During 1901, owing to the Boxer disturbance, large numbers of ships owned by natives were transferred to the British flag. The ostensible decrease in the tonnage of British vessels, which entered and cleared affected ports, was therefore less than that of other nationalities. Similarly, there was a small increase in the duties paid under the British flag during the same period, owing to the valuable character of these cargoes. Under ordinary circumstances, the comparatively small decrease in the British tonnage and the increase of more than fifty thousand taels in the payments made to the Imperial Customs at such a moment of unrest, would suggest the stability of our trading interest, and afford no mean standard by which to judge the capacity of the markets. Unfortunately, the two most important counts in the returns, tonnage and duties, are no criterion. It is necessary to inspect closely the individual values of the different articles comprising the total trade. In this way the general depreciation of our manufactures is at once apparent.
A comparison of the American, Japanese, and German returns shows which are the commercial activities that are threatening our existence as a factor in the markets of the Far East. If, in the returns, we were shown the relations between the duties paid under each flag, and the tonnage of any particular country, besides the source and destination of its cargo, the true condition of British trade would be revealed at a glance. As it is, until a table is added to the Maritime Report, which will supply this valuable and interesting demonstration, the system of a separate examination is alone to be relied upon. By this method we find that between the years 1891 and 1901 there was a consistent falling-off in British exports to the Far East in almost
