ABSTRACT
China, with its magnificent trade possibilities, has attracted the attention of the world, and manufacturing countries, anxious to participate in and benefit by its commercial growth, have carefully studied conditions with a view to exporting to the Orient the commodities required by the Chinese consumer. The total exports of native goods in 1904 amounted to $158,061,000, a creditable showing, but capable of enormous expansion if the masses of southern China could be imbued with a spirit of energy and ambition. The building up of a paying business in southern China is and always has been a slow, tedious process, in which the first two or three years not infrequently show a loss, and unless the American manufacturer is prepared to meet such a contingency without abandoning the field, it will be practically useless for him to enter the competition. The efforts of the Japanese to introduce their piece goods in southern China demand serious attention.
