JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL FUTURE
A nation has risen in the Far East that is earning high place among
enlightened governments, and in all probability the new-comer may
already be entitled to permanently rank with the first-class powers of
the earth. Japan is day by day a growing surprise to the world.
That the diminutive Island Empire should have been able to humble the
Muscovite pride was no greater marvel than that she should in a brief
half-century advance from the position of a weak and unknown country to
the station of a highly civilized nation. The government of the Mikado
is to-day the best exponent of Asiatic progressiveness. And of a people
with a capacity to perform in two generations such amazing things who
shall dare say what to them is impossible?
Europe has never been in joyful mood over the rise in Japanese prestige,
and she was more than reluctant to recognize the New Japan as the
dominant force in the East. That a yellow people should claim fellowship
with European countries guided by houses of lofty lineage was never
believed to be possible. Continental Europe was unprepared to admit
that Japan's triumph proved anything beyond a genius in the art of war
that was nothing short of a menace to the rest of mankind, and that luck
and geographical position helped the Mikado's legions in all ways. The
great Hohenzollern spoke of the Japanese as the "scourge of God"; in
France the "yellow peril"--a phrase really made in Germany--was
seriously debated; while Russia many times sought sympathy from the
Christian world on the ground that she was fighting the white man's
battle against paganism. Solitary in her preference for the Japanese,
expressed in the form of an astute and fortunate alliance, England
gloried when her Oriental ally revealed the weakness of the vaunted
power of the north that had dared to cast covetous eyes at India. All
these nations hold Asiatic possessions, each has aspired to have a say
in Chinese affairs, and each confesses to having a panacea for the
innumerable ills of the Celestial Empire--each is hungry, likewise, to
extend her trade with the awakening Orient.
Japan intruded, and deranged the plans of all and sundry for rousing
China to a realization of her greatness; and in all human probability
Japan will do for herself what several European powers wanted to do for
Asia. Japan can always justify her claim that she was driven to war to
preserve her national existence, by pointing to her rapidly-increasing
population, existing in an archipelago incapable of producing food for
even two thirds of her people, since every possibility of obtaining a
foothold on the adjacent continent had been cut off by self-imposed
Russian rule. There was no room for expansion, that was clear.
When Japan shattered the strength of Russia she gained many coveted
advantages. One of these was the opportunity to commercialize
neighboring Korea, a goodly section of Manchuria, and practically the
whole of China--enough to recoup the war's outlay; and once entered
upon, why not perfect and extend the enterprise wherever she might,
thereby providing occupation for her increasing millions of people?
For a long time to come Japan will remain conspicuously in the public
eye, but her achievements and victories hereafter are to be those of
peace. Her scheme for national betterment, already well under way, is as
thoughtfully prepared as was her war program. The Mikado's people
emerged from the Russian conflict with energies enormously aroused, and
a few months later every condition was favorable to a realization of the
dream of empire giving to Japan an importance amounting almost to
sovereignty over a vast section of the Far East. The new treaty with
Great Britain, which Germans claimed to be anything but altruistic, is
having a steadying influence on the policy of the Tokyo government.
With the conversion of Japan from war to peace, the process of fiscal
recuperation and industrial development has been observed by students of
Eastern affairs with the keenest interest. The debt of the nation at the
close of the war in 1905 was approximately $870,000,000, which sum,
apportioned among Nippon's 47,000,000 inhabitants, was $18.71 per
capita. The amount properly chargeable to the campaign was $600,000,000,
or thereabouts. A characteristic of the war commanding widespread
attention was that the Japanese side was conducted from start to finish
on the soundest financial principles, with her credit abroad scarcely
lessened by successive bond issues. It was the criticism of students of
finance that Japan conducted her campaign throughout on a gold basis, as
if exploiting a vast commercial program, without subjecting herself to
usurious commissions, and without resorting to the issuance of fiat or
negligible currency. The financing of the Asiatic side of the great
Russo-Japanese conflict was certainly as businesslike as anything ever
done by a European power compelled to raise funds by foreign bond sales.
[Illustration: BRONZE DAIBUTSU AT KAMAKURA, JAPAN]
When a candid history of the war is penned, the writer must perforce
acknowledge the "luck" attaching to Japan when Russia expelled the Jews,
and when thousands of that faith were ruthlessly slaughtered at
Kishineff. Whether the purse-strings of the world are controlled by
Hebrew bankers may be a moot question, but it was a fact distinctly
clear that Japan could place her bonds in any money-lending country in
the world, while Russia could scarcely raise a rouble upon her foreign
credit. Even Germany, the sentimental ally of Russia, almost begged for
the privilege of lending to Japan. There was no disputing that the great
Hebraic banking houses of London, New York and Frankfort found it an
easy task to supply the Mikado's country with every needed sinew of war,
and the massacres of Kishineff may have been avenged in a measure at
Port Arthur and Mukden.
The ambitious and sturdy people of Japan are indisposed to regard the
war debt as an excessive burden, and it is their determination to treat
their bonded obligations as a spur to active industry. It must be
confessed that Japan's debt is but a trifle less than that of the United
States, and is carried at double the interest rates of the American
debt; and further, that Japan's total area is smaller than that of our
state of California. The portentous aspect of the national obligation of
Japan is that it must absorb in interest charges fully a third of the
empire's income for many years of peace and prosperity to come.
