538 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



years has the government succeeded in raising its credit again 

 and making an end of this great burden to commerce. The most 

 successful of the means employed lay near at hand, and consisted 

 in putting a stop to the negative balances. The government had 

 this in its own hands, in so far as it diminished its requirements, 

 and therewith did away with a considerable part of the importation 

 necessary to meet them. 



Those who, in reports from Japan, condemned the government 

 for endeavouring to prevent the excess of importation over ex- 

 portation, and pointed to England and other European countries, 

 showed ignorance of the circumstances. It is true that under- 

 balances are the rule in England, without causing disturbances 

 and apprehension. But in her case the balances are made up by 

 immense investments of capital in other countries, as can be seen 

 in the statistics of commerce. For a country like Japan, on the 

 contrary, where this is not the case, the relation of imports to 

 exports furnishes the best measure of economic prosperity. 

 Negative balances must here be covered by exportations of cash 

 or by loans ; and if they continue to occur, must be regarded as a 

 sign of impoverishment and decreasing productiveness. 



In the Table I. D, the under-balances are given with — , the 

 positive annual balances with +. It is to be observed in this list 

 that in the eighteen years of Meiji (peace, the designation of the 

 very remarkable reign of Tenn6 Mutsu Hito) the sum of negative 

 balances was '^'j,j\<^,%'jj yen, but of positive only 36,370,757 yen. 

 Of the latter, 27,763,507 yen fall to the last four years. To these 

 favourable balances since 1882 corresponds the balance between 

 the importation and exportation of precious metals, as given in 

 Table VI., where it is shown that in the same period, 1882-1885, 

 there was an excess of 7,822,545 yen of importation over ex- 

 portation. It consisted chiefly in the importation of silver dollars, 

 and served in part to equalize the excess of exported over im- 

 ported goods. 



The foreign trade of Japan had become more and more obstructed 

 under the Tokugawa Shogunate, so that the country's resources 

 could not be symmetrically and vigorously developed. Since the 

 restoration of Mikado rule, the country has become astonishingly 

 more productive, and consequently consumes more, although the 

 mining of gold and silver — formerly the principal source of 

 business with foreign lands — yields but light returns. In the 

 period of five years 1871-1875 (see Table III. B), the average 

 annual value of exports was 18,577,056 yen. Ten years later, 

 in the same interval, between 1880 and 1886, it had risen to 

 34,454,812 yen, almost double what it was before. 



Countries which export one article almost exclusively are placed 

 in a bad position when this fails or sinks in value, as has been 

 abundantly proved recently by Nevada with its mining, the Canary 

 Islands with their cochineal-raising, and many tropical colonies 



