Timber Trade of Chinese Empire. 663 



with the whole trade. He says that there is a much greater 

 demand for wood now than ever before, but he believes that the 

 supply is sufficient (this, however, is probably contrary to the true 

 facts of the case). As to prices, it is very difficult to get a true 

 comparison in China on account of the enormous fluctuation in 

 value of the currency and the difficulty of making due allowance 

 for the amount of change which the variation in value of the coin 

 based on the gold standard would make in the selling value of a 

 product produced wholly in China by Chinese labor; for certainly 

 it would not make so much difference as in the trade in articles 

 imported from abroad. The present price (1909) is only about 

 80% of the price six years before, but this is largely due to the 

 great depression in trade which existed in the year when this was 

 written not only in China but apparently all over the world now. 

 The present price is about double what it was twenty years ago. 



As will be shown later, the price for larger sizes of native 

 woods mounts up very rapidly, and since with the growth in 

 demand for all kinds of native woods for building purposes it is 

 likely that the supply of native wood will fall far short of the 

 demand and the price soon will probably be too high to compete 

 with imported woods. 



The sale of wood, like practically all other business in China, is 

 controlled by a guild. Members of the Wood Merchants' Guild 

 act really as commission agents for the raft merchants who buy 

 from the Miaotze cutters. The raft merchants make as close a 

 bargain as possible — generally getting the wood very cheap from 

 the "wild people," and bring it down to the market but do not sell 

 direct ; the members of the Wood Merchants' Guild do the selling, 

 and charge about a 3% commission. Like everything else in 

 China, there is no fixed price, the price always being settled by 

 bargaining; and to prevent people outside of the guild from learn- 

 ing the trade the system of measurements is very complicated. 

 Thus, for each different kind of wood the circumference is 

 measured at different points and for a given measure of circum- 

 ference a certain length is guaranteed ; then for each kind of 

 wood a pole of a given circumference is considered as being so 

 many taels of wood, and for each tael of wood there is a different 

 price quoted in taels of money; for example; if Sah-mung is 

 involved, the circumference is taken 5' from the butt, and one of 

 i' 5" in circumference is considered as being 9/10 of a tael of 

 wood, and a member of the guild would know that it would be 

 guaranteed at least 30' long. One tael of the best Sah wood is 

 worth about thirteen taels in money, so that its value would be 

 9/10 X 13 or 1 1.7 taels in money. (The present value of the 

 Hangkow tael is about 58 cents gold, making this piece worth 

 $6.78 gold). In the case of Sung-mung, the circumference in the 

 middle would be measured, then 15" deducted from that, and the 



