The Russo-Japanese Conflict: Its Causes and Issues

by Kan'ichi Asakawa

Wheat imported into Japan, 1898–1902,[[25]]				kin = 1.325 lbs. av. yen = 49.8 cents.
From	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902
Australia			4,339,845	5,554,513	18,423
			143,260	185,274	721
Korea	2,770,755	1,668,207	5,182,533	1,644,577	8,556,813
	72,698	71,764	132,734	43,875	237,217
Great Britain			457,450
			15,502
The United States.	2,039,371	395,009	12,370,022	1,388,372	864
	71,173	14,697	400,829	43,720	43
Other countries.	1,560	990	547		77,343
	41	27	14		2,069
Total	4,811,686	2,064,206	22,350,397	8,587,462	8,653,443
	143,913	86,489	692,341	272,869	240,050

A glance at these figures will show that the import trade of wheat, like that of rice, is dependent on many fluctuating conditions at home and abroad. The poor crop in Japan caused an enormous importation of wheat in 1903 to the value of 4,767,000 yen. From the above table, it is seen that Korea supplied during the five years, respectively, 57.5, 80.7, 23.1, 19.1, and 98.8 per cent., in weight, of the wheat imported into Japan. As regards rice, the following table will show that in the five years between 1898 and 1902 Korea supplied, respectively, 5.5, 26.5, 49.4, 46.8, and 19.8 per cent. in weight of the cereal imported into Japan:—

Rice imported into Japan, 1898–1902,[[26]]				picul = 133⅓ lbs. av. yen = 49.8 cents.
From	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902
British India	2,663,087	53,827	249,344	220,650	1,793,362
	11,642,416	174,507	973,747	876,057	7,530,356
China	967,216	60,323	83,998	227,234	90,401
	3,989,422	231,625	327,673	867,272	341,689
Korea	649,570	436,716	1,131,787	1,456,661	891,186
	2,704,887	1,689,909	4,694,166	6,009,641	3,961,312
Dutch Indies			403
			1,816
French India	6,445,390	956,142	726,859	919,774	1,324,789
	25,762,726	3,354,095	2,739,752	3,199,420	4,651,395
Siam	969,413	143,575	94,530	287,594	409,307
	4,114,065	510,007	284,178	926,486	1,265,970
Other countries	1,576	9	58	25	27
	6,290	21	200	82	94
Total	11,696,252	1,650,592	2,286,979	3,111,938	4,509,072
	48,219,810	5,960,166	9,021,536	11,878,958	17,750,817

As will be seen in this table, much rice comes also from Saigon and Bangkok, to which, however, Japan hardly exports anything. In Korea, on the contrary, the greater her exportation of rice, the larger her purchasing power of the goods from the country to which the rice goes. In the case of beans and oil-cakes, Manchuria and Korea occupy in the list of the importation of these articles into Japan an even more important place than is the case with wheat or rice, as will be seen in the following table:—

Beans and oil-cakes imported into Japan in 1902,[[27]]		picul = 133⅓ lbs. av. yen = 49.8 cents.
From	Beans, pease, and pulse	Oil-cakes
China	1,306,103	4,064,198
	3,524,138	8,656,775
Korea	777,151	5,671
	2,254,899	12,331
Russian Asia	545	345,022
	1,505	1,448,868
French India	742
	2,178
The United States	281
	2,405
Other countries	545	846
	1,582	3,738
Total	2,086,367	4,415,737
	5,786,707	10,121,712

An explanation is necessary that, to all probability, much of the oil-cakes from Russian Asia was reëxported from Manchuria. In 1903, beans and oil-cakes were imported to the value of, respectively, 7,993,000 and 10,739,000 yen. In considering all these facts as a whole, attention is called to a point of immense importance, that Manchuria and Korea supply Japan with necessaries of life, and receive in return, in the main, useful goods, instead of wares of luxury. We shall have occasion further to develop this point.

Let us now take a general survey of the position Japan holds in the trade relations of Korea and Manchuria. In Korea, whence the Chinese merchants withdrew during the China-Japan war of 1894–5 and were replaced by the Japanese traders,[^[28]] it is Japan alone of all trading nations which enjoys a large share both in the import and export trade, as is suggested in the following table:—

	Japan’s export to Korea		Total import of Korea		Japan’s import from Korea		Total export of Korea
1902	10,554,000	yen	(13,823,000	yen)	7,958,000	yen	(8,460,000	yen)
1903	11,764,000		(18,207,000)		8,912,000		(9,472,000)

while the grains exported from Korea go almost entirely to Japan, different ports of Korea present of course different characteristics in their trade with Japan: as, for instance, at Chemulpo the Chinese merchants still enjoy a considerable share in the import trade; at Seul nearly all the export consists of gold bullion, which is almost exclusively bought by the branch of the First Bank of Japan; while at Fusan and Mokpo the Japanese monopoly of trade is almost complete. With these variations, however, the Japanese merchants control the major part of the trade of each port, and consequently of the entire trade of Korea. They also carry a large amount of foreign goods to Korea, as seen in the following table:—

	Japanese goods		Foreign goods
1902	9,344,859	yen	1,209,332	yen
1901	10,410,563		961,897
1900	9,423,821		529,450[[29]]