38 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL 8 Co. APRIL 1914. 
According to an article which has appeared in an English technical journal’) the 
Camphor Monopoly has not come up to expectations and only yields a small profit. 
In the Budget for 1913/1914 the profit was estimated at not more than 114914 Yen. 
Compared with the salt- and tobacco-monopolies which exist in Japan, the camphor 
monopoly seems to be a financial failure, in spite of the fact that the consumption 
of camphor is increasing steadily. 
The revenues derived in the course of the last eleven years from the camphor-, 
salt-, and tobacco-monopolies are shown in the following table’): — 
REVENUE FROM THE 
Camphor monopoly Tobacco monopoly Salt monopoly 
1903/04 Zio Oloeven 14 898 291 Yen = 
1904/05 TAZIOO9 Gs. 27 462007 ,, Se 
1905/06 743 579 _,, 33 602 058 __—,, 11998012 Yen 
1906/07 1163826 ,, 32 574 484 _,, 23 232 3Soeee 
1907/08 898 165 __—,, 395 607 902, 24052 674 _,, 
1908/09 EAN TA 49 304 568 se, 15 606 242 _,, 
1909/10 47691 ,, 47 207 571, 11134120 ,, 
1910/11 OB ShT ae, 50 936 126 _,, 11 0601315 
1911/12 179903, 51 315 884 _,, 11842141 _,, 
1912/13*): 160051" |; Dt S0O025 G 10:67 31sase, 
1913/14 %) . 114914 ,, 53 728 468 _,, 10007 165 __,, 
The Year Book in question also gives particulars (p. 28) of the cost to the State 
of the camphor monopoly. This amounted for the year 1904/05 to 59624 Yen; 1905/06 
571827 Yen; 1906/07 762720 Yen and 1907/08 859747 Yen. The official statistics do 
not supply particulars of the outlay for subsequent years. 
Possibly the cause of the unfavourable state of the Japanese camphor industry 
may be found in the competition of the synthetic product*). In order to maintain the 
competition with artificial camphor, the Monopoly has been compelled to regulate its 
quotations in harmony with those of the synthetic product. It is said that lately a 
German artificial camphor has been brought on the market of which the cost of pro- 
duction is 80/- p.cwt. Hence the Camphor Monopoly Bureau has reduced its price 
for B.B. camphor to 142/— p.cwt., but without success, and it is therefore not impossible 
that the quotation for this grade will have to be lowered to 100/-. 
We have already on a previous occasion pointed out®) that the camphor mono- 
poly hopes to find a fresh source of production of camphor in the distillation of 
camphor leaves. Experiments on a large scale in this direction are being conducted 
at present at the experimental station on the Tempai mountain (Fukuoka), which is 
situated in a camphor plantation®). This plantation contains about 58000 trees, which 
were planted in the year 1908. The daily capacity of the experimental station is 
2000 gallons of oil, or 317 gallons from 400 Ibs. of leaves (?). Four distillations are 
carried out daily, the camphor-content of the oil being estimated every three hours. 
The exhausted material is used as fuel. 
At the present time there are over 500000 camphor trees on the Island of Kiu 
Shiu (Saikaido), distributed over an area of more than 60000 acres. As camphor 
1) Chemist and Druggist 84 (1914), 87. — 2) Finanz. u. wirtsch. Jahrbuch f. Japan 18 (1913), 14. — 
3) Estimated. — +4) Handelsberichten (The Hague) 7 (1913), 793. — 5) Comp. Report April 1918, 37; also : 
page 36 of this Report. —  *) Daily Cons. and Trade Rep., Washington 16 (1913), 575. 
eal 
