A British writer declared more than 150 years ago: "If only we could persuade every person in China to lengthen his shirt tails by a foot, we could keep the mills of Lancashire working round the clock."
A similar dream has seduced many big foreign companies to invest in China since it opened up in the early 1980s. It beguiled American Motors, the makers of the famous American jeep, into investing in China when it relaxed policies after the Cultural Revolution.
China was the world's last great untapped car market. With a population of over a billion and a growth rate of 10 per cent, its potential for car makers seemed unlimited. The American company (later taken over by Chrysler Corp) entered into an historic deal with Beijing Automotive Company in 1983 to make jeeps at a state-owned car plant in Beijing. The joint enterprise, Beijing Jeep, became the first major manufacturing partnership between American capital and Chinese communism. Today Beijing Jeep is the second most recognisable foreign brand name in China, after Coca Cola and before Head & Shoulders shampoo.
Like many other foreigners in China I drive a Beijing Jeep. Actually there isn't much choice. The huge duty on foreign imports makes other cars extremely expensive.
The Jeep Cherokee manufactured here is a rudimentary version of the model popular in the West. The doors won't close unless slammed shut, the seat belts get caught in the door latch, the electric system dies at inconvenient moments, the engine cuts out at traffic lights and it devours petrol. After only 35,000 kilometres the boxy four wheel-drive vehicle requires regular trips to the garage for minor repairs.
But I like the Beijing Jeep, as do most other foreign owners. It is tough and has never let me down on long trips through the countryside. The driver's seat is high up, giving a good view of bicycle and pedestrian traffic. In a country where there are 630 traffic fatalities per 100,000 cars a year (compared with 21 in the United States) this is a distinct advantage.
The joint venture also makes an old GI-type jeep, called the BJ 2020, but this has a serious drawback. Under complicated road-licensing rules designed to ease congestion, it is not allowed to be driven inside Beijing's inner ring road. Regional protectionism also restricts the market for the Jeep Cherokee. You could spend a week in Shanghai without seeing a single jeep, as the locally-made Volkswagen Santana is the favoured "foreign" car of China's second city.
As the first big US-China joint venture, Beijing Jeep has come to symbolise Chinese-American business partnership - and its pitfalls. What on paper seemed a money-spinning idea in 1983, in practice became a constant struggle between two radically different cultures. The Americans came to make a profit in a country with a potentially unlimited market and a philosophy of: "We make money, you make money, everyone gains."
The Chinese side wanted to get access to new technology, and their idea of industrial relations was to spend all the profits and management time looking after workers' housing and social needs. In the early years, the cultural and business differences became so great that the joint enterprise almost fell asunder.
In 1986 a trouble-shooter from the China State Economic Commission was sent in by the government to resolve the near-terminal problems. His name was Zhu Rongji, now premier of China, and a man not afraid of speaking the truth. "Some of our comrades are always thinking of taking a bite at joint ventures and even sucking them dry," he said, in a reprimand to his own side.
The joint venture came to symbolise the difficulties that foreign companies face in a country in transition from socialism to a free-market economy. Now Beijing Jeep has been hit by the one problem it could not have anticipated - falling demand. Sales of both jeeps dropped by almost a half since 1996 and those of the Cherokee have been hit hardest. From an all-time high of 26,000 in 1996, only 13,000 will be sold this year.
One of the reasons is that formerly, the army, police and sports bodies bought 70 per cent of production under instructions from the central government, but the command system is disintegrating. Official organisations are now given a budget and can decide themselves what kind of vehicle they want, which is quite often a more comfortable Santana or a Citroen ZX. Many are waiting for the new Buicks which will start rolling off the assembly line in a billion-pound plant in Shanghai later this year.
On top of that there is a racket in fake Beijing Jeeps made somewhere in the Chinese capital. "Beijing Jeep no longer has a captive customer," said Mr Andy Okab, the vice-president of Chrysler Corp's Beijing Jeep, who is trimming costs at the plant. A Reuters reporter who called to see him found an electric fan stirring the Stars-and-Stripes flag behind his desk, as the air conditioning was switched off to save money. "A penny saved is a penny earned," Mr Okab explained apologetically.
Another problem is that the emerging Chinese middle class still cannot afford a new Cherokee, even though the price for the top model has fallen from about £22,000 to £16,000 in the last two years. To make matters worse, the government has started a massive nation-wide housing privatisation scheme, leaving householders with little money for buying cars, especially petrol-guzzling jeeps.
All over China car plants are operating at half capacity as an austerity programme has reduced the vehicle budgets of state institutions. Chrysler executives believe that things will turn around in about five years. "This market still has a great potential," said Mr Okab. Which is exactly what the first American pioneers were saying 15 long years ago.