The British national board of trade, partly on the advice in Admiral Lord Beresford’s book, has appointed commercial attachÉs separate from the diplomatic and consular bodies to work as specialists and free lances in China. In contrast with the diplomatic and consular departments, they are free to use the helpful publicity of the home newspapers in order to correct and create interest. Canada in a small way has followed Britain’s example. A consular officer is fixed to his post on account of his daily relationship with shipping, courts, visits of nationals, emigration and health inspection. A commercial attachÉ has more of a roving and special commission, and it is important in the nature of his office that his advice should be followed promptly in China and at home. He is in a position to strike quickly and bring trade to his flag. He is not necessarily that loathsome being which flourished in China previous to the Russo-Japanese War, a concession hunter and a looter of weak countries. His aim is to strengthen weak countries, as he knows that only a rich and contented people can trade richly with his flag. The more he is of a scholar, gentleman and Christian the better, for such a person in the long run makes an ideal trader and patriot, as the American reformers are insisting. He should be a statistician, an economist, and also an idealist, so that he may be able to formulate a policy amid the present confused conditions. He is not in any sense a historian, for he is not to follow his country. He is to lead it, and, moreover, he must also sympathize with the Chinese point of view to a sufficient degree.

Europe and America have been trading in China on an extended scale since in 1842 the Nanking Treaty opened up Canton and four other ports. Surprisingly few traders have learned the language. The home-rule principle has been recognized, and the Chinese have been allowed to run the trade in their own way on the compradore and shroff system. The foreign firm takes into its employ at a percentage, with a guaranteed minimum, a Chinese compradore, who speaks English, and who is bonded by the Chinese, and the compradore takes into his employ a shroff cashier, who is bonded to him by Chinese. The compradore pays the wages of his Chinese staff. The foreigner (Si Yang Jin—West Sea people) must deal with the Chinese customers only through the compradore, and the compradore must under no circumstances appeal to the head of the foreign firm in London, San Francisco, etc. He must deal with the agent or branch in the China port, in whose office he is located on the first floor, with a Chinese staff as large as the foreign staff up-stairs. One who enters the offices of the Pacific Mail, American (International) Bank, Standard Oil, P. & O., Butterfield and Swire, Jardine’s, Fearon’s, and other companies in China, might think at first that the concern was Chinese. No one but Celestials is to be seen. This system is an approximation of two views. The Chinese might desire to handle his own trade, in which case the compradore would set up for himself, and buy sewing-machines, oils, machinery, tobacco, cotton, etc., direct from the foreign agent at the treaty port, or he could ignore the foreign agent and send his Chinese buyer across to San Francisco, or over to London. Or the foreigner might learn the language, dismiss his compradore, and try to sell direct to the Chinese consumer and Chinese merchant.

It is a world-trade question, a terrific struggle in economics, this getting rid of the middleman, the drone, and it is therefore still an unsettled question in China. The compradore and shroff exist, although many foreign commercial travelers, especially Germans and Japanese, are selling direct to the Chinese in small lots. Many of these compradores have become notable and able men, especially those employed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Again, some compradores have tricked the foreign agent and company with all the legerdemain of a conjurer. That is, instead of inducing the foreign agent to bring out large quantities of oil, flour, etc., we shall say, in time for a high market, the compradore, with his Chinese alliances (or conspirators, shall we say!) induces the agent to get stocked in godown when a low market suddenly drops on him. The compradore shifts and says the market will drop lower still, and the agent authorizes the compradore to sell quickly. The compradore sells to himself by dummy, and the oil or flour suddenly rises. The agent is mad clear through, but if he changed compradores every time this happened he would change so frequently that his concern would lose prestige with the Chinese. The Chinese compradore will bleed you, but he will not knowingly bleed you to death. Of all ornithologists of trade, he does not believe in killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. He only plucks the goose occasionally! I have heard tales which, if they are true, would indicate that the Chinese compradore is not alone expert in legerdemain, but that the foreign agent sometimes “stands in” with him. There certainly are some mountain palaces and a princely mÉnage on the hills of the sumptuous Far East that the savings from an agent’s salary, or an unexpected legacy never bought. In trade and in politics, as well as in religion, “by their fruits ye shall know” compradores, agents, and every one else!

