course as a sphere in which these characteristics become especially noticeable. Making, therefore, every proper allowance for individual exceptions, all the more commendable and beautiful because of their rarity in an environment of temptation and lax example, we still seem to have abundant reason to regard the commercial activities of Oriental nations, especially in minor transactions, as shot through and through with unscrupulous dealings.

Business trickery

in China.

The Chinese are expert smugglers, and much given to cunning fraud in business. Over every financial venture hangs the grave shadow of almost certain attempts at crooked administration. Along every avenue of revenue is the lurking spectre of unfaithful service. Every shop door might have its sign of warning against double-dealing and deception. The weights and measures, as well as the currency, are all tampered with for purposes of cheating. The common copper "cash" of Chinese trade is specially subject to the manipulation and shortage of financial tricksters. The result of these dishonest dealings is in the end to hamper trade and check its productiveness. The Chinese tea trade has been steadily supplanted of late by that of Ceylon and India, as has been shown by Mr. A. G. Stanton in a paper recently read before the London Society of Arts. In 1866 China supplied ninety-six per cent. of the tea for Great Britain, and in 1894 only twelve per cent. The statement is made, with reference to this great falling off, that “it is not the result so much of the growth of tea culture in India as of the dishonest tricks of the Chinese trade."2 The power of this temptation. to defraud is manifest even in the distribution of charity, so that the

1 "Bad money, in this province at least, is universal, that is, thin, illicit coins, a certain proportion of which is judiciously mixed on the string of cash, which may contain five hundred or one thousand. The currency in general is bad. Bank-notes (paper) have only a local circulation. The Government issues none, and the lump

silver may be adulterated, as it repeatedly is, with pewter, brass, etc. This silver is changed for cash at so much per ounce, the ounce weight of no two localities being alike. Hence losses of exchange between places a few miles apart. Multifarious weights and measures-no standard for anything. Each place a law unto itself. There is no government inspection of weights and measures.”—Rev. Donald MacGillivray (C. P. M.), Chu-Wang, China.

2 "Straw braid promised to be a good business in Shantung. The exports brought large returns. But, as usual, deception and cupidity worked in. The inside of the large bundles was poor work, or no work at all, only refuse. The trade is hurt seriously. So of kerosene, it comes to us from Philadelphia and New York in good condition, but at the ports it is mixed in some way with a kind of cheap oil and water and sold to the natives who know no better."-Rev. John Murray (P. B. F. M. N.), Chinanfu, Shantung, China.

dispensing of foreign relief funds cannot usually be safely committed to native hands. So inveterate is the tendency to palm off the false for the true that even the hated foreigner has been counterfeited with a view to the advantage which it might bring.2

Japan has made remarkable progress of late years in the expansion of her commercial interests. Her trade, both external and internal, is increasing rapidly, and promises to enter into serious competition with that of Western nations. A grave danger, however, meets her at the very threshold of her new industrial era. It is the temptation to dishonesty and fraud in business transactions.3 Owing to the absence of all protection in the case of foreign patents, trade-marks, or labels, the

The commercial sinuosities of the Japanese.

1 "Poor people tell me that, in some places when rice is distributed, not only is an inferior quality substituted for what ought to be given, but it is mixed with plaster of Paris, which in small quantities makes rice look white, and also makes the eater nauseated, thus preventing him from consuming too much. The result is a profit to the officials in charge. Distribution of famine relief funds cannot be left even to native so-called benevolent societies."-B. C. Atterbury, M.D. (P. B. F. M. N.), Peking, China.

2 "There are in this part of China a number of 'counterfeit foreigners.' I was myself taken to be one of that class, because of an ability to make myself understood in Chinese. It seems that one or more enterprising Celestials have gone into the work of dispensing medicines, after the manner of the American physician. Usually two or three men go together. One of these dresses in foreign costume, and talks a gibberish which is not understood by the natives, and so passes for a foreign language. In imitation of American physicians all medicine is given away, but unlike that fraternity the bogus representative of America is quite willing to receive contributions of grain to feed the animal which helps convey him from village to village. In consequence grain pours in upon him by the quantity. This is disposed of by a confederate at the nearest fair, and then Ah Sin departs for ' fresh fields and pastures new.'"-Rev. Franklin M. Chapin (A. B. C. F. M.), Lin Ching, China, in The Missionary Herald, July, 1893, p. 285.

Dr. S. S. McFarlane, of the Chi Chou station of the London Missionary Society, in the same section of China, southwest of Tientsin, reports in July, 1896, a similar incident: "For several years past the Mission has been troubled with a Chinaman attired in foreign hat and shoes, travelling in a jinricksha, drawn by a donkey. This Celestial goes about selling foreign sweets as infallible cures for every disease under the sun. A large red notice hangs in front of his chariot, stating his honourable connections with Ta Ying Kuo (England). He gives out at markets and fairs that the Chi Chou Mission Hospital has employed him to sell foreign medicines at a salary amounting to 10s. 6d. per month. His reputation is thus established, and his quack remedies sell like wildfire. . . . I may mention that our American neighbours, a day's journey away, had a similar experience some time ago with another 'foreign' impostor, who was supposed to have been connected with their medical work and in their honourable employ."-The Chronicle, July, 1896, p. 151.

