FI,UCTUATIONS IN PRICES AND WAGES I25 



§ I. The rice market. 



In Japan, the price of rice may be considered as the real indication of 

 the cost of living, not only because almost 80 % of the work of the whole 

 Japanese agricultural market is in connection with this grain, but also be- 

 cause the ordinary mode of life of the Japanese tends to make rice the article 

 of greatest consumption in the country. With the exception, perhaps, 

 of the lowest classes of society, who eat grains of inferior kind, we may 

 say that the Japanese live almost exclusively on rice, or, at any rate, it 

 may be said that rice forms the most substantial part of their diet. Thus, 

 rice being of enormous importance both for the national and domestic 

 economy, we think it well to devote a special section to the study of the 

 market and of the prices of what is quite the most important agricultural 

 product of Japan. We shall consider separately the most important problems 

 directly relative to the market for this product. 



{a) Production. — ■ We have already had occasion in other articles, to 

 speak at large of the money the Government and private individuals 

 have spent in the attempt to increase as far as possible the production 

 of rice in the country. We beg to refer the reader to those articles (i). 

 What is most to our purpose now is to consider what results have been thus 

 attained. We therefore give the following table showing the total pro- 

 duction of rice, the area of rice fields and the average yield per hectare 

 in hectolitres, for the years 1878 to 1912 : 



Area Total Average Yield per hec 



Years Cultivated (;;) Production tare in hectolitres 



— Cho Koku — 



1878 2,489,765 25,282,540 18.36 



1883 2,579,543 30,671,492 21.42 



1888 2,684,986 38.645,583 25.92 



1893 2,775,233 37,267,418 24.12 



1898 2,817,624 47,387,666 30.24 



1903 2,864,139 46,473,298 29.16 



1905 2,881,549 38,172,560 23.76 



1907 2,906,092 49,052,065 30.42 



1908 2,922,388 51.933-893 32.04 



1909 2,938,074 52,437,662 32.22 



1910 2,949,440 46,633,376 28.44 



1911 2,973,009 51,712,433 31.22 



1912 3,003,082 20.227,132 30.06 



(i) Cfr. Bulletin of Economic and Social Intilliiencc, February, 1913. p- 128 and June, T913, 

 pp. 147 et seqq. 



(2) I cho ■= oha. 99. 



9* 