Successful companies operating in China, with foreign managers and with the majority stock in foreign hands, but using Chinese money also, are the following incorporated or joint-stock registered companies:

• Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (British and German).
  
• Indo-China Steam Navigation (British).
  
• Peking Syndicate (British), Shansi and Honan anthracite coal.
  
• Anglo-French Syndicate (Yunnan mines).
  
• Anglo-French Land Investment Company.
  
• Hongkong Land Investment Company.
  
• Hongkong and Whompoa Dock Company.
  
• Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Dock Company.
  
• Green Island Cement Company (Hongkong and Macao).
  
• SociÉtÉ Anonyme du Luhan (Belgian), s.e. Shansi coal.
  
• Tientsin Land Investment Company.
  
• Tientsin Gas and Electric Company.
  
• Tientsin Water-works.
  
• Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company.
  
• Hongkong Cotton Company.
  
• Hongkong Rope Company.
  
• Hongkong Dairy Company.
  
• Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (British), Kaiping coal mines.

The immense Taikoo Company (Butterfield & Swire), operating docks, shipyards, sugar refineries, steamship lines, etc.; China Sugar Refinery; Bank of Australia; Eastern and Australia Cable Company, etc., are owned mainly by British capitalists, who operate an extensive apprentice system or school in maintaining their personnel in the Far East. The Banque l’Indo-China is, of course, mainly French, as is the Anglo-French Syndicate. The Russo-Asiatique Banque is French and Russian. The Cathay Trust Company is British and Chinese. The Shell Transport (oil and shipping) is Dutch, largely. Humphreys’ Land Company is British, mainly. There are scores of rubber companies whose plantations are in Malaysia, but whose shares are actively dealt in by the Chinese and foreigners of Shanghai, Hongkong and Tientsin. Large department stores of Hongkong and Shanghai are incorporated, and their shares are actively dealt in. I refer to Lane-Crawford, Watson, Central Stores, Weeks, Moultrie, Hall & Holtz, etc.

The largest foreign commission houses, banks and agencies, with offices in the various treaty ports, are the following:

• United States Steel Products Export Company (American).
  
• Standard Oil Company (American).
  
• American Tobacco Company.
  
• Singer Sewing-Machine Company (American).
  
• International Banking Company (American).
  
• Yokohama Specie Bank (Japanese).
  
• Deutsche-Asiatique Bank (German).
  
• Mitsui & Co. (Japanese), Fushun coal, machinery, cotton, etc.
  
• Mitsu Bishi (ship-building at Nagasaki).
  
• Kawasaki Dock Company (ship-building at Dairen).
  
• American Trading Company.
  
• Sassoon & Co. (German).
  
• Reiss & Co. (British).
  
• Melchers & Co. (German), machinery, shipping, etc.
  
• Arnhold, Karberg & Co. (German).
  
• Henley’s Telegraph Works (British).
  
• Shewan, Tomes & Co. (British and American).
  
• Fearon, Daniel & Co. (American).
  
• Andersen, Meyer & Co. (German).
  
• Carlowitz & Co. (German), smelting, matting, machinery, etc.
  
• J.G. White & Co. (American), engineering.
  
• Punchard, Lowther (British), engineering.
  
• Pearson (British), engineering.
  
• Tsingtau Dock Company (German), ship-building.
  
• Rose, Downs & Thomson (British), oil, machinery.
  
• Priestman Brothers (British), dredgers, excavators.
  
• Indo-China Cement Company at Haiphong (French).
  
• Bohler Brothers (British), hardware.
  
• Siemssen & Co. (German).
  
• Kelly, Walsh & Co., Brewer & Co., North China Herald (British), publishers and booksellers.
  
• Brunner Brothers (German), gas lighting.
  
• Hohenzollern Company (German), locomotives.
  
• Konigs Company (German), bridges.
  
• Reinecker Company (German), machinery, tools.
  
• Hurst-Nelson Company (British), railway equipment.
  
• Glasgow Rolling Stock Company.
  
• Mellowes & Co. (British), station roofs.
  