A large part of the debt incurred before the war was for public works,
most of which are productive. Funds realized from early loans, both
foreign and domestic, as well as a portion of the income from the
indemnity earned by the war with China, were invested in commercial
enterprises owned or fostered by the empire, and the government receives
a considerable benefit from the public railways, tobacco monopoly,
woolen mills, and a few other industrial ventures. The railways are
extremely profitable, and the large sums spent in the creation of
post-offices, telephone and telegraph lines, port facilities, etc., have
proved wise investments.
Observers of national statistics have long known that a country without
heavy indebtedness amounts to little in a worldly and industrial sense.
Abundantly solvent, France has a debt averaging $151.70 per person, and
the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Ireland), a pro rata debt of
$91.80. Portugal owes $143.82 per subject, Holland $90.74, and Belgium
$75.63. The heaviest governmental obligation is that of Australia,
averaging $263.90 per inhabitant; and the lightest responsibility among
important nations is that of the United States, gradually lessening, now
standing at but $10.93. Our Cuban neighbors, owing $21.88 per capita,
make little complaint of fiscal burden. Whether a debt be burdensome or
otherwise depends as much upon the character of the people as upon
natural resources. Decaying Portugal could not by industry liberate
herself from pecuniary thraldom in a century, while the Japanese
probably could liquidate every obligation in fifteen years, were they
pressed to do so.
No country can present a better foundation for industrial and commercial
development at this time than Japan, and the signing at Portsmouth of
the peace agreement marked the beginning of an era of national growth
that may challenge the admiration of the world as did the feats of arms
of Oyama and Togo. The war cemented classes in Japan almost to a
condition of homogeneity--practically every subject of the Mikado
believed in the necessity for the conflict, and made sacrifices to
contribute to the cost thereof. Distinctions of class are now seldom
thought of, and it contributes mightily to the material improvement of
a nation to have a single language. The descendants of the samurai class
acknowledge now the need for trade on a grand scale, and they are only
too ready to embark in manufacturing and trading enterprises. There are
scarcely ten great fortunes in the realm, and the number of subjects
removed from activity by even moderate affluence is remarkably small.
Likewise, the number of persons reckoned in the non-producing class,
through dissipation or infirmity, is insignificant. And, more potent
than all these reasons uniting to assist in the expansion of Japanese
industry and thrift, is the intense patriotism of the people, stimulated
by glorious success in two wars against foreign nations of overwhelming
populations, as well as the recognition from high and low that Japan's
golden opportunity has arrived. Almost to a man the Japanese want to
employ their sinews and intellect in elevating the Land of the Rising
Sun to an honored place among progressive nations.
The Japanese exchequer is at present a long way from depletion, by
reason of the $150,000,000 loan secured in America, England and Germany.
Probably two thirds of this remained unexpended. Many Tokyo bankers
believed the loan unnecessary, inasmuch as there were funds in hand
sufficient to finance the war well into 1906, had peace not been agreed
upon. But the flotation was deemed wise, not alone because of prevailing
ease in the money market, but for the effect that an oversubscribed loan
in America and Europe would have upon the Czar's government. The
portion of the loan remaining unused for war was employed for giving
effect to Japan's industrial propaganda, and presumably has been spent
for the endless machinery demanded by the factories and shipyards that
are transforming Japan into a vast workshop, for structural metal, and
for steel rails, cars and locomotives for railways in Manchuria and
Korea; and generally for the hundred and one purposes playing a part in
the development of lands hitherto out of step in the march of
enterprise, and where strife has until recently stifled the usual
manifestations of man's desire to improve his surroundings. The Japanese
government in 1906 purchased six railways, which were profit earners,
paying for them $125,000,000 in five per cent. bonds that may be
redeemed in five years. There is no likelihood of a reduction in Japan's
debt for a long time, but its weight upon the people may be reduced by
conversions. As the national credit strengthens, the interest on
borrowings may be correspondingly decreased. Consequently, there may be
frequent funding operations and new issues, until seven and six per
cent. bonds have given place to obligations bearing five per cent.
interest or less. To provide funds for early railway building,
considerable capital was borrowed at as high a rate as ten per cent.
When these obligations expire all necessary money can be found in the
country at less than half the original rate. Japan is fortunate in
having many sound financiers to invite to her official councils, and it
is helpful to the country that Tokyo and Yokohama bankers are competent
and progressive. These men pronounce Japan's present financial position
sound, and claim that the country can easily carry the existing debt.
In natural resources Japan is not well to do, it must be frankly said.
Examine the country in as friendly a spirit as one may, little is
developed to support any statement that the country may become
prosperous from the products of her own soil. In truth Japan is nearly
as unproductive as Greece and Norway, for only sixteen per cent. of her
soil is arable. The mountain ranges and peaks and terraced hills that
make the country scenically attractive to the tourist come near to
prohibiting agriculture. The lowlands, separating seacoast from the
foothills, and the valleys generally, are given over to rice culture,
and these contribute largely towards sustaining the people. Where
valleys are narrow, and on hillside patches, cultivation is carried on
wholly by hand. In recent years phosphates and artificial fertilizers
have been encouraged by the government, and with the educational work
now in hand science may give an increase of crops from the circumscribed
tillable area. The country's forests cannot be sacrificed, and grazing
lands for flocks and herds scarcely exist.
