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CHAPTERIVECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS INCHINA DURING i9J5Julean ArnoldGradually the foreign trade of China isChina s Fcre n assilmm S a position of commanding import -Trade ance iu her economic and commercial life.During the past twenty-live years China sforeign trade has increased from Tls. 250,000,000 toTls. 900,000,000. Thus at present China s foreign trademay be considered as equivalent to between two andthree taels per capita for her population. That of Japanis from eight to ten times as great per capita, while that ofthe United States istwenty-five limes as great. Both Japanand the United States have profited enormously by the present European War. Unfortunately, China was not preparedto avail herself of the opportunities \vhich the European Waroffered her. With silver exchange favouring export trade andwith many of China s products in demand by foreign countriesbecause of the War, the year 1915 should have been a banner year for the China export trade; in fact, it should havewitnessed an increase of nearly one hundred per cent inChina export trade and, like Japan, China should have hadto her credit at the end of 1915 a favorable trade balance ofupwards of Tls. 100,000.000, which would have gone a longway toward assuring the country of financial independence.Probably the greatest factor which hasLack of Shipping preven t ed China s availing herself of thisFacilities . ., 1.1 isignal opportunity, was the dearth in oceangoing ships. Tens of thousands of tons of Chinese cargoin demand abroad could not find space for shipping.Tens of thousands of tons, even if it could find the space,could not have been shipped at the advanced freightrates, as the average increase of five hundred per cent inrates made the cheap, bulky materials which form a largeproportion of China s export trade too costly to ship abroad.