c. The Preparation and Preservation of Food

Hitherto the preparation of food is entirely by hand with a few primitive implements. The preservation of food is either by salt or sun heat. Mills and cannery method are scarcely known. I suggest that a system of rice mills should be constructed in all the large cities and towns in the Yangtze Valley and South China where rice is the staple food. Flour mills should be put up in all large cities and towns north of the Yangtze Valley, where wheat, oats, and cereals other than rice are the staple food. All these mills should be under one central management so as to produce the best economic results. What amount of capital should be invested in this mill system by this international development scheme should be subjected to detailed investigation.

In regard to the preservation of food, fruits, meats and fishes should be preserved by canning or by refrigeration. If the canning industry is developed there will be created a great demand for tinplates. Therefore the establishment of tinplate factories will be necessary and also profitable. Such factories should be situated near the iron and tin fields. There are many localities in South China where tin, iron, and coal are situated near each other, thus providing ready materials for the factories. The tinplate factories and the canneries should be combined into one enterprise so as to secure best economic results.

d. The Distribution and Exportation of Food

In ordinary good years, China never lacks food. There is a common saying in China that "One year's tilling will provide three years' wants." In the richer sections of the country, the people generally reserve three or four years' food supply in order to combat a bad year. But when China is developed and organized as an economic whole, one year's food reserve should be kept in the country for the use of the local people and the surplus should be sent out to the industrial centers. As the storage and transportation of food will be under a central management so the distribution and exportation of food should be under the same charge. All surplus grains of a country district should be sent to the nearest town for storage and each town or city should store one year's food. All the staple food should be sold only at cost price to the inhabitants according to their number, by the distributing department. And the surplus food should be exported to foreign countries where it is wanted and where the highest price can be obtained by the export department under the central management. Thus the surplus food will not be wasted as hitherto under the prohibition law. The proceeds of this export will surely amount to a huge sum which will be used in the payment of the interest and principal of the foreign loan invested in this undertaking.

We cannot complete this part of the food industry without giving special consideration to the Tea and Soya industries. The former, as a beverage, is well known throughout and used by the civilized world and the latter is just beginning to be realized as an important foodstuff by the scientists and food administrators. Tea, the most healthy and delicious beverage of mankind, is produced in China. Its cultivation and preparation form one of the most important industries of the country. Once China was the only country that supplied the world with tea. Now, China's tea trade has been wrested away from her by India and Japan. But the quality of the Chinese tea is still unequalled. The Indian tea contains too much tannic acid, and the Japanese tea lacks the flavor which the Chinese tea possesses. The best tea is only obtainable in China—the native land of tea. China lost her tea trade owing to the high cost of its production. The high cost of production is caused by the inland tax as well as the export duty and by the old methods of cultivation and preparation. If the tax and duty are done away with and new methods introduced, China can recover her former position in this trade easily. In this International Development Scheme, I suggest that a system of modern factories for the preparation of tea should be established in all the tea districts, so that the tea should be prepared by machinery instead of, as hitherto, by hand. Thus the cost of production can be greatly reduced and the quality improved. As the world's demand for tea is daily increasing and will be more so by a dry United States of America, a project to supply cheaper and better tea will surely be a profitable one.

Soya bean as a meat substitute was discovered by the Chinese and used by the Chinese and the Japanese as a staple food for many thousands of years. As meat shortage has been keenly felt in carnivorous countries at present, a solution must be found to relieve it. For this reason I suggest that in this International Development Scheme we should introduce this artificial meat, milk, butter and cheese to Europe and America, by establishing a system of soya bean factories in all the large cities of those countries, so as to provide cheap nitrogenous food to the western people. Modern factories should also be established in China to replace those old and expensive methods of production by hand, so as to procure better economic results as well as to produce better commodities.

PART II
The Clothing Industry

The principal materials for clothes are silk, linen, cotton, wool and animal skins. I shall accordingly deal with them under the following headings: