BY FRANK R. ELDRIDGE, JR. CHIEF OF THE FAR EASTERN DIVISION OF THE UNITED STATES ON FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC SURVEY IN THE SCHOOL NOV Ра PREFACE This book is intended to serve as a primer on Far Eastern trade. It is designed for the student, but it will be found useful by that large class of business men who have felt that they were approaching the great markets of the Orient without a proper knowledge of the fundamental facts concerning the history, government, and commerce of the Oriental peoples. It is designed to be informative rather than opinionative, and subjects of a controversial nature have been purposely omitted. I have striven to make it more a compact handbook than a descriptive or didactic treatise, and for that reason I have included only such references to habits and customs as were absolutely necessary to bring out important economic facts. The book is built upon the theory that a knowledge of commerce is essentially a knowledge of the reasons why certain commodities dominate the trade of certain regions. Predictions as to the possible growth of the import trade of the various countries are indulged in only sparingly as it is realized that such growth is dependent in the last analysis upon individual enterprise which is guided only by profitable return. To encourage unwise or fitful development of these Far Eastern markets is the last thing to be desired by those who have the ultimate growth of our foreign trade at heart. The present development, however, is analyzed fully with a view to pointing out the lines of permanent and profitable growth. Many works on the Far East have been consulted freely, and special mention of these is made at the close of each part of the text, where (RECAP) HF3119 EG 491976 |