Directory_and_Chronicle_1871 — Page 671

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GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL.

347

The Japanese police is extremely strict in the maintenance of order, and the punishment of delinquents. It is also charged with the registration of births, deaths, and marriages.

Trade and Commerce.

The commercial intercourse of Japan is carried on mainly with two countries, the United Kingdom and the United States of America; the former absorbing more than two-thirds of the whole. The extent of trade with the United Kingdom is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the value of the total exports from Japan to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the total imports of British and Irish produce and manu factures into Japan in each of the five years 1864 to 1868:-

Years.

Exports from Japan to Great Britain.

Imports of

British Home Produce into Japan.

£

1864... 1865

1866... 1867 1868...

+

£ 1,423,819

614,743

273,745

...

317,799

188,222

627,383

1,576,794

1.444,539

1,545,386

1,112,804

The trade of Japan with the United Kingdom has been of late years, as will be seen from the preceding table, constantly on the decline. It is generally stated that the diminished intercourse, particularly striking as regards the exports from Japan, was due to the influence of the Daimios, though this is contradicted by the best authorities. "Those who have most narrowly watched the progress of foreign inter- course with Japan," wrote the British Consul at Kanagawa, under date of March, 1864, "have long suspected that much of the antagonism to foreign countries, attri- buted by the Tycoon to the semi-independent Princes, was fictitious rather than real; that foreign trade as between the two parties was a struggle-on the Tycoon's side- to open the door leading to the outer world, of which he was lucky enough, in his representative capacity, according to the traditions and established institutions of Japan, to possess the key, at the highest price-on the side of the Daimios, to get cheaply through the carrier, and part with as little as possible of their profits." The quantities and value of the exports from Japan to the United Kingdom, in the year 1868, was as follows:-

Exports from Japan to the United Kingdom.

Quantities.

Value.

L

Camphor

Cuts.

-----

ADE

1,583

32,081

China or Porcelain ware or earthenware.....

Cotton Raw.................

Galls

Japanned or lacquered ware

Silk, waste, knubs, or husks Tea......

Tobacco, unmanufactured. War, bees.....

39

vegetable

All other articles..

74

"

2,003

192

683

"J

1,608

3,955

And

29

267

2,261

1,209

20,311

Lbs.

1,041,150

66,301

212,329

5,832

Cuts.

188

1,971

*

8,343

39,885

Value

5,939

น

Total.....

181,222

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