TRADE--COMMERCE--AND INDUSTRIES
Nothing is perhaps so strongly indicative of the progress that Japan
has made as the record of her trade and commerce. I have no intention
of inflicting on my readers a mass of figures, but I shall have to
give a few in order to convey some idea as to the country's material
development of recent years. Japan, it must be recollected, is in her
youth in respect of everything connected with commerce and industry.
When the country was isolated it exported and imported practically
nothing, and its productions were simply such as were necessary for
the inhabitants, then far less numerous than at present. When the
Revolution took place trade and commerce were still at a very low ebb,
and the Japanese connected with trade was looked upon with more or
less of contempt, the soldier's and the politician's being the only
careers held much in esteem. For innumerable centuries the chief
industry of Japan was agriculture, and even to-day more than half of
the population is engaged thereon. Partly owing to religious
influences, and partly from other causes, the mass of the people have
been, and still are in effect, vegetarians.
The present trade of Japan is in startling contrast with that of her
near neighbour China, which, with an area about twenty-three times
greater, and a population nearly nine times as large, has actually a
smaller volume of exports. All the statistics available in reference
to Japan's trade, commerce, and industries point to the enormous and
annually increasing development of the country. Indeed, the trade has
marvellously increased of recent years. Since 1890 the annual value of
Japan's exports has risen from L5,000,000 to L35,000,000, the imports
from L8,000,000 to L44,000,000. That the imports will continue in
similar progression, or indeed to anything like the same amount, I do
not believe. Japan of recent years has imported machinery, largely
from Europe and America, and used it as patterns to be copied or
improved upon by her own workmen. Out of 25 cotton-mills, for example,
in Osaka, the machinery for one had been imported from the United
States. The rest the Japanese have made themselves from the imported
pattern. There were also in Osaka recently 30 flour-mills ready for
shipment to the wheat regions of Manchuria. One of these mills had
been imported from America, while the remaining 29 have been
constructed in Osaka at a cost for each of not more than one-fifth
that paid for the imported mill.
Shortly after peace had been declared between Russia and Japan, the
Marquis Ito is reported to have said to Mr. McKinley: "You need not be
afraid that we will allow Japanese labourers to come to the United
States. We need them at home. In a couple of months we will bring home
a million men from Manchuria. We are going to teach them all how to
manufacture everything in the world with the best labour-saving
machinery to be found. Instead of sending you cheap labour we will
sell you American goods cheaper than you can manufacture them
yourselves." The Japanese Government seems to some extent to be going
in for a policy of State Socialism. The tobacco trade in the Empire is
now entirely controlled by the Government. The Tobacco Law
extinguished private tobacco dealers and makers, the Government took
over whatever factories it deemed suitable for the purpose, built
others, and now makes a profit of about L3,000,000 sterling annually,
while the tobacco is said to be of a superior quality and the workmen
better paid than was the case under private enterprise. How far Japan
intends to go in the direction of State Socialism I am not in a
position to say. Many modern Japanese statesmen are quite convinced of
the fact that the private exploitation of industry is a great evil and
one that ought to be put a stop to. On the other hand, there are
Japanese statesmen who are firmly convinced that the State control of
industries can only result in the destruction of individual initiative
and genius, with the inevitable result of reducing everybody to a dead
level of incompetence. In this matter Japan will have, as other
nations have had, to work out her own salvation. In the process of
experiment many mistakes will no doubt be made, but Japan starts with
this advantage in respect of State Socialism, precisely as in regard
to her Army and Navy--that her statesmen, her leading public men, her
great thinkers, have no prejudices or preconceived ideas. All they
desire is that the nation as a whole shall boldly advance on that path
of progress by the lines which shall best serve to place the country
in a commanding position among the Great Powers of the world, and at
the same time to promote the happiness, comfort, and prosperity of the
people.
The Japanese are great in imitation, but they are greater perhaps in
their powers of adaptation. They have so far shown a peculiar faculty
for fitting to Japanese requirements and conditions the machinery,
science, industry, &c., necessary to their proper development. Japan
is without doubt now keenly alive, marshalling all her industrial
forces in the direction of seeking to become supreme in the trade and
commerce of the Far East. The aim of Japanese statesmen is to make
their country self-productive and self-sustaining. We may, I think,
accordingly look forward to the time, not very far distant, when Japan
will cease to import machinery and other foreign products for which
there has hitherto been a brisk demand, when she will build her own
warships and merchant steamers, as she now partially does, and
generally be largely independent of those Western Powers of which she
has heretofore been such a good customer.
