THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF JAPAN 333 



amounting to 810,000,000 in value against $16,000,000 by the 

 United States. The exports from Japan to the United States in 

 1 881 were $5,500,000 in value, being 36.5 per cent of the total ex- 

 ports of that year, and in 1898 were $23,600,000, or 29.06 per cent 

 of the total exports of that year. 



Japan's imports from the United States have grown with even 

 greater rapidity than her exports to the United States. In 

 1881 they amounted to but $890,000, and in 1898 had reached 

 820,000.000 in value. They have increased even more rapidly 

 than the total importations of Japan, our share of her import 

 trade having risen from 5.72 per cent in 1881 to 14.57 per cent 

 in 1898, while the United Kingdon, our principal competitor in 

 that market, which furnished in 1881 52.51 per cent of the total 

 imports of Japan, supplied in 1898 22.84 per cent. In the fiscal 

 year 1892 our total exports of domestic merchandise to Japan 

 amounted to $3,288,282, and in 1899 to $17,158,970. Of this total 

 of 817,158,970 exported to Japan in the fiscal year just ended, the 

 largest item was raw cotton, which amounted to $5,775,784 in 

 value; the next largest was tobacco and manufactures thereof, 

 amounting to $2,927,700 ; then followed iron and steel and manu- 

 factures thereof, $2,578,616 ; illuminating oil, $2,341,922 ; bread- 

 stuffs, $744,562 ; wood and manufactures thereof, $530,693; dis- 

 tilled spirits, $414,404 ; paper and manufactures of, $350,118 ; in- 

 struments for scientific purposes, $232,000 ; provisions, $212,408 ; 

 leather and manufactures of, $209,611 ; clocks and watches, 

 $133,307; paraffine wax, $132,273; lubricating oil, $119,553. 

 •chemicals, drugs, and dyes, $80,498 ; condensed milk, $76,701 

 and india-rubber manufactures, $57,579. 



Taking up the great class of iron and steel and examining it 

 in detail, we find that the exports of locomotive engines in 1899 

 amounted to $529,514 ; builders' hardware, $26,498 ; sewing ma- 

 chines, 85.270; car wheels, $3,624 ; firearms, $38,306 ; machinery 

 not separately specified, $569,641, and iron and steel not sepa- 

 rately specified, 81.405,715. 



A detailed study of the exports from the United States to Japan 

 with the purpose of determining the articles mostly in demand 

 in that country during the decade, and in which the export trade 

 has most rapidly grown, shows that the largest item is raw cotton, 

 the value of which exported in 1890 amounted to but $85,211, 

 had grown to $7,435,526 by 1898, and was $5,775,784 in 1899, the 

 import- of L898 having been somewhat excessive. Leaf tobacco, 



