Original

virtueECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS IN CHINA 4.1and did much to encourage native industry and the use ofChinese-made goods by the Chinese population. Theydemonstrated to the foreign visitor the great strides whichChina is making in an industrial way and tend to show thatit will not be many years before the Chinese people willmanufacture for themselves many of the products now beingimported from abroadThc anti-Japanese boycott, followingJapanese Boycott theTJapanese demands on China, made duringthe early part of the year, lent a great impetus to nativeindustry. Societies were organized throughout the country,especially in the south, for the patronage of Chinese madegoods. Japanese merchants and shipping companies reportheavy losses to their trade as a result of the boycott andadmit as a sequel thereto a general movement on the partof the Chinese population to patronize home industry, wherepossible.The European War has also helpedn toencouraIndustriesS e native industry throughout thecountry. Unprecedentedly high freight rates,scarcity of tonnage, increased costs of foreign manufacturedarticles and advances in gold exchange prices combined tomake many foreign articles which were imported prior tothe war practically unobtainable. In addition to thesefactors, some products were entirely shut off from the Chinamarket of thel>y War, as, for instance, aniline dyesand synthetic indigo, the aggregate imports of which totalledabout Tls. 15,000,000 a year. China at one time grew orimported from India the indigo necessary to her needs.This year witnessed the replanting of hundreds of acres ofindigo. The stocks of artificial dyes on hand were, during1915, bought up for export abroad. High freight rateshave eliminated from the China market importations ofAmerican flour which, a few years ago, represented Tls. 12,-000,000 of China imports. China flour mills found anopportunity to supply a great part of this demand, but thesemills would have fared even better had the embargo on flourexports been raised. Iron and steel plants in China, papermills, cotton looms, antimony smelters, oil mills, matchA 5