At the present time the chief manufactures of the country are silk,
cotton, cotton yarn, paper, glass, porcelain, and Japan ware, matches
and bronzes, while shipbuilding has greatly developed of recent years.
The principal imports are raw cotton, metals, wool, drugs, rails and
machinery generally, as well as sugar and, strange to say, rice. Japan
exports silk, cotton, tea, coal, camphor and, let me add, matches and
curios. The trade in the latter has assumed considerable proportions,
and I fear I must add that much of what is exported is made
exclusively for the European market. According to the latest figures,
the country's annual exports amounted to about L35,000,000, and its
imports to about L44,000,000. I venture to prophesy that these figures
will ere long be largely inverted.
Silk is the most important item of Japan's foreign trade. The rearing
of silkworms has been assiduously undertaken from time immemorial, or
"the ages eternal" according to some Japanese historians. Like so many
other arts and industries of the country, silkworms are believed to
have been introduced from China. For some time prior to the opening of
Japan to European trade and influences the silk industry had rather
languished owing to the enforcement of certain sumptuary laws
confining the wearing of silk garments to a select class of the
community, but so soon as Japan discarded her policy of isolation from
the rest of the world the production of and demand for silk rapidly
increased, and the trade in it has now assumed considerable
dimensions. Strange to say, silk is still in Japan what linen was at
one time in the North of Ireland--a by-industry of the farmer, a room
in his house being kept as a rearing chamber for the silkworms, which
are carefully looked after by his family. According to official
returns, there are rather more than two and a half million families so
engaged, and nearly half a million silk manufacturers. The largest
part of the silk exported goes to the United States of America.
Closely allied with the production of silk is the mulberry-tree, the
leaves of which form the staple food of the silkworm. This plant is
cultivated with great care throughout the country, and indeed there
are many mulberry farms entirely devoted to the culture of the tree
and the conservation of its leaves.
Rice, as I have elsewhere stated, forms the principal article of food
of the Japanese people. Japan at present does not produce quite
sufficient rice for the consumption of her population, and a large
quantity has, accordingly, to be imported. The danger of this for an
island country has been quite as often emphasised by Japanese
statesmen as the similar danger in respect of the wheat supply of
Great Britain has been by English economists. Many practical steps
have been taken on the initiative of the Japanese Government in the
direction of improving the cultivation of rice, the irrigation of the
fields, &c. As time goes on no doubt the food of the people will
become more varied. Indeed, there has been a movement in that
direction, especially in the large towns. A nation which largely lives
on one article of diet, the production of which is subject to the
vicissitudes of good and bad harvests, is, it must be admitted, not in
a satisfactory position in reference to the food of its people.
If rice is the national food, tea is emphatically the national
beverage, despite the large consumption of sake and the increasing
consumption of the really excellent beer now brewed in Japan. Like
most other things, the tea-shrub is said to have been imported into
Japan from China. Almost since the opening of the country, the United
States has been Japan's best customer in respect of tea, and she has
from time to time fallen into line with the requirements of the United
States Government in regard to the quality of tea permitted to be
imported into that country. For instance, when, in 1897, the United
States Legislature passed a law forbidding the importation of tea of
inferior quality and providing for the inspection of all imported tea
by a fixed standard sample, the Tea Traders Association of Japan
established tea inspection offices in Yokohama and other ports, and
all the tea exported from the country was and still is passed through
these offices. The tea is rigidly tested, and if it comes up to the
required standard is shipped in bond to the United States. The quality
of the tea is thus amply guaranteed, and it, accordingly, commands a
high price in the American Continent. The value of the tea exported to
the United States amounts to something like L1,200,000, and there are
no signs of any falling off in the demand for it. Canada is also a
good customer of Japan for the same article, but Great Britain and the
other European countries at present take no Japanese tea. I do not
know why this is the case as the tea is really excellent, and it has,
as regards what is exported, the decided advantage of being inspected
by experts and the quality guaranteed. The tea industry is undoubtedly
one of great national importance, the total annual production
amounting to about 65,000,000 pounds, the greater portion of which is,
of course, consumed in the country.
I have already referred to the importance of Japanese arboriculture,
and to the steps taken by the Japanese Government in reference to the
administration of forests and the planting with trees of various parts
of the country not suitable for agriculture. The State at the present
time owns about 54,000,000 acres of forests, which are palpably a very
great national asset. I may mention that the petroleum industry is
growing in Japan. The quantity of petroleum in the country is believed
to be very great, and every year new fields are being developed. The
consumption of oil by the people is considerable, and it is hoped that
ere long Japan will be able to produce all that she requires. The
petroleum is somewhat crude, providing about 50 per cent. of burning
oil.
