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180 hundred thousand pounds in value. Foreign imports stand for quite eighty thousand of this total. It is, perhaps, needless to add that no British shipping has entered the harbour within the six years of its existence. German and American steamers have nevertheless brought cargoes to Mok-po; Japanese steamers touch regularly. The trade is that of a native market, whose demands can be furnished from Japan; it is, of course, beneath the notice of the British exporter. Piece goods, Japanese and American cigarettes, matches, yarn, articles which the humbler classes now use and for which, owing to the rapidly increasing native population of this south-western Province, there will be greater demand in the future, make up the trade.

It may be that this port, despised by the British merchant, as are all the ports of Korea, will some day head the centres of commerce of the kingdom. Even now it attracts foreign goods from Japan, America, and Germany. There are many channels through which British wares, cheap, enduring, practical and suitable to prevailing conditions could filter to the advantage of the British merchant. Cereals are raised in large quantities, straw-matting, grass-cloth, paper and fans are the other native manufactures. A vein of bituminous coal has been struck within a short