532 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



quarter lies along the harbour, while the Chinese live in the 

 back-ground. In 1883 there were altogether 892 foreigners, of 

 whom 642 were Chinese, 95 British subjects, 42 North Americans, 

 34 French, 19 Austrians, 17 Germans, and 41 persons of other 

 nationalities. There were 19 Chinese business firms, 7 British, 

 4 German, 3 American, 2 French, i Austrian, but no Dutch. 



Hakodate. — The foreign trade of this well-known port on the 

 island of Yezo has not acquired large dimensions. The direct 

 importation of foreign wares is especially small, as is seen in 

 Table I. The exportation there given according to value embraces 

 principally algae and various marine animals, besides wood, sulphur, 

 deer-skins and antlers. The marine products go mostly to China, 

 likewise the wood ; the others to North America and England. The 

 foreign trade of Hakodate was carried on in 1883 by two English 

 firms and one Danish. Among its 93 foreigners were 39 Chinese, 

 15 English, 8 Americans, 8 Frenchmen, 2 Danes, and i German. 



The commerce between Hakodate and several smaller ports on 

 the island of Yezo, with Hondo and other Japanese islands, is 

 much more important. According to the English consular report 

 of the year 1883, the two government districts, Hakodate and 

 Sapporo (there are no returns for Nemuro, the third), in 1882 

 exported products worth 5,072,635 yen, and imported others worth 

 7,918,936 yen. Among the exports we find 1,735,853 yen-worth 

 of fish, especially salmon and herring, besides algae and inferior 

 marine animals, and 2,588,483 yen worth of fish-guano, i.e. more 

 than half the total exportation of Yezo. The principal articles of 

 import are rice, sake, and cotton goods. 



Niigata, the capital of the province of Echigo, on the left bank 

 of the Shinano-gawa, shortly before its union with the Japan Sea, 

 has been already described in vol. i. p. 502, as a treaty-port that 

 has by no means met the expectations of foreigners. The bar 

 before the river mouth is covered at low tide by only two meters 

 of water. Moreover, the coast forms an open roadstead without 

 protection from the heavy northerly winds in the long winter. At 

 that season, therefore, navigation comes for the most part to a 

 standstill. The chief exports are rice and tea ; the direct imports 

 are scarcely worth mentioning, since the few foreign merchants, 

 like the natives, supply their needs through business friends at 

 Yokohama. For these reasons the port of Niigata is no longer 

 mentioned in commercial reports from Japan. It finds no place, 

 therefore, in the business statistics given as a supplement to this 

 chapter. 



Figures demonstrate. I took them partly from the publications 

 of the Japanese customs department, partly from the English con- 

 sular reports, and arranged them in the different tables, so that 

 a comprehensive picture of the total foreign commerce of Japan 

 could be obtained. These statistics are made in yen, the cus- 

 tomary coin of the realm, and embrace : — 