Tobacco, as I have elsewhere remarked, is now a State monopoly, and
forms a considerable item in the State revenue. The quality has much
improved since the manufacture of it has ceased to be a private
industry. The Japanese are inveterate smokers, and the intervention of
the State in this matter, although it has been criticised by political
economists in the country and out of it, and is undoubtedly open to
criticism from some points of view, has, I think, been justified by
results. The making of sugar from beetroot has been attempted in
Japan, but the results have not been over-successful. The efforts in
this direction are, however, being persisted in, and it is hoped that,
especially in Formosa, the beet--sugar industry may develop in
importance.
The manufacture of paper in Japan has long been an important national
industry. Paper has been and still is used there for many purposes for
which it has never been utilised in European countries. Originally it
was largely made from rice, and the mulberry shrub has also been used
for paper manufacture. The rise and development of a newspaper press
in Japan and the impetus given to printing has, of course, largely
increased the demand for paper. This is being met by the adaptation of
other vegetable products for the purpose of making paper, and it seems
quite certain that Japan will be totally independent of any
importation of foreign paper to meet the great and greatly increasing
demand for that article in the country.
Salt is, I may remark, a Government monopoly in Japan. No one except
the Government, or some person licensed by the Government, is allowed
to import salt from abroad, while no one can manufacture salt without
Government permission. Salt made by salt manufacturers is purchased by
the Government, which sells it at a fixed price. This particular
monopoly has only recently been established, and the reason put
forward for it is a desire to improve and develop the salt industry
and at the same time to add to the national revenue. Whether a
monopoly in what is a necessary of life is economically defensible is
a question, to my mind, hardly open to argument. That the revenue of
the country will benefit by the salt monopoly is unquestionable.
As might have been expected, the opening up of Japan to Western
influences has induced or produced, _inter alia_, some Western forms
of political and social and, indeed, socialistic associations. The
antagonism between capital and labour and the many vexed and intricate
questions involved in the quarrel are already beginning to make
themselves felt in Japan. It was, I suppose, inevitable. Labour is an
important factor in an industrial nation like Japan, and there is
already heard the cry--call it fact or fallacy as you choose--with
which we are now so familiar in this country and on the Continent,
that labour is the source of all wealth. Japan will no doubt, like
other countries, sooner or later have to face a solution of the
problems involved in these recurring disputes and this apparently
deep-rooted antagonism between the possessors of wealth and the
possessors of muscle. Already many associations have been established
whose aim and object is to voice the sentiments of labour and assert
its rights. Indeed, there is a newspaper, the _Labour World_, the
champion of the rights of the Japanese workmen. So far the law in
Japan does not regard with as tolerant an eye as is the case in this
country labour demonstrations and the occasionally reckless oratory of
labour champions. The police regulations forbid the working classes
embarking in collective movements and demonstrating against their
employers in the matter of wages and working hours. A suggestion of a
strike of workmen is officially regarded with an unfriendly eye, and
strikes themselves, picketing, and various other Western methods of
coercing employers to come round to the views of the employed, would
not at present be tolerated in Japan. No doubt these Western devices
will assert themselves in time. The attempt to keep down the effective
outcome of labour organisation in a country with an enormous labour
population is not likely to be successful for long. Socialism is
making great progress in Japan, and the State has, whether consciously
or not, given it a certain amount of countenance by the steps it has
taken in reference to the tobacco and salt industries, &c. The extent
to which newspapers are now read in Japan--a matter I refer to more
fully in another chapter--will undoubtedly tend to mould public
opinion to such a degree that no Government could afford to resist it.
[Illustration: RICE PLANTING, PROVINCE OF HOKI
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]
The trade, commerce, and industries of Japan appear to me to be, on
the whole, in a healthy and flourishing condition. In them, and of
course in her industrious population, Japan possesses a magnificent
asset. The country is rich in undeveloped resources of various kinds,
the people are patriotic to a degree, and I feel sure that the
additional burdens which the recent war with Russia has for the time
entailed will be cheerfully borne. I am confident, moreover, that
under the wise guidance of the Emperor and her present statesmen Japan
will make successful efforts to liquidate her public debt, to relieve
herself of her foreign liabilities, and generally to proceed
untrammelled and unshackled on that path of progress and material
development that, I believe, lies before her, and which will, I am
sure, at no far-distant date place her securely and permanently in the
position of one of the Great World Powers.