A recent magazine writer, holding a doleful view of Japan's agricultural
condition, wholly overlooked the silk and tea crops in his search for
native products, an error obviously fallen into through the fact that
these are not raised on what governmental reports call "tillable
ground,"--meaning that they are produced outside the sixteen per cent.
arable area. Silk is Japan's important salable crop, two thirds of which
is exported in its raw state. In the past few years the silk exports
have averaged $55,000,000. Japan grows the tea consumed in the country,
and sends annually $6,500,000 worth to market.
If the rice crop might be exported it would realize $200,000,000 each
year. But no food may be sent abroad, for it is a sad fact that Japan is
capable of feeding only two thirds of her own people. It is necessary to
import foodstuffs to the extent of about $47,000,000 a year. The
Japanese benefit by the compensating supply of fish secured from the
seas washing the shores of the Island Empire. When it is realized that
Japan's rapidly-growing population cannot be sustained by her soil and
fisheries, the real reason for battling against Russia's aggression on
the mainland is understood, for ten years hence, Japan's crowding
millions, confined to her own islands, would experience the pangs of
hunger. The Mikado and his councilors foresaw this.
[Illustration: A GARDEN VIEW OF THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, TOKYO]
"Having deposits of coal and iron, why may not Japan be developed into
the Eastern equivalent of England?" ask stay-at-home admirers of the
Japanese, who believe that to them nothing is impossible. The Mikado's
territory has coal, iron and copper, it is true; but in no instance is
the mineral present to an extent making it a national asset of
importance. Bituminous coal of good quality is mined at several points
which is used by Japanese commercial and naval vessels; but elsewhere in
the East it has to compete with Chinese and Indian coals. It is said in
Nagasaki that her coal will last another two centuries, but were it
mined on the scale of American and British coal it would be exhausted in
a generation. The greatest efforts have been made to produce iron ore in
paying quantities. In several instances public assistance has been lent
to the industry, but seldom has a ton of ore been raised that has not
cost twice its market value. Japan is determined to become a producer of
iron, and to this end a long lease had been secured on an important
mineral tract in China, whose ore blends advantageously with Mexican and
Californian hematite, while it is asserted that the government has
secured in Manchuria a seam of coal fifty feet in thickness, covered by
a few feet of soil, that is contiguous to transportation, and which
cannot be exhausted in hundreds of years. A valuable acquisition in
conquered Saghalien--not noted by the newspapers--is beds of coal and
iron of vast area. These may enable Japan, in her determination to
become a manufacturing nation, to be eventually independent of other
countries for basic supplies. But success in this direction is
problematical, to say the least.
For two thousand years Japan has mined copper in a limited way, but the
production of the metal is carried on at present without much profit.
When the Chinese government requires a vast quantity of copper the
order is sent to the United States. Japan cannot be considered as a
producer of minerals of sufficient importance to aspire to a profitable
career through them, for the yearly aggregate value of all minerals,
including gold from the Formosa mines, is not more than $20,000,000.
The inevitable query in the reader's mind is, How is the Jap, knowing it
is now or never with him--and cognizant that he is poor in all save
ambition and enterprise--going to create for his beloved Nippon a
position of prominence and security in the fast-rushing, selfish world?
Every intelligent Japanese is aware of the slenderness of his country's
resources, and yet every son of the Chrysanthemum Realm throbs with
desire to see Japan a first-class and self-supporting power, honored and
respected throughout the universe.
The Japanese possess some quality of golden value, otherwise cautious
capitalists in America and Europe would never have lent them
$360,000,000. What is it?
Japan's asset of importance is the awakened energy of her people--this
was the soundest security back of the bond issues. It won the war over
Russia, and persons familiar with the Japanese character believe it is
now going to win commercially and industrially. Better proof of this is
not wanted than the fact that Japanese bonds stood as firm as the rock
of Gibraltar on the world's exchanges when it became known that Russia
was to pay no indemnity. The information provoked street riots in Tokyo,
but Japanese securities moved only fractionally in New York and London.
Two countries have long been keenly observed by enlightened Japanese.
They study America as a model industrial land, and get manufacturing
ideas from us; but they look to Great Britain for everything having to
do with empire, with aggrandizement, and with diplomacy. To them England
is a glittering object lesson of a nation existing in overcrowded
islands extending its rule to other lands and other continents,
producing endless articles needed by mankind, and carrying these to the
ends of the earth in their own ships. These Japanese have perceived that
the interchange of commodities between most countries of the globe is
preponderatingly in the hands of the British--in fact, that the
enterprise of British merchant or British ship-owner has placed
practically the universe under tribute.
May not insular Japan become in time the Asiatic equivalent of Great
Britain? Japan is advantageously located, and by common consent is now
dominant in the Far East. Years ago England ceased to be an agricultural
country, and the products of British workshops now buy food from other
nations and allow for the keeping of a money balance at home. Nature has
decreed that Japan can never be an agricultural land. Why, then, may she
not do what England has done? England has her India, pregnant with the
earth's bounty, and her Australia, yet awaiting completer development
Kingdom become the handmaiden of Japan, without disturbing dynastic
affairs, and primitive Korea be a fair equivalent of the Antipodean
continent? It is known to be Japan's plan to permanently colonize Korea
and Manchuria, teeming in agricultural and mineral riches, with her
surplus population.
