Nothing can better illustrate the rapid progress made in Japanese commerce during the last thirty years than the development of her import and export trade, which is regularly recorded in a pamphlet published by the Japanese Minister of Finance, both in Japanese and English, entitled the ‘Monthly Return of the Foreign Trade of the Empire of Japan,’ which gives the fullest particulars respecting the commercial operations of the month, as well as a résumé of what has recently transpired. Each spring a complete volume is issued which supplies further details, and gives a table showing the commercial status throughout the preceding year. According to the figures given in this document, which are extremely accurate, the exports in 1898 attained the unusually high figure of £16,570,000, and the imports £27,700,000, making a total of £44,270,000. The following table displays very clearly the prodigious advance made in Japanese commerce during the thirty years included between 1868 and 1898.
The figures in the original document are, of course, given in Japanese currency, but, for the convenience of English readers, they are here rendered by their equivalent in English money, taking the yen at two shillings, the rate it has held for a considerable time past.
Japanese Foreign Commerce.
| Imports. | Exports. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1868 | £1,070,000 | £1,550,000 |
| 1879 | 3,300,000 | 2,820,000 |
| 1884 | 3,220,000 | 3,400,000 |
| 1889 | 6,620,000 | 7,020,000 |
| 1894 | 12,170,000 | 11,330,000 |
| 1895 | 13,870,000 | 13,620,000 |
| 1896 | 17,170,000 | 11,780,000 |
| 1897 | 21,930,000 | 16,310,000 |
| 1898 | 27,700,000 | 16,570,000 |
By studying the statistics published in this official pamphlet, we find that out of £3,581,200 of indigenous articles exported from Japan in 1883, £2,713,900 were of a purely agricultural character, and only £242,200 represented articles manufactured in the country. This last class consisted only of the various articles included among the ancient art industries of Japan: £54,400 worth of ceramics and pottery, £54,300 of lacquer, £26,100 of paper fans, umbrellas, and fancy goods generally, etc. The silk industries did not even attain the comparatively low figure of £9,000. Five years later, in 1888, the situation was entirely changed. The export of indigenous merchandise exceeded £6,489,100, of which only 68·6 per cent. instead of 76·4 per cent. represented agricultural produce, 3 per cent. instead of 3·4 per cent. forestries, 5·2 per cent. instead of 6·7 per cent. of the total amount fisheries; on the other hand, the various minerals had risen from 6·7 per cent. to 11·2 per cent., and manufactured goods rose from 6·8 per cent. to 11·8 per cent. Japan also exported £350,000 worth of copper and £300,000 worth of coal. The silk manufactories exported silk goods to the extent of £168,000, and all the art industries, with the sole exception of the lacquer, which remained stationary, rose very considerably in value. To these figures must be added the returns of certain other commercial products of a kind totally unknown in Japan a quarter of a century ago—matches, for instance, of which £74,000 worth were exported.
A glance at the following figures will show of what the Japanese export trade during the last three years was composed, and the nature of the goods.
| Principal Exports from Japan in 1895, 1896, 1897 and 1898. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1895. | 1896. | 1897. | 1898. | |
| Raw silk and cocoons | £4,800,000 | £2,880,000 | £5,560,000 | £4,200,000 |
| Silk ‘ravel’ | 290,000 | 280,000 | 300,000 | 270,000 |
| Tea | 820,000 | 640,000 | 780,000 | 820,000 |
| Rice | 720,000 | 790,000 | 610,000 | 590,000 |
| Camphor | 150,000 | 110,000 | 130,000 | 120,000 |
| Cuttle-fish | 100,000 | 110,000 | 140,000 | ? |
| Coal | 760,000 | 890,000 | 1,150,000 | 1,520,000 |
| Copper | 520,000 | 550,000 | 580,000 | 730,000 |
| Tissues and silk handkerchiefs | 1,530,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,320,000 | 1,600,000 |
| Sewing cotton | 100,000 | 400,000 | 1,350,000 | 2,010,000 |
| Spun cotton | 240,000 | 230,000 | 260,000 | 260,000 |
| Matches | 470,000 | 500,000 | 560,000 | 630,000 |
| Mats and straw goods | 480,000 | 530,000 | 640,000 | 630,000 |
| Fans and screens | 80,000 | 100,000 | 120,000 | ? |
| Pottery | 200,000 | 200,000 | 180,000 | 200,000 |
Altogether the chief manufactured articles exported in the year 1895 were valued at £4,000,000; three years later they rose in value to £6,300,000.
At the present moment goods which were absolutely unknown in Japan in 1850 are exported from that country all over the East from Korea to Singapore; and Japanese cotton goods, the raw material for which has to be imported from India, compete with Chinese materials of the same class, the raw material for which is obtained from the same country. Needless to say, Japanese silks and mats can be procured in every part of the world, and their coal, though inferior to the Welsh, being greasy, emitting great quantities of smoke and burning away quickly, is very cheap, and is supplied to all the steamers touching at the ports of the Far East from Korea to the Straits of Malacca. In the meantime, those industries for which Japan has always been noted have not diminished in importance. It must, however, be confessed that this branch of industry has decreased both in quality and beauty, the result, doubtless, of hasty and purely commercial production. If, however, very fine work is not produced so much as it was formerly, cheap Japanese artistic goods, ceramic and otherwise, flood the markets of the civilized world. A curious fact connected with the actual condition of Japanese export trade is the remarkable extension and increase in value of what might be called the new industries, of which by far the most important are those connected with cotton.
Meanwhile, the import trade has lately been considerably altered. Fifteen years ago Japan imported sugar and petroleum only. In 1897 raw cotton was introduced to the value of £4,300,000. If we add to this £100,000 worth of wool, £93,400 of pig-iron, £47,700 of steel, and one or two other minor items, we have a return of £5,900,000, or 23 per cent. of the entire imports; the food imports during the same year were also 23 per cent. The increase in the value of these latter in 1897, which stood at £5,900,000 as against £3,400,000 in the previous year, is due to the failure of the rice crop, which necessitated the importation of 3,800,000 cwt. of rice, valued at £2,180,000. A certain quantity of rice, between £400,000 and £800,000 worth, has to be imported annually from Korea and Indo-China, in order to counterbalance the amount of Japanese rice of the first quality exported to Europe and the United States. Besides rice, the import of sugar has reached the high figure of £1,980,000, and petroleum, of which 61,000,000 gallons were imported in 1897, £766,700.