• Hunt & Co. (British), machine shops.
  
• Leeds Forge Company (British), steel cars.
  
• Cassella & Co. (British), engineering instruments.
  
• Tangye & Co. (British), oil engines.
  
• Yorkshire Copper Works, Union Electric Company (British), electric plants.
  
• Wilkinson-Heywood Company (British), paint.
  
• Dudgeon, Ltd. (British), excavators.
  
• Waygood & Co. (British), elevators.
  
• Nasymth Wilson Company (British), locomotives.
  
• Vickers, Ltd. (British), railway equipment.
  
• Hawthorne-Leslie Company (British), mining equipment.
  
• Arts and Crafts Company (British), decorators.
  
• Sun Life of Canada, insurance.
  
• Royce, Ltd. (British), cranes.
  
• Herring, Hall, Marvin (American), safes.

The Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York, opened a branch in Hongkong in 1903, but it was closed in 1904, insurance companies preferring, as a rule, to act through general commission houses at present.

Foreign firms advertise in Chinese almanacs, which circulate in immense numbers throughout the land. An example is Hallock’s Miscellany, printed in a scholarly manner by the American Presbyterian Mission Press, 18 Peking Road, Shanghai. The Chinese editions of the Hongkong and Shanghai papers are excellent mediums, if one is not on the ground. Chinese travelers arrive at a station hours before the departure of a train, and foreign firms find it advantageous to display their cartoons and advertising in Chinese at railway stations. Even if some of the Chinese can not read, they become familiar with the “chop” or cartoon, which accordingly is more important than in any land, and should therefore be registered with the foreign consul and the Chinese taotai. The Asiatic Petroleum Company, of London, (Dutch-British), uses a cartoon of three square oil tins, with a tin lamp flaming on the top. The Standard Oil Company uses a picture of the hand lamp and some paraffin candles. Scott’s Emulsion Company shows the familiar codfish on the back of the man. Green Island Cement Company shows the famous mountain island of Macao’s inner harbor, with the cement chimneys at its foot. Barnard & Leas Company, of Moline, Illinois, use a picture of their grain sifter. Mousin et Cie, of Frankfort on Main, use a picture of a rose spray and a Chinese man and woman. The New Home Sewing-Machines use a picture of the machine and a greyhound. The Victor Talking Machines show the well-known fox-terrier listening to “His Master’s Voice”. Many of the firms draw attention by quoting an epigrammatic gem of Chinese wisdom. The Singer Sewing-Machine insists that the Chinese shall become familiar with the English letters and not the Chinese letters in the bridge of their machine, and they have had wide success. The Wheeler & Wilson Sewing-Machine Company shows Gabriel blowing his horn, or the spirit of reform telling China to wake up! The Longines Watch Company, of Paris, uses a Chinese lily in a vase and a winged hour-glass. The Chinese are becoming large buyers of time-keepers, and these trade-marks are most important. Several suits over trade-marks on watches have appeared in the courts of Hongkong. The Taussig Soap Company, of Vienna, uses a man-headed bird, which appeals to the humorous Chinese, whose hobgoblins are legion.

The get-equipped-quick advertising correspondence schools are teaching advertising pupils in America to change their advertisements constantly. This will not do in China. Nothing pays like a known “chop”, rigidly adhered to for decades. The Chinese will have nothing else than their favorite cartoon, or “chop” on cotton bolt, flour bag and everything else. “Once a customer always a customer” is truer in China than anywhere else in the world, but it is harder there than anywhere else to get that customer the necessary “once”, as he has probably linked up with a “chop” that preceded yours. The Harrison Knitting Machine Company, of Manchester, England, merely show cuts of their machines, and a competitor could do the same, and thus confuse the Chinese. Staedtler, the pencil manufacturer of Nuremberg, shows the man in the moon and a cock. J.H. Birch, of Library Street, Burlington, New Jersey, shows merely cuts of his rickshaws, which compete with the Japanese vehicle. The whisky houses of Britain cease neither day nor night in the attempt to give China something Occidental to take the place of the debarred opium. They try to adopt different shaped bottles to distinguish their goods, and some double bottles are now blown almost in the shape of the whisky’s “W”. The Burnese Alps Milk Company, of Stalden, has adopted a mother Teddy bear, giving a baby bear forced lactary injections. Nestle’s Milk Company, of Vevay, shows the “cow that jumped over the moon”. Aquarius Water Company shows a Chinese boy bearing a tray with the aerated water. Pathe’s French Films show the crowing cock. The United States Steel Products Export Company use the crouching tiger. Swift’s Hams show “S” in a diamond. Clarke’s Manila Coffee uses a volcano of coffee beans in imitation of Mayon volcano in the Philippines. The Chee Hsin Cement Company, of Tangshan, Pechili province, has a pony whose fiery breath has set the sun on fire. This is the weird mythological style of “chop” with which the poetical Chinese are familiar and which they like.