"Prestige and opportunity make this attainable," insist the ambitious
sons of Japan; "and while it is probably too late to expand the
political boundaries of our empire, we surely may make Nippon the seat
of a mighty commercial control, including in its sphere all of China
proper, Manchuria and Korea--welding them into 'commercial colonies' of
Japan." This is precisely what the modern Japanese wants his country to
do, and this Japanization of the Far East is an alluring project,
certainly.
"But are not these 'open-door' countries, stipulated and guaranteed by
the powers--meaning that your people can enjoy no special trade
advantage in them?" the American asks the man of Japan.
"Emphatically are they open to the trade and enterprise of all comers:
but there are four potential advantages that accrue to the benefit of
the Japanese at this time--geographical position, necessity for
recouping the cost of the war, an identical written language, and
superabundance of capable and inexpensive labor. With these advantages
and practical kinship we fear no rivalry in the creation of business
among the Mongol races," adds the man speaking for the New Japan.
It calls for little prescience to picture a mighty Japanese tonnage on
the seas in the near future. Next to industrial development, the
controlling article of faith of the awakened Japan is the creation of an
ocean commerce great enough to make the Japanese the carriers of the
Orient. There can be nothing visionary in this, for bountiful Asia is
almost without facilities for conveying her products to the world's
markets. Indeed, were present-day Japan eliminated from consideration,
it would be precise to say that Asia possessed no oversea transportation
facilities.
The merchant steamship is intended to play an important rôle in Japan's
elevation. Shipping is to be fostered by the nation until it becomes a
great industry, and it is the aim of the Mikado's government to provide
for constructing ships for the public defence up to 20,000 tons burden,
and making the country independent of foreign yards through being able
to produce advantageously commercial vessels for any requirement. Japan
is blind neither to the costliness of American-built ships nor to the
remoteness of European yards. The war with Russia was not half over when
it was apparent that Japan would not longer be dependent upon the outer
world for vessels of war or of commerce. In the closing weeks of 1906
there was completed and launched in Japan the biggest battleship in the
world, the _Satsuma_, constructed exclusively by native labor. She is of
about the dimensions of the _Dreadnaught_, of the British navy, but
claimed to be her superior as a fighting force. The launching of the
_Satsuma_, witnessed by the Emperor, was regarded as a great national
event.
In the war with China, twelve or thirteen years ago, Japan had
insufficient vessels to transport her troops. The astute statesmen at
Tokyo, recognizing the error of basing the transportation requirements
of an insular nation upon ships controlled by foreigners, speedily
drafted laws looking to the creation of a native marine which might be
claimed in war time for governmental purposes. The bestowal of liberal
bounties transformed Japan in a few short years from owning craft of the
junk class to a proprietorship of modern iron-built vessels of both home
construction and foreign purchase. In the late campaign there was no
comparison in the seamanship of the agile son of Nippon and that of the
hulking peasant of interior Russia. The Jap was proven time and again to
be the equal of any mariner. Native adaptability and willingness to
conform to strict discipline, unite in making the Japanese a seaman
whose qualities will be telling in times of peace.
Of late years hundreds of clever young Japanese have served
apprenticeships in important shipyards in America, England, Germany and
France, with the result that there are to-day scores of naval architects
and constructors in Japan the equals of any in the world. Whether as
designers, yard managers or directors of construction, the Japs, with
their special schooling, have nothing to learn now from foreign
countries. The genius of some of these men played a part in Togo's
great victory.
Japanese men of affairs pretend to see little difficulty in the way of
their nation controlling the building of ships for use throughout the
East. Local yards are already constructing river gunboats and torpedo
craft for the Chinese government, and it is reasonable to believe that a
year or two hence their hold upon the business will amount practically
to a monopoly. British firms with yards at Singapore, Hong Kong and
Shanghai are not rejoiced at the prospect of Japanese rivalry. It is
possible that, the Japanese may become shipbuilders for our own
Philippine archipelago.
Already the shipyards of Nippon are ringing with the sound of Japan's
upbuilding; and the plant of the Mitsubishi company, at Nagasaki--among
the largest in the world,--has been enlarged to accommodate increasing
demands. The enormous _Minnesota_, of the Great Northern Steamship
Company, was not so long ago repaired at Nagasaki in a dry-dock having
eighty feet in length to spare.
Japanese steamship lines already extend to Europe, Australia, Bombay,
Eastern Siberia, China, Korea and Saghalien, and to San Francisco and
Puget Sound ports. A company has been formed to develop a service
between Panama, the Philippines and Japanese ports, in anticipation of
the completion of the Panama Canal: and, further perceiving the
opportunity rapping at her door, Japan is preparing to place a line on
the ocean that will bring the wool, hides and grain of the River Plate
region to Japanese markets at the minimum of expense. The undisguised
purpose of this South-American venture is to get cheap wheat from
Argentina. Rice eating in Japan is giving way to bread made from wheat,
or from a mixture of wheat and rice and other cereals. It is further
known that Japan is casting covetous eyes on the trade of Brazil, and
the line to the Plate may be extended to Brazilian ports.
