Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Change of direction

I covet, in a purely theoretical kind of way since I do not have £1.2 million to spare, a pair of small elephants which appear, in the black & white photograph I am looking at in the newspaper before me, as if they may have ivory tusks.

They form part of a collection of 16 jade ornaments which, a recent auction established, is worth more than the English stately home which was their home for the last 60 years.

Wealthy Chinese collectors are using the mechanisms of free market globalisation to reclaim their looted heritage.

I am going to link this to a remark made by one of the participants in last Thursday’s Bottom Line: production is beginning to shift from China back to Europe. Turkish manufacturers of clothing for example, who lost out to the even lower-cost labour in the Far East, are regaining their advantage because the price of labour becomes less critical when set against the rising costs of raw materials (cotton especially) & long distance freight.

At this rate we may soon be back to the time when it was the Lancashire mill girl who clothed the world. And the Far East economies will prosper through the industries of technology & knowledge.

After all many western university departments of science & technology would be struggling to remain open were it not for the large proportion of students – especially postgraduates – which they attract from the East

Where will the £12.5 million proceeds of the sale end up?



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