stated, entail more trouble than any standard.
Cotton Goods.
31.—The vast present and the enormous future interest Lancashire has in China, as also the British capitalist in India, is shown by the Imperial customs report for 1890. It runs thus:—"Cotton goods bounded upwards in value from 36 million taels in 1889, to 45 millions (say 11,000,000l.) in 1890—an increase of 25 per cent. Cotton goods of nearly every texture were infected with the general contagion of increase, and expanding in quantity and value, while cotton yarn, and more particularly that from India, poured into China in a higher ratio of increase than ever heretofore, having risen from 108,000 piculs in 1878, to over a million piculs in 1890, representing 19⅓ millions of taels (say nearly 5,000,000l.), or 50 per cent. more than in the previous year."
It is not necessary to add anything to this authoritative statement, unless it be that the French efforts to force their "cotonnade" upon the Annamites, by prohibitory duties upon all foreign goods in Indo-China, are unavailing, and that the prospect before Manchester is unlimited so soon as the South-West of China is opened from Burmah. It is tempered only by the establishment of mills to turn Chinese-grown cotton into yarn.
Wollens.
32.—In woollen goods there was, in 1890, an importation of 3½ million taels worth—a slight falling off compared with the previous year, mainly in English camlets and lastings.
Export of Silk.