In 1894 Japan had only 657,269 tons of merchant shipping; she has now
upwards of a million tons, represented by 5,200 registered vessels.
Almost half the steamers entering Japanese ports fly the flag of the
Rising Sun, and Japan's tonnage at this time is greater than that of
Russia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Denmark or Holland. In the matter of
oversea tonnage, Japan is far ahead of the United States. One fleet of
Japanese mail steamers, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, whose president, Rempei
Kondo, is one of Japan's most progressive men, is numerically and in
tonnage larger than any ocean line under the Stars and Stripes. It has
seventy ships, aggregating 236,000 tons. A dozen of its vessels, making
the service between Yokohama and London, are fourteen-knot ships.
[Illustration: JAPANESE JUNK, OR CARGO BOAT]
These facts should be considered by every American complacently
believing that the traffic of the countries and islands washed by the
Pacific is open to American enterprise whenever we bid for it. When
Eastern trade develops in magnitude, it may be found that the
Japanese have laid permanent hold upon its carriage and interchange.
John Bull, be it remembered, drove the American merchantman from the
Atlantic; and likewise Japan may capture the carrying business of the
Pacific. It must be obvious that the nation controlling the
transportation of the Far East will seek to control its trade: and it is
sounding no false alarm to cite facts and conditions showing that the
awakening lands of Eastern Asia have more in store for energetic Japan
than for the United States, now fattening inordinately on home
trade--when overproduction comes, as it surely will, it then may be
found difficult to supplant another people in the occupation of
conveying American commodities to Eastern markets. There are persons in
the Orient, none too friendly to America, who expect to see the
commercial flag of Japan paramount on the Pacific eight or ten years
hence.
If it be conceded that Japan will absorb the bulk of the shipping of the
Pacific as it develops, valid reasons for fearing Japan as the trade
competitor of the United States do not exist. Unquestionably Japan is to
exploit the industry of her people; but the same poverty of resources
making this imperative insures for Uncle Sam a valuable partnership in
the program. Japan is bristling with workshops and mills in which a
hundred forms of handiwork will be developed--and in a majority of these
the adaptive labor of the empire will fabricate, from materials drawn
from America, scores of forms of merchandise, which the Japanese
propaganda will distribute throughout China, Manchuria, Korea and
Japan--the "Great Japan," British publicists are calling it. Methods,
materials, machinery, tools--all will be American.
Having made no systematic appeal for the trade of the Far East in its
broadest sense, America enjoys but small share of it. In the past few
years our exports to Japan, however, have grown rapidly--chiefly in raw
cotton and other unmanufactured materials. With Japanese selling agents
canvassing lands inhabited by a half billion people, the products of
America are to have enhanced consumption. This trade in Mongol
countries, although vicarious, may run to large dimensions.
The leading item of Japan's industrial promotion program is to become
manufacturer of a goodly portion of the textiles worn in her vast
"sphere of commerce." The Japanese have seen that the British Isles,
growing not a pound of cotton, spin and weave the staple for half the
people of the earth, and wish to profit by the example of their
prosperous ally. To this end, cotton mills have sprung into being
throughout Japan, in which American-grown fiber is transformed by the
cheapest competent labor in the world into fabrics sold to China's and
Japan's millions. It is certain that the controlling manufacture of
Japan will be cotton, and the production of woolen cloths may come next.
It is interesting to know that Japan increased the value of her exports
of cotton manufactures to China from $251,363 in 1894 to $16,126,054 in
1904.
"Why not fabricate her own raw silk, and send it to market ready for
wear?" asks the foreigner reluctant to believe that Japan can hope to
compete with Lancashire in the spinning of cotton. The answer is
simple--it is because America is the principal purchaser of the raw
article. Were it brought across the Pacific in manufactured form, the
duty on it would be almost prohibitive; in its unwrought state it enters
the country free.
Great progress must be made before Japanese business may be considered a
"menace" to any nation enjoying Eastern trade, for the yearly value of
Japan's manufactures is now only about $150,000,000, an average of about
$3 per capita of the population. America has single cities that produce
more. The combined capital of all organized industrial, mining,
shipping, banking and agricultural undertakings in Japan is
$475,000,000, or less than half the capital of the United States Steel
Corporation. The Mikado's empire is bound to Great Britain by a
political alliance of unusual force, but industrial Japan must of
necessity be linked to the United States by commercial ties even
stronger. Distance between Europe and Japan, and excessive Suez Canal
tolls, give unassailable advantage to the United States as purveyor of
unwrought materials to the budding New England of the Far East.
The custom of speaking of our friends of the Island Empire as "the
little Japanese," is a fault that should be promptly mended. Japan is
small, it is true, but the people are numerous to the point of
wonderment. Consequently, it can do no harm to memorize these facts:
That Japan has an area actually 27,000 square miles greater than the
British Isles, and 5,000,000 more inhabitants; in other words, the
population of Japan is 47,000,000, while that of Great Britain and
Ireland is but 42,000,000. That Japan's population exceeds that of
France by 8,000,000, of Italy by 14,000,000, and of Austro-Hungary by
nearly 2,000,000. That outside of Asia there are but three countries in
all the world with greater populations than Japan--Russia, the United
States, and Germany. There was reason for calling the Jap the "Yankee of
the East," or the "Englishman of the Orient," for otherwise the phrases
could not have been forced into popular use.
