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By 1918 the exports and imports of the one port of Dairen alone amounted to 181,614,600 Hk. taels, which is nearly twice the value of the total foreign trade of the whole of Manchuria ten years before that.

Meanwhile a number of ports and towns were opened to international trade and residence. The port of Dairen was actually opened in July, 1907, with the establishment of the Chinese customs office there. Manchuli in February of the same year; and Antung, which had been declared opened through the Sino-American treaty of 1903, was actually opened to business in March, 1907. Tatungkou in October of the same year; Suifenho (at which the Chinese Eastern line leaves Manchuria and enters the Maritime Province of Siberia on its way to the Port of Vladivostok) in February, 1908; and Hunchun on the border of Northern Chosen in January, 1910. In addition to these, such towns as Tiehling, Tungkiangtsu, and Fakumen, were declared open by China in September, 1906; Hsinmintun in October of the same year; Changchun, Kirin, Harbin, Tsitsihar, in January, 1907; Fenghwancheng, Liaoyang, Ninguta, Sansing, Hailar, and Aigun in July, 1907. Mukden was opened through the commercial treaty of October 8th, 1903, between the United States and China, which also opened the Port of Antung on the Yalu.

JAPAN'S POSITION IN THE MANCHURIAN TRADE

The total foreign trade which passed through the three ports of South Manchuria, the ports of Dairen, Antung, and Yingkou, in 1922 (and they handled an overwhelming proportion of the entire trade of Manchuria and practically all her trade with the foreign countries except Russia) amounted to Hk. taels: 234,534. Of that sum Japan's share stood at 151,769,000 Hk. taels.

Japan stands pre-eminent among the customers of Manchuria. There is no second to her. She outdistances all the rest to such an extent that there is no rivalry possible. The above-mentioned amount does not take in the share of Chosen-which of course is a part of Japanese trade with Manchuria. The country that came nearest to disputing Japanese trade supremacy in Manchuria in 1922 was the United States, and the total of her import and export trade with Manchuria amounted to 20,354,007 Hk. taels. The year 1922, it should be remembered, also, was one of the bad years with the foreign trade of Nippon-the post-war depression was scraping bottom in Japan in the unhappy days of that year. That means that the extraordinary position Japan held in that year's Manchurian trade was nothing exceptional with her. In fact, the year before that, 1921, her peerless position in the Manchurian trade was much more emphasized: the figure for that year stood at 161,333,572, against which the American showing was almost pathetic-15,334,996. This has been so even in the pre-War years: in 1914 out of the total imports through the four major ports of Manchuria, of less than 49,373,500 Hk. taels, Japan's share amounted to 34,904,056. In her exports Japan's position was still more dominant: out of the total of Hk. taels 48,612,847, the Japanese portion was 39,746,108. Which meant that out of the total trade of Manchuria for that year of Hk. taels 97,986,301, Japanese business with her amounted to 74,650,164, which is more than 76 per cent. of the total. In that year the United States was again only second to Japan, though her Manchurian trade totaled only 5,750,088 Hk. taels.

Nothing miraculous or unnatural about this showing of Japan in Manchuria. About the only thing to see in it all is that it is rather modest when one takes everything into consideration. With the South Manchuria

Railway falling into her hands at the close of the Russian war, she has received the trunk trade artery through the most populous section of Manchuria-through the heart of business and productive Manchuria. With the establishment of Dairen as the greatest port in North China, outranking even Tientsin, and second only to Shanghai among all the continental ports of China, Japan was simply fated to be the mistress of the international business of Manchuria whether she wished it or not. For practically all the great financial and industrial interests in Dairen are in the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese were the actual creators of that port, as far as its commercial life and activities were concerned.

Aside from these, however, there are one and a thousand other reasons. Since the Sino-Japanese war Japan has been the chief buyer of the greatest export commodity of Manchuria, beans and bean cake. She sends her ships to get the Manchurian beans and bean cakes, and the ships must have some cargo for Manchuria if they mean to carry on a profitable business. They are in position to make attractive rates for Japanese exporters' goods for Manchuria. And they are quite willing to make them, for they would rather have some cargo at cheaper rates than send their ships in ballast. What is still more important than that is the financial aspect of the thing. A great and lasting business can never be built on a one-sided basis. It is always easy to sell to a country where one buys much. The exchange is favorable: the credit machinery is already established to handle the business. The Japanese are Orientals themselves. They understand the trading psychology of the FarEastern customers. Geography and freight rates fight their battles for them constantly. Many are the advantages Japanese exporters enjoy over the American and especially the European competitors. But the one and paramount reason which drives the Japanese to suc

cess in Manchuria over her competitors is the downright necessity for Japan to find the market for her wares. When the markets of China Proper are turned into a merry-go-round of anti-Japanese boycotts or into a happy hunting-ground for the Tuchuns, it is no joking matter with the Japanese manufacturers. They are ever cultivating the nearest market they have with an industry which is beyond the imagination of the lordly American manufacturers who sit in their New York offices and wait for the heathen to come to them. They toil and hustle, these Japanese exporters, while their British competitors at Shanghai, Hongkong, and other treaty ports sport their tennis flannels and their cheap arrogance to the disgust of their native customers.

Moreover the Japanese interests which are cultivating the Manchurian market are big concerns with ample capital and with world-wide connections, mostly.

Chinese competition is very keen there of course. Last year I saw a large number of commercial casualties among the petty Japanese traders at almost all the business centers there. But the great Japanese corporations working the Manchurian market stand entirely beyond the general run of Chinese competition, and even if they find themselves involved in it they are able to hold their ground with comfort and with ample profit in spite of all the shrewdness of the Chinese traders.

The Japanese commercial and financial interests planted in Manchuria are of considerable magnitude and are increasing every year. In 1922 there were twenty-six banks with the total capitalization of more than 65,000,000 yen; their loans outstanding at the end of the first half of the year amounted to more than 247,383,600 yen. The loans put out in the same halfyear period amounted to more than 1,426,929,000 yen in gold, and in addition more than 131,233,000 yen in silver. The amount paid back in the same period

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Concrete fire-proof warehouses on the Dairen Pier in course of construction

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