period of extreme commercial and financial depression set in, and
the treasury had to postpone all recourse to loans for whatever
purpose, so that railway progress was completely checked in the
field alike of the original and the acquired state lines. Moreover,
all securities underwent such sharp depreciation that, on the one
hand, the government hesitated to hand over the bonds representing
the purchase-price of the railways, lest such an addition to the
volume of stocks should cause further depreciation, and, on the other,
the former owners of the nationalized lines found the character of
their bargain greatly changed. In these circumstances the government
decided to take a strong step, namely, to place the whole of
the railways owned by it—the original state lines as well as those
nationalized—in an account independent of the regular budget, and
to devote their entire profits to works of extension and improvement,
supplementing the amount with loans from the treasury when
necessary.
In the sequel of the war of 1904–5 Japan, with China’s consent, acquired from Russia the lease of the portion of the South-Manchuria railway (see Manchuria) between Kwang-cheng-tsze (Chang-chun) on the north and Tairen (Dalny), Port Arthur and Niuchwang on the south—a total length