It is the judgment of many who have studied the Japanese at close range
that they are endowed with attributes of mind and body which make them
equal, man for man, with the people of America and Great Britain.
Asiatic though they are, it will be unwise to permit the brain to become
clogged with the idea that they are "Asiatics" in the popular acceptance
of the word. The Japan of the present is the antithesis of "Asiatic,"
and the Japan of the near future promises to be a country best measured
by Western standards.
The Japanese are athirst for knowledge, and impatient for the time to
arrive when the world will estimate them at their intellectual value,
and forget to speak of them as the little "yellow" men of the East. This
is manifested to a visitor many times every day. Their greatest craving
is to know English, not merely well enough to carry on trade
advantageously, but to read understandingly books that deal with the
moderate sciences, and other works generally benefiting. Yokohama and
Tokyo possess a score of establishments where practically every
important volume of instruction, whether it be English or American, is
reproduced in inexpensive form, and widely sold. For many years English
has been taught in Japan's schools, but thousands of boys and men in
cities and towns are each year acquiring the language by study in odd
hours.
Examine the dog-eared pamphlet in the hands of the lad assisting in the
shop where you are purchasing something, and you are almost certain to
find it an elementary English book. Merchants know English well, as a
rule; but with many of them the desire for knowledge is not satisfied
with the acquisition of English--they desire to know other languages. In
Yokohama I know a merchant of importance whose English is so good that
one is drawn to inquire where he learned it. The answer will be that he
studied odd hours at home and when not serving customers. And the
visitor may further be informed by this man that he is also studying
German and French. A teacher of German goes to his house at six o'clock
each morning and for two hours drills him in the language. Then, in the
evening, after a long day spent at business, a French teacher instructs
him in the graceful language of France. And this merchant is but a type
of thousands of Japanese who are daily garnering knowledge.
It is a pleasing incident for the visitor from America to read of a
meeting in the Japanese capital of the local Yale Alumni
Association--quite as pleasing as to see base-ball played in every
vacant field convenient to a large town. Returning schoolboys have
carried the game home to their companions, and in the voyage across the
Pacific it has lost none of its fine points. For thirty years and longer
the Japs have been learning English with the industry of beavers. And
ambition has been responsible for this, the dogged determination to be
somebody, and the patriotic wish to see Japan stand with the progressive
nations of the earth. The power to keep such a people down does not
exist. Preparation is a subject never absent from the thoughts of the
Japanese. It was preparation that gave them victory after victory over
the creatures of the Czar. Now they are fairly launched upon a brilliant
career in trade and commerce. But Japan can merely fabricate our raw
materials, thereby occupying a field in Asia that up to now Uncle Sam
has made no determined effort to secure.
INDEX
Agra, Indian city of unrivaled interest, 168;
its Taj Mahal, 168-184
Ambir, old capital of Jeypore state, 166
America, interest in Suez canal as forerunner of Panama, 16;
flag not represented by commercial vessel at Suez in generation, 18;
President Roosevelt's insistence for Panama canal, 19;
value of Oriental trade, 21, 22;
cotton of wrought in England, 22;
trifling exports of manufactured articles, 22;
diminutive trade with South America, 22;
desirability of trade extension in East, 23;
government's tariff at Panama, 24;
how to make Panama canal pay indirectly, 27;
demand for creation of merchant marine, 27;
to have 100,000,000 inhabitants when canal is completed, 28;
commercial supremacy without merchant marine, 29;
government's insistence on "open door" in China, 303;
seeming indifference to Chinese trade, 310;
waning cotton exports to China, 313, 314
Arabi, rebellion of, resulting in control of Egypt by Great Britain, 9;
Kandy, place of his exile, 110
Arjamand, consort of Shah Jahan, for whom Taj Mahal was erected, 171
Benares, headquarters of Hindu religion, 185-202;
burning ghat and cremations, 189-194;
Monkey Temple, 196-200
Bombay, headquarters of Parsees, 126;
a city gone sport-mad, 133, 134;
race meeting at, 137, 138
important cotton port, 139
superb railway station, 139
Buddhism, Kandy the Mecca of the faith, 95;
tenets of faith, 96, 97;
reputed tooth of Buddha, 97, 98, 101;
pilgrims to Kandy, 101, 102;
cremation, 102
Calcutta, 205-219;
Hooghly pilots, 206;
Job Charnock, founder of, 209, 210;
under Lord Curzon's viceroyship, 217, 218
Canals, no more inter-ocean canals possible, 4
Canton, unique and important commercial city, 244-266;
strenuous and monopolistic guide, 249;
street scenes and experiences, 250, 251;
executions, 255;
funeral procession, 256, 257;
educational center, 257;
educational examinations, 258, 259;
"literary poles," 260, 263;
