The contents were spread out on the banks to dry,
while the boat was turned upside down and repaired on the spot.
* * * * *
A hopeless cry is continually ascending in Hong-Kong and Shanghai that
trade is bad, that the palmy days are gone, and that one might as well
leave business to take care of itself.
And it is not to be denied that increased trade in the Far East does not
of necessity mean increased profits. Competition has rendered buying and
selling, if they are to show increased dividends, a much harder task
than some of the older merchants had when they built up their businesses
twenty or thirty years ago. There is no comparison. But Hong-Kong, by
virtue of her remarkably favorable position geographically, should
always be able to hold her own; and now that the railway has pierced the
great province of Yuen-nan, and brought the provinces beyond the
navigable Yangtze nearer to the outside world, she should be able to
reap a big harvest in Western China, if merchants will move at the right
time. More often than not the Britisher loses his trade, not on account
of the alleged reason that business is not to be done, but because,
content with his club life, and with playing games when he should be
doing business, he allows the German to rush past him, and this man, an
alien in the colony, by persistent plodding and other more or less
commendable traits of business which I should like to detail, but for
which I have no space, takes away the trade while the Britisher looks
on.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70