Imports from China to Mongolia, 15,000,000 roubles (£1,666,666).
Imports from Mongolia to Siberia, 8,500,000 roubles (£944,444).
Imports from Siberia to Mongolia, 1,800,000 roubles (£200,000).
The China-Mongolian trade, therefore, is by far the greatest of the two, amounting as it does to 50,000,000 roubles a year in imports and exports, and this shows that the main natural trend of Mongolian trade, especially in the east and south-east, is directed towards Inner China. In this connexion it is interesting to note what the probable effect of a proposed railway from Khiakta to Peking via Urga and Kalgan would be upon the economic status of this part of Outer China. The cheapening of the cost of transport from Mongolia, both towards the north and towards the south, would probably stimulate the southern traffic towards Inner China, at the expense of the northern trade to Siberia. It has even been rumoured that foreign wool agents in China have recently begun to discover that the export of Mongolian wool to Europe via Urga and Kalgan is 70 kopeks per poud (½d. per lb. approx.) cheaper than if it were sent via Khiakta and the Siberian railway. While, however, the railway would probably stimulate the China-Mongolian raw material trade at the expense of the Russo-Mongolian, in other respects it would bring Russian and Inner Chinese markets nearer together, and would probably facilitate the import of more Chinese wares, especially tea, into the markets of Siberia and Western Russia.
It has become of recent years apparent that Russian and Chinese economic influence have been drawn