3 "One thing has been especially noticeable, and that is the low business stan

Japanese have already obtained an unenviable notoriety by the fraudulent reproduction and use of foreign trade symbols and patent reservations. Their imitations of European products, which they palm off as the genuine article from abroad, have already expanded into considerable variety. Mr. Hillier, British Consul-General in Korea, speaks of "a wonderful reproduction of Pears' Soap, perfect in so far as box, label, advertisements, and general appearance are concerned, but absolutely worthless as soap; and also a clever imitation of Colman's Mustard. These spurious products are sold side by side in the same shop with the genuine article, but at much lower price." If the Japanese fall into the mistake of sacrificing quality to cheapness, and genuineness to fraudulent imitation, their commercial prosperity is doomed to be at least morally discredited. The energy, ingenuity, and skill of a nation so gifted with the artistic faculty should not be betrayed into the service of commercial dishonesty. Upon a basis of fair dealing, and the production of sterling and genuine articles in all lines of trade, they could easily enter into formidable rivalry with Western nations, and in the end win a reputation for integrity and commercial honor which would dards in commercial life. The result is that the merchant class is distrusted on every hand, and business integrity is the exception and not the rule. A prominent merchant of Yokohama told me recently that many of the storehouses are filled with goods ordered by Japanese merchants, but which they refuse to take, because they hope to buy the same at auction at a less price than was stipulated. It is also a remarkable fact that the banks and large mercantile establishments do not entrust their funds or their business to Japanese clerks and assistants, but employ Chinamen instead. An illustration of the want of moral principle was seen in the appropriation by the officials to whom they were entrusted for distribution, of funds donated for the relief of the sufferers by the earthquake."-Rev. Henry Loomis (A. B. S.), Yokohama, Japan.

"And thus we find it the unanimous opinion of those in a position to judge, that Japanese commercial morality is of a defective type when compared even with the standard prevailing in China, where trade has never been stamped as degrading, or with the customs of those nations which, amid all the trickery immemorially associated with trade, have yet kept before them a certain standard of integrity in business as in other walks of life. It is, indeed, a common belief, among those who have investigated the conditions of trade in Japan, that commercial morality there stands almost on the lowest plane possible to a civilised people, and that, with few exceptions, even Japanese who prove estimable and high-minded in every other matter are not to be trusted when business transactions are in question. As a direct outcome of the contempt and degradation visited upon trade in feudal days, all classes now appear to regard commerce simply as a game of 'besting,' and the man who fails to take advantage of his neighbour when opportunity serves is looked upon rather as a fool than as one whose example should be praised and imitated."— Article entitled "Commercial Morality in Japan," by Robert Young (Editor of The Kobe Chronicle, Japan), in The Nineteenth Century, November, 1896, pp. 722, 723.

place them in the front rank of the world's trade. At present, however, boycotts, enforced by the Trade Guilds to facilitate a dishonorable advantage, or cover the fact of repudiation and force a comproImise of a just obligation, are becoming all too frequent, and are not condemned by public opinion. Shady commercial transactions are condoned if they result in profit. The ethics of honesty cannot hold their own where they conflict with the devices that succeed. A Japanese merchant, in discussing with a foreigner a case of practical repudiation of a debt on the part of a Japanese merchant when goods previously ordered arrived at the time of a falling market, remarked, "But if he had taken delivery he would have lost money." This seemed to settle the matter; he was justified in refusing to receive the goods and pay the price. The writer of the article in which this incident is related, Mr. Robert Young, Editor of The Kobe Chronicle,1 remarks: "That is the attitude which, with some few honourable exceptions, is almost invariably taken up by the Japanese merchant. The profit on a transaction must be on his side. If he perceives that he is likely to lose money, he will repudiate his bargains and his contracts, and will permit all manner of evil things to be said of him rather than fulfil his obligations. It is 'business' to secure the greatest advantage for one's self at all costs to reputation, and this seems the only touchstone which, in Japan, is applied to commercial matters. We see in this the direct outcome of the contempt for trade and for all who concerned themselves in barter, which was one of the features of feudal days in Japan. Ethical considerations were held to be out of place in the field of commerce, and as a result we find that men who would not dream of doing their neighbours injustice or injury in the ordinary affairs of life have no hesitation in overreaching them in a commercial bargain. Trade is thus placed by immemorial custom outside the sphere of morality, it is something to which ethics do not apply any more than they apply to the differential calculus,-and the result is what might be expected."

In India deceit is regarded by the mass of the people as the guarantee of business success. "There is a story of a magistrate who planted a bazaar with pipal-trees, but was waited upon by a deputation of the shopkeepers, who begged him to remove the trees, for they could not tell lies under them, and business would come to a standThis request was based upon the common belief that gods reside hidden among the leaves of the pipal-tree, and inflict punishment

Dearth of commercial integrity in India, Persia, and Turkey.

still."

1 See The Nineteenth Century, November, 1896, p. 727.