reports of Consul-General Goodnow of Shanghai, increased
from $11,081,146 in 1900 to $18,175,484 in 1901 and $22,698,282
in 1902, while for 1904 they reached the total of about
$24,000,000, a gain of nearly 125 per cent. since 1900 and of
several hundred per cent. as compared with 1894.

Meantime, the United States imported from China goods to
the value of $30,872,244 in 1904, which is an increase of $14,255,956
over the imports for 1901. Silk and tea are the principal
items in this trade, the figures for the former being $10,220,543
and for the latter $7,294,570, though of goatskins we
took $2,556,541, wool $2,325,445, and matting $1,615,838.
The United States is now the third nation in trade relations
with China. This is the more remarkable when we consider
the statement of the late Mr. Everett Frazar of the American
Asiatic Association that in January, 1901, there were only four
American business firms in all China. When our business men
establish their own houses in China instead of dealing as now
through European and Chinese firms, it is not unreasonable to
expect that the United States will outstrip its larger rivals Great
Britain and France, though, as I have already intimated, it is
one thing to ship foreign goods to China and quite another
thing to control them after their arrival, for the Chinese are
disposed to manage that trade themselves and they know how
to do it.

Unfortunately the stream of foreign trade with China has
been contaminated by many of the vices which disgrace our
civilization. The pioneer traders were, as a rule, pirates and
adventurers, who cheated and abused the Chinese most flagrantly.