THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE
technique interfered to destroy credit and disgust the foreign consumer. The Japanese deny that the whole responsibility for these disastrous moral laches rests with them. The treaty-port middle-man, they say, buys so thriftily that high-quality goods cannot be supplied to him. That excuse may be partially valid, but it is not exhaustive. The vital importance of establishing and maintaining the reputation of an article offered newly in markets where it has to compete with rivals of old established excellence, is not yet fully appreciated in Japan.
As to organising capacity, the possession of which by the Japanese has been strenuously doubted by more than one foreign critic, there are proofs more weighty than any theories. In the cotton-spinning industry, for example, the Japanese are brought into direct competition in their own markets with Indian mills, employing cheap native labour, organised and managed by Englishmen, and having the raw material at their doors. The victory rests with the Japanese, from which it may fairly be inferred that their organisation is not specially defective or their method costly.[1] Yet there is one consideration that must not be lost sight of: it is the inexperience of the Japanese; their lack of standards. Japan is dressing herself in a material civilisation that was made to the measure of alien nations, and curious misfits are inevitably developed in the process.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 65.
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