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ith Commodore Shufeldt on behalf of the United States. A Treaty with signed by Sir Harry Parkes on the 26th November, 1883 ; in 1884 treaties cluded with Gerniany and Russia, and later with France, Italy, and population of Corea is est mated to be between 12,000,000 and 14,000,000. pulation in June, 1909, exclusive of Japanese, who numbered over 144,800, g to official statistics, 13,062, of whom 12,332 were Chinese and 153 British. e mostly missionaries. One small English newspaper, the Seoul Press
Japanese), is published in Seoul.
·
stries of Corea are mainly agricultural. The foreign trade reached er mark in 1907 both as regards imports and exports. The value of unted to yen 58,438,887, as compared with yen 38,424,166 in 1906, and in 1905. The total for 1909 was yen 52,897,658 and yen 59.6! 6,599, The inted in 1910 to yen 19, 13,843, and the imports amounted to yen 39,782,756. of the trade is about 70 per cent. China comes next, Great Britain third of yeu 6,251,243), America and Russia, and Germany in the order mentioned. le mentioned that in annexing Corea, Japan engaged for a period of ten terfere in any way with the commercial rights enjoyed by foreigners in the er the old régime. The old customs tariff is to be maintained for the period applied indiscriminately to foreign and Japanese goods alike. The port of been closed to foreign trade, but the others--Chemulpo, Fusan, Wonsan, Kunsan, Mokpo, Songchin, Shimoyu and Chongchin-continue to be open urisdiction of Consular Courts was abolished under the proclamation of nd foreigners are therefore now amenable to the Japanese courts, as they
roper.
ipal articles of import are cotton manufactures, and of export, rice, beans e stock. There is a considerable paper-making industry, which is e hands of the peasantry, its great drawback being lack of capital. Gold recent years become an important industry, the value of the output ap- f a million pounds sterling per annum. There are several gold mines now by British, American, French and Italian syndicates. A number of her mines are worked by natives on a small scale and by Japanese. Be- ber, 1906, and December, 1908, 2-5 concessions were granted to Japanese, 47 d 29 to other nationalities. Anthracite coal is mined by the Government at The largest of the enterprises at present is the Wunsan mine operated by syndicate known as the Oriental Consolidated Mining Co. Nearly 3,000 ployed, and the Company pays to the Government an annual royalty of e British concession, worked by the Korean syndicate, is in the Su-an district rovince; both the French and the Italian concessions are in the province of e Collbran-Bostwick Development Co. of America has the most important situated in the southern part of Ham-Kyung province.
er era dawned for trade and commerce and much else in Corea when the 1904 was negotiated, giving to Japan virtual control of the administration. time in exercising the power she had acquired. The reform of the effete, and corrupt administration which had for centuries been in vogue in Corea no little magnitude. The old order of things cannot be changed in a day, or a most promising commencement has been made during the tive years ad the direction of the country's internal affairs. She has set to work among the first essentials of good government, a judicial system which e the honest and impartial administration of justice by trained judges. has also been made with the codification of the laws of the country. : system of local administration is being reformed in a manner which will political abuses and lead up ultimately to a system of local autonomy, e financial administration has received a great deal of attention with Its, and among other branches of administration which have been already th the leaven of reform are the Educational and the Police systems. Public aken include the construction of four main roads traversing some of the ive regions of the country; waterworks are being provided by the Gov- hemulpo and Pyeng yang, while at Seoul, and one or two other centres, ent has established hospitals for the sick.
ation of all these undertakings involved the expenditure of a large sum ich the depleted Corean exchequer could not provide, and recourse was
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