JAPAN--CHINA
While France is the bounty-giving nation _par excellence_, Japan is a
pressing second. The development of a modern merchant marine, together
with a modern navy, was among the first undertakings of the awakening
empire upon her assumption of Occidental civilization. Adopting what
seemed to her statesmen of the new regime, from their study of Western
methods, to be the speediest way to that end, she started out
energetically to attain it through lavish money-grants from the national
treasury for the establishment of steamship companies of her own people
in coastwise and ocean service, and of modernized ship-yards and
shipbuilders.
The initial venture resulted in the creation of a steamship monopoly.
This was the subsidizing, in 1877, of the pioneer concern, to supply
steam communication between various domestic ports, and also with
Siberia, China, and Corea. It was founded by a broad-visioned Japanese
merchant, Jwasaki Yataro,[FC] and controlled by him. To break his
monopoly the Government in 1882 set up a rival State-supported
company.[FC] After a period of "desperate competition" and warfare,
Jwasaki persuaded the new concern to unite with his. So was effected a
community of interests after the most approved Western pattern.[FC] By
this union was formed, in 1885, the powerful _Nippon Yusen Kaisha_
(Japan Mail Steamship Company), which remained the most powerful of
Japanese steamship establishments, with lines running to the same ports
to which the American steamers run.
Coincident with the State-aiding of steamship companies was the granting
of liberal postal subvention. Next followed the institution of a general
subsidy system, frankly designed to stimulate domestic shipbuilding and
to further navigation by Japanese ships.
This system was embodied in two acts promulgated in 1896, the year after
the finish of the Japan-China War (1894-95), when the merchant marine
was growing pretty rapidly, but not rapidly enough for the aspiring
nation. These were, a Shipbuilding Encouragement Law, the aim of which
was to stimulate the building of vessels above 700 tons; and a
Navigation Encouragement Law, to foster open-sea navigation. Their model
was the French system.
These laws offered construction and navigation subsidies, and also made
provision for a widely extended postal service with increased postal
subventions. The construction bounties were available for "any company
composed of Japanese subjects exclusively as members and shareholders
which shall establish a ship-yard conforming to the requirements of the
Minister of State for Communications, and shall build ships." The rates
were fixed as follows: for ships of over 1000 tons, twenty yen ($9.96)
per gross ton; of over 700 and under 1000 tons, twelve yen; for engines
built with ships, or in any other domestic dock-yard, with the consent
of the Minister of Communications, five yen per horsepower. Japanese
materials only were to be used, unless the Minister of Communications
should give permission to use foreign materials. The navigation bounties
were granted only for iron and steel ships owned exclusively by Japanese
subjects, and plying between Japan and foreign ports. The rates in this
class were: twenty-five sen (about 12-1/2 cents) per gross ton per
thousand miles run for ships of 1000 tons steaming at ten knots an hour;
ten per cent added for every additional 500 tons up to 6000 tons, and
twenty per cent for every additional knot up to seventeen. Foreign-built
ships less than five years old, owned by Japanese, were admitted to
these bounties. The postal routes established were fifteen in number,
calling for an annual expenditure of 4,964,404 yen (about $2,482,202)
when in full operation. The payments for postal service were to be
computed at the mileage rate given for navigation. Previous to this act
the postal subventions had amounted annually to nine hundred and
forty-five thousand yen in 1890 and 1891, and nine hundred and thirty
thousand yen in the subsequent years.[FD]
The effect of these laws was to stimulate overproduction. The _Nippon
Yusen Kaisha_ ordered eighteen large freight steamers aggregating 88,000
tons. Other companies doubled and trebled their fleets.[FD] One result
of the overproduction was the forcing down of freights. This, together
with the business depression of 1898-99, brought losses to the shipping
companies despite the large subsidies. The rapidly increasing amounts of
the subsidies, too, were giving the Government concern. From a total of
1,027,275 yen in 1896 the sum expended annually had grown by 1899 to
5,846,956 yen. The total paid between 1896 and 1899 had amounted to
13,133,440 yen, about $6,566,720.[FD]
Accordingly, in 1899 (March), a law was enacted modifying the system.
