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TRADE AND COMMERCE.
343
The exports of British produce to Japan, in the years 1861-63, consisted of the following articles :--
Exports of British produce to Japan.
1861
1862
1863
£
£
£
Apparel and haberdashery..
1.474
Beer and ale,......
213
1.119
Cotton yarn,
14,115
Cottons. entered by the yard,
22,441
12,970
Lead and shot,...
67
18.642
Linens entered by the yard.
628
2.623
Machinery and millwork,
1,711
Perfumery............................................
15
Soap.....
186
142
Spirits, British,.
21
203
Woollens entered by the yard,.
2.230
57.826
All other articles.....
3,220
12 172
Total,...
43,100
21
108,897
The internal trade of Japan is very extensive, and a variety of regulations are in force, the object of which is to protect and encourage home industry. The prices of goods are not enhanced by imposts of any kind; and communication between the great markets and all parts of the empire is facilitated by numerous coasting vessels and well-maintained roads. Foreign commerce, however, so far from being encouraged, is vigorously opposed by the government. Nevertheless, by the treaties made with several European Governments- with Russia in October, 1857, and with Great Britain, France, and the United States in July and August, 1858-the three Japanese ports of Nagasaki, Kanagawa, and Hakodali were thrown open to foreign commerce.
The value of the total imports and exports of these three ports, from and to all countries, in each of the three years 1861-63, is shown in the subjoined statement.
Imports.
Exports.
Ports
1861
1862
1863
1861
1862
1863
£
Kanagawa. 307,981 Nagasaki,... 139.429 Hakodadi
£ 536 860
£ 811,146
525 000 419
£ 558.948 208.608
1,240
£ 1.313.568 750,000 20 155
£ 2.638.503
36.260
The total area of Japan is estimated at 156,604 square miles, with a population of 35,000,000, or 229 per square mile.
The number of foreigners settled in Japan is as yet very small. At the end of the third year that the ports had been opened, the foreign community at Kanagawa consisted of fifty-five natives of Great Britain; thirty-eight Americans; twenty Dutch; eleven French; and two Portuguese; and in the latter part of 1864 the permanent foreign residents at Kanagawa had increased to 300, not counting soldiers, of which number 140 were British subjects, and about 80 Americans and 40 Dutch. At Nagasaki, the number of foreigners at the same period was 39, with a greater proportion of Dutch. The port of Hakodadi, in the north of Japan, was deserted, after a lengthened trial, by all the foreign merchants settled there, it having been found impossible to establish any satisfactory intercourse with the natives. Hakodadi is situated on an island, where there is little or no cultivation, separated from the continent of Niphon by the Saugar straits. No Japanese can enter
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