The Chinese are a race who have nearly as much imagination as the Greeks. The Hupeh Cement Works, of Tayeh, use a seventeen-storied pagoda, which is supposed to represent a very fine product, as pagodas tower only thirteen stories at the highest. The Indo-China Cement Company uses the well-known dragon of the Manchus, which tosses three medals in the air. The British-American Tobacco Company advertises a nautch girl pulling portiÉres apart, a “chop” which is a little more luxuriously Mohammedan than staid China cares for. Veluvine Protective Paint has adopted a crouching bulldog. Isuan Aerated Waters, of the Philippines, use a hand pouring a bottle that fills a glass. The Toyo Kisen Kaisha uses a red circle in a white fan on a blue flag. Flags are becoming popular chops. Shields are also used by the British and the Spanish, but they are rather intricate for the Chinese to understand. There is not much competition yet, and most of the foreign firms, in their desire to educate the Chinese, are merely using photographs of their machinery and product, but as soon as John Chinaman has to choose between two dynamos, two gas engines, two pumps, etc., each of them must use a “chop” or trade-mark, just as the oil, the flour, the ham, the cement bag, the bolt of cotton, etc., have now to be chopped to maintain their position on the slogan popular throughout Canada and Britain of “what we have we hold.”

The treaty ports of China, such as Shanghai, Tientsin, Hongkong, etc., show that almost every form of business is incorporated. Doctors and dentists form companies, and bring out juniors under indenture. The share list shows active trading in the following companies among others: railway, steamship, rubber, banks; marine, life and fire insurance; oil, refineries, sugar, mining, engineering and contracting, ship-building, car building; docks, wharves and warehouse (godown); lands, hotels, clubs, buildings, cotton mills and plantations, cement, power, light, water, trams, millinery, telephone, telegraph, cable, tailors, dairy farm, abattoir, soda water, distilleries, flour mills, iron mills, gas, electricity, druggist, newspaper, booksellers, conservancy, athletic clubs, race course, import and export firms, jewelers, silk filatures, tea farms, matting factories and plantations, furniture factories, etc. I know of no place where the craze of men to get rich faster than savings will accumulate is indicated more than at Shanghai, Hongkong and Singapore. The bund of Shanghai is as speculatively feverous as Wall Street.

British Hongkong, like China, holds that all land is crown or state land, and therefore leases are granted instead of fee-simple deeds, American style. The British government has gone extensively into the land business at Hongkong, leveling many terraces, filling many valleys in the mountains, and reclaiming from the sea vast areas at West Point and East Point, Hongkong, and at Yaumati, Kowloon and Hunghom on the mainland section of the hilly colony. Leases for these valuable sites are then put up at auction, bringing about twice the rental that obtains in Brooklyn or Jersey City, or the outlying districts of London. In the same way the foreign concession municipalities of Shanghai, Tientsin, Fuchau, Amoy, Hankau, Newchwang, Harbin, etc., prepare land for long leases. These will in time all be strenuous questions with the new republican government of China. When the foreigner gave up the extraterritorial right in Japan, the Japanese never again permitted him to own land, unless he became a Japanese citizen. Many land companies, subletting long leaseholds, have been formed in all the treaty ports where there are foreign concessions. I do not believe that republican China desires to acquire these leaseholds for many years, and if she did she would purchase them. The foreign navies would see to that.