Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/556

are rapidly changing the manners, customs, and household habits of the Japanese people. Very good iron and brass cannon, shot and shell, breech- and muzzle-loading rifles, gunpowder, percussion caps, and many other articles of war material, are now made by unassisted native workmen.—The internal trade of Japan is brisk and constant. The roads are good and kept in excellent order, and hotels, warehouses, and stables for the accommodation of man, beast, and baggage are abundant, and their terms reasonable. Many of the merchants become rich, but there are not as yet five millionaires of any class in Japan. In the open ports there are probably a few score merchants who may each be worth $50,000, but this is a large sum in Japan. Goods are conveyed on land by pack horses, oxen, and coolies. The principal carriage of merchandise is by water; for although the Japanese junks cannot make long sea voyages, they are well fitted to navigate the rivers, to coast from port to port, and to cross from island to island. The shores of the Japanese group afford great facilities for a coasting trade, from the abundance of harbors and shelters for vessels of small size, and these facilities are energetically used by the people, who keep afloat a vast number of vessels, from fishing boats to junks of 300 tons. At present the great bulk of the coasting trade is done by the steamers of the Pacific mail steamship company. Japanese trading companies also own steamers, which ply regularly between the large ports. Scores of small river and lake steamers, owned and manned by Japanese, now ply on the inland waters and seacoast. On Lake Biwa alone there are seven steamers. Commerce is comparatively free from tolls and duties, though the government seems to have a chronic tendency to meddle with the merchants, and privileged corporations help to fetter and restrict commerce. The inland trade is assisted by great fairs held at Kioto and other cities. Until the summer of 1859, for more than two centuries, the foreign commerce had been limited to the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki. The Dutch had a small factory at Deshima, on which 12 or 13 merchants lived, closely watched by the Japanese, and allowed very little liberty. Two ships were annually sent from Batavia, with cargoes consisting chiefly of sugar, ivory, bar iron, tinned iron, fine chintzes, broadcloths, shalloons, cloves, tortoise shell, drugs, spectacles, looking glasses, watches, various herbs and roots, and Dutch medicines. The writer in his travels through Japan has found two or three popular Dutch medicines advertised in Roman letters in nearly all the large towns and cities. The words in use among the natives for glass, tinned iron, table, Sunday, electricity, laudanum, and many other things, are corruptions of the Dutch names for the same. The chief articles of export by the Dutch were copper, camphor, lacquer ware, porcelain, and rice. In 1854 American diplomacy succeeded in removing the barriers against foreign commerce, and many ports have since been opened to foreign residence and trade. The articles most in demand by the Japanese are tissues of all kinds, cotton prints, calicoes, flannels, cotton and woollen yarn, knit goods, chintz, velvet, woollens, blankets, glass ware, mirrors, drugs, ivory, cheap clocks, watches, petroleum and lamps, flour, rod iron, machinery, sugar, boots and shoes, hats, wine, spirits and beer, zinc, sail cloth, soap, leather, and tea lead. The most profitable exports are rice, silk, tea, camphor, vegetable oil and tallow, wax, lacquered ware, porcelain, sulphur, silkworms' eggs, and a variety of sundries that find a market in China. The value of the imports into Japan during the year 1872 amounted to $26,188,441: of exports, $24,294,532; total value of exports and imports, $50,482,973. The local trade, imports and exports, between the open ports of Japan during 1871, was to the value of $4,436,539; for 1872 it was valued at $4,263,232. The declared value of imports in 1873 was 29,000,000 yens, or dollars, and the declared value of the exports, $21,000,000. The total amount of duties collected, including for exports, imports, rent of warehouse, entrance and clearance fees, fines and penalties, and miscellaneous, was $1,735,000. The value of cotton manufactures imported into Japan in 1871 was $8,011,478, and in 1872 $10,065,155. Of woollen manufactures, the value in 1871 was $2,056,789, and in 1872 $6,335,014. The export of raw silk in 1871 was $8,416,712, in 1872 $7,355,623; silkworms' eggs in 1871 $2,184,688, in 1872 $1,963,159; tea in 1871 $4,651,292, in 1872 $5,445,438; rice in 1873 $2,988,548; copper in 1873 $1,353,545. In 1872 the shipping returned at all the open ports was: British, 31 mail steamers, 351 ships, tonnage 204,077; American, 293 mail steamers, 69 ships, tonnage 683,401; other nations, 118 ships, tonnage 73,024. On the first opening of the ports to foreign commerce, the chief obstacle to profitable trade was the peculiar ideas of the Japanese government relating to currency. Little trouble is now experienced on this score, as the mint at Ozaka turns out gold and silver coins of satisfactory weight and fineness, which are graded in value according to the decimal system.—In science, the Japanese have particularly cultivated medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. The European system of medicine is now followed by nearly all the doctors of Japan, and dissection is openly practised in the great cities, and secretly in the smaller by private individuals. A great many Dutch books on therapeutics, medicine, and surgery have been translated of late years and diligently studied. The native doctors are highly respected by the foreign practitioners, and while they are very successful with local diseases, they do not hesitate to attempt very difficult cases, with average good success. Among their many inventions are acupuncture