boat-life on river front, 263, 264;
leper village and boat toll, 266
Caste, Rodiya people of Ceylon, 103, 104, 107;
British rule recognizes no distinctions of, 107;
as seen in Bombay, 140;
hereditary throughout India, 143;
man servant who could not carry his own packages, 144, 145, 146
Ceylon, where "only man is vile," 30
Cingalese, 34, 44;
area, population, and races, 44;
England's conquest of, 47;
railways, 47;
exports, 48;
elephant kraal, 48, 49;
an island paradise, 50;
the cadjan, 62, 63;
tea as "king crop," 117;
when coffee was chief crop, 121;
details of tea cultivation, 122, 125
China, Singapore and Hong Kong as places of residence for
Chinese, 227, 237;
cession of Hong Kong to British, 235;
Canton, unique city, 244-266;
Macao, Monte Carlo of East, 267-289;
love of fan-tan by Chinese, 284;
Germany's play for trade prestige, 290-310;
land of meager commodities, 295;
what her "awakened" trade would mean, 297;
Germany's colony of Kiau-chau, 304-309;
America and Chinese trade, 310-314;
plans for rousing country, 316
Colombia, loss of Isthmian territory, through Panama canal scheme, 4
Colombo, approach to harbor, 33;
landing jetty, 33;
port of call between Occident, Orient and Australasia, 34;
medley of races, 35;
westernmost limit of 'rickshaws, 36;
hotels, 39, 40;
population, 44;
Clapham Junction of East, 61;
route to Kandy, 92
Cotton, Bombay as port, 139;
Great Britain and America as manufacturers, 313-314;
expansion of fabrication in Japan, 340
Curzon, former viceroy of India, 217, 218;
Splendor of rule at Calcutta, 217
De Lessep's craving for greatness, 5;
obtains concession for constructing Suez canal, 6;
raising money for canal scheme, 6;
death of, in madhouse, 10;
monument at Port Said, 11
Egypt, loss of self-rule through Suez canal construction, 4;
date of Suez canal concession, 6;
no debt when concession given, 6;
to subscribe nothing for construction of Suez canal, 6;
Arabi rebellion, resulting in British control of Egypt, 9;
deriving no advantage through canal, 10
France, how bankers of, lost controlling Suez shares, 15, 16;
susceptibilities of, how preserved in Suez management, 16;
ally of Russia, 296
Germany, second in list of Suez patrons, 18;
Kaiser's fight for new markets, 18;
friendship for Russia in war, 290-297;
Kaiser's play for Chinese trade, 290-310;
Emperor as Trade Lord, 292, 295;
Kaiser's disapproval of Monroe Doctrine, 298;
plans for capturing Oriental business, 301;
subsidized steamship service with East, 302;
"leased" colony of Kiau-chau, 304
Great Britain, benefits accruing from Suez canal, 15;
how control was secured, 15;
preponderance of flag over Suez traffic, 18;
control of interior of Ceylon, 95;
rule in, Asia recognizing no caste distinctions, 107;
restoration of Taj Mahal by government of, 183;
Job Charnock, founder of Calcutta, and pioneer
empire-builder, 209, 210;
great work in India. 220;
Penang, 227;
Singapore, universal sea-port brought to Empire by Sir Stamford
Raffles, 227;
Hong Kong, important port and naval base, 231-238;
no permanent control of Eastern business, 301;
tenure of Wei-hai-wei, 308
Hinduism, orthodoxy of Maharajah of Jeypore, 156, 159;
animal sacrifices to goddess Kali, 167, 199-202;
Benares, head of religion, 185-202;
scenes on banks of sacred Ganges. 193-196;
cremation of dead, 190-194;
incomprehensibleness of merits of, 201, 202;
habits of speech of illiterate, 223;
curse of widowhood in India, 224
Hong Kong, island link in Britain's chain, 231;
rains, 231, 232;
city wrested from mountain side, 232;
cession from China, 235;
guarding northern entrance to China Sea, 235, 236;
population and traffic, 236;
Happy Valley race-course, 238, 241;
benefits and pitfalls of the chit, 241, 242;
convenience of bills of fare, 243
India, Bombay and its Parsees, 126-133;
scenes at Bombay race meeting, 137, 138;
caste, 140, 143;
people not readily convinced of advantage of modern
implements, 143, 144;
Jeypore, 149-167;
Ambir, old capital of Jeypore, 166;
Agra and Taj Mahal, 168-184;
Benares, fountainhead of Hindu religion, 185-202;
Calcutta, capital of British India, 205-219;
viceroyship of Lord Curzon, 217, 218;
Viscount Kitchener, head of army, 218, 219;
facts and figures of, 220, 223, 225;
the "L. G." of Bengal, 219
Ismail, Khedive, lured into assisting Suez scheme, 6;
prodigality of, 10;
personal holding of Suez securities, 10
Jahan, Shah, builder of Taj Mahal, 168, 171;
interment beside wife's grave, 179
Japan, commercial future, 315-344;
best exponent of Asiatic progress, 315;
"scourge of God" and "yellow peril" of German origin, 316;
advantages secured by defeating Russia, 317;
process of industrial development, 317;
national debt, 318, 321, 324;
homogeneity of people, 322;
resources, 325-330;
desire to emulate England, 331;
why country can exploit near-by lands advantageously, 332;
mighty tonnage on Pacific, 333, 334;
shipbuilding, 334, 335;
no real "menace" to American trade, 341;
athirst for knowledge, 342-344
Jeypore, capital of Maharajah of, 149-165;
fondness of women for jewelry, 151;
benevolent ruler of, 156, 159;
astronomical apparatus of Jai Singh, 164
Kandy, ancient capital of Ceylon, 43;
journey from Colombo, 92;
city of Buddha's tooth, 95;
Buddhist pilgrims to, 95, 96;
natural beauty of, 108;
atrocities of a king of, 109;