The navigation bounties on foreign-built ships were reduced by half,
while the subventions to the postal lines were fixed at certain yearly
sums. A law of 1900 (February 23) extended the postal services. Under
these laws the postal subventions reached a total of about 5,647,811 yen
($2,823,905) a year. Of this total the _Nippon Yusen Kaisha's_ was the
lion's share,--4,299,861 yen, about $2,149,930.[FD]
After the passage of these laws the various companies further increased
their tonnage, but the merchant marine grew more wholesomely for a
while. In 1902 the total tonnage had reached 934,000 tons, and the
Japanese mercantile fleet had risen to the position of eighth in the
world in point of tonnage, whereas in 1892 it was only thirteenth.[FE]
In 1907 the United States consul at Yokohama wrote: "The building of
ships of over ten thousand tons in Japanese yards is now quite
common.... The war [with Russia] has given a great impetus to the
shipbuilding and dock-yard industry which has made remarkable progress
during the last few years."[FF]
That year (1907) the Government brought forward several ship-subsidy
bills making provision for further Japan sea services.[FG] In 1908 the
amount of State aid to the merchant marine had increased to an
equivalent of $6,170,566 and additional amounts were asked for, one for
the line to South America.[FH] The budget for 1908-09 carried the
largest amounts yet devoted by Japan to ship subsidizing. At the end of
1908 official statistics placed the number of steamers at 1618, with a
gross tonnage of 1,153,340.42. Of these, one hundred and one were
steamers of more than three thousand tons.[FH]
In 1909 a new subsidy system was adopted (the laws of 1896 revised), to
go into effect January 1 1910. The fixed navigation bounties granted by
the old system on specified routes were abolished, and a general subsidy
offered open to all steamships conforming to the provisions of the new
law. The subsidized open-sea routes, however, were limited to four--the
European, the North American, South American, and Australian;[FI] and
coasting services in the Far East were not affected. Among other
conditions imposed on the beneficiaries were the requirements that
steamers must carry more than one-half their maximum load; that each
must have a wireless telegraph outfit, this, however, instituted at the
Government's expense; that the Department of Communications be furnished
with information as to freights and passenger rates; and that proper
terminal facilities, as piers, warehouses, lighters, be provided by the
subsidized companies.[FJ] The steamers receiving the full subsidy must
be home-built, of steel, of over 3000 tons gross, and showing a speed of
at least twelve knots per hour. The rate was fixed at fifty sen per
gross ton for every thousand nautical miles, and ten per cent of this
sum added per additional speed of one nautical mile an hour, according
to the conditions of the route. Upon a vessel the age of which exceeds
five years the subsidy decreases five per cent each year till the age
of fifteen is reached, when it ceases. Foreign-built steamers under five
years of age, which may be put in service with the sanction of the
Government authorities, are entitled to half of the subsidy. The
construction subsidies were arranged in two classes, and each class in
four grades.[FK] The rates were slightly increased over those of the law
of 1896, and their benefits were limited to steel vessels of over 1000
tons instead of 700 tons.
The total appropriations for ship subsidies in the budget for 1911-12
amounted, in American money, to $6,845,995, of which $6,294,020 were for
navigation, and $551,975 for construction subsidies: an increase of
$478,387 in the former class over the appropriation of the previous
year, and a decrease in the latter class of $6,835.[FL]
The total Japanese tonnage in 1910 stood at 1,149,200 tons.[FM] The
_Nippon Yusen Kaisha_ practically owns nine-tenths of the ocean-going
steamships flying the Japanese flag.[FN]
* * * * *
China, too, taking on Western ways, is emulating Japan in establishing a
modern merchant marine. The Government is giving State aid to native
steamship companies, and subsidizing ship-yards. According to the United
States consul-general at Hongkong the Government is now (1911) to
furnish half of the amount of an extension of the capital of the Chinese
Merchants' Steam Navigation Company to twenty million taels (about
$12,600,000 gold), and thirty additional steamers of modern type are to
be built for service--ten on foreign routes, including a route to the
United States, and twenty on routes between Chinese ports; while a new
ship-yard is to be set up at Shanghai under Government auspices,
capitalized at five million taels (about $3,200,000 gold).
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FC: Meeker.]
[Footnote FD: Meeker.]
[Footnote FE: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 282, March, 1904.]
[Footnote FF: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 316, Jan, 1907, pp. 92-93.]
[Footnote FG: Con. Gen. H.B. Miller, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no. 32,
pp. 120-121, May, 1907.]
[Footnote FH: Vice Con. Gen. E.G. Babbitt, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no.
344, p. 216, May, 1909.]
[Footnote FI: Japan Year Book, 1911.]
[Footnote FJ: U.S. Con. Gen. Thomas Sammons, Yokohama, in Daily Con.
Repts., no. 38, Aug. 17, 1910.]
[Footnote FK: Japan Year Book, 1911.]
[Footnote FL: U.S. Ambassador Thomas J. O'Brien, Tokyo, in Daily Con.
Repts., no. 123, May 26, 1911.]
[Footnote FM: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]
[Footnote FN: Japan Year Book, 1911.]