British rule of, 110;
Peradeniya tropical garden, 110, 113, 114, 117;
executive seat of Ceylon's tea industry, 117, 118, 121
Kitchener, Viscount, commander-in-chief of Indian army, 218, 219
Macao, journey to Portuguese colony from Canton, 267;
pioneer European settlement in East, 272;
Eastern Monte Carlo, 272, 283-289;
political refuge, 274;
Camoens, 278-282
Manar, pearling-ground of Gulf of, 50;
advertisements announcing a fishery, 56, 57;
period of, 66;
scene on banks during a fishery, 76, 77;
profit of fishery, 87
Marichchikkaddi, pearl metropolis of, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65;
how reached from Colombo, 62;
population, 63;
fishing fleet, 71, 72;
scenes in camp and at kottu, 77, 78;
where oysters pass current as money, 79;
selling the oysters at auction, 79, 80, 81;
health of camp, 85;
illustration of white man's rule, 86, 87
Merchant Marine, necessity for creation of, 27;
American commercial supremacy without help of, 29
Panama Canal, antiquity of project, 4;
President Roosevelt's insistence for, 19;
use of, by South American shipping, 21;
drawing traffic from east of Singapore, 21;
vast Eastern area to be served by, 21;
destined to make America trade-arbiter of world, 23;
prediction of cost of construction and maintenance, 23;
question of annual tonnage, 24
Parsees, their home in Bombay, 126;
followers of Zoroaster, 127;
Towers of Silence and method of disposing of dead, 131, 132, 133
Pearls, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese methods of inducing pearl
formation, 55;
Indian and Cingalese expert dealers, 66;
Indian grandees chief buyers of, 88
Pearl-fishing, scene of, in Gulf of Manar, 50;
description of, 51, 56, 57;
Professor Hornell's theories, 52;
divers, 66, 69;
the shark-charmer, 70, 71, 72;
time of divers under water, 75, 76
scene on Manar banks, 76, 77
devices for stealing pearls, 79
process by which pearls are extracted from oysters, 81, 82
Penang, leading tin port of world, 227
Raffles, Sir Stamford, pioneer of Singapore, 227
Russia, friendship of Germany during war, 290-304;
benefit to have accompanied victory over Japan, 296
Saïd, viceroy, date of giving Suez concession, 6
Singapore, a turnstile of commerce, 227;
universal character of, 228
South America, use of Panama by carrying trade of, 21;
trifling imports from United States, 22;
importance of exports to United States, 23
Suez Canal, antiquity of project, 3, 4;
Persian oracle's warning against, 5;
personages who had considered, 5;
to pay Egyptian treasury part of proceeds, 6, 15;
Ismail's interest in scheme, 10;
perpetuation of names of Egyptian rulers, 11;
simplicity of construction and cost of, 12;
international character of, 12;
Disraeli's purchase of control for Great Britain, 15;
physical statistics of, 16;
tariff of, 16, 17;
value to world's commerce, 17;
statistics of tonnage and income, 17;
average daily use of, 18;
European shippers' choice of canals, 20;
shareholders in no fear of Panama competition, 29
Taj Mahal, tomb of Arjamand, wife of Shah Jahan, and world's
most exquisite building, 168-184;
cost of, 173;
burial-place of Shah Jahan, 179;
restorations by British government, 183
Tea, cultivation in Ceylon, 122, 125
Widowhood, curse of Indian, 224
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
In the original text, contractions had a space at the word break, e.g.
"would n't, does n't, I 'm". In this ebook, such spaces have been
removed.
Pg. 70, added missing period (a stove-polish advertisement.)
Pg. 315, inserted missing period. (growing surprise to the world.)
Index entry "America, interest in Panama....", stated page number was
"14" which is a blank page. Page number changed to "16" where content
appears to match.
Index entry "China, America and Chinese trade", stated page numbers were
"312-314" but "312" is a blank page. Page number "312" changed to "310"
where content appears to match.
Index entry "France, Ally of Russia", stated page numbers were "2, 96".
Changed to "296" where content appears to match.
Index entry "Hong Kong, Happy Valley racecourse", stated page numbers
were "238" and "239", but "239" is a blank page. Page number "239"
changed to "241" where content appears to match.
Index entry "Japan, homogeneity of people", stated page is "323" but
content begins on "322". Page number changed to "322".
Index entry "Kandy, Peradeniya tropical garden", last of the page
numbers was "115" which is an unrelated illustration. The age number
"315" changed to "117" where content appears to match.
Index entry "Kandy, executive seat of Ceylon's tea industry", last of
the page numbers is "127" which has no relevant content. Page number
"127" changed to "121" where content appears to match.
Index entry "Suez canal, Disraeli's purchase of control for Great
Britain", stated page number was "13" which is an unrelated
illustration. Page number "13" changed to "15" where content appears to
match.
Index entry "Suez canal, physical statistics of", stated page number is
"14" which is a blank page. Page number "14" changed to "16" where
content appears to match.
Index entry "Suez canal, tariff of", first of stated page numbers is
"14" which is a blank page. age number "14" changed to "16" where
content appears to match.
End of Project Gutenberg's East of Suez, by Frederic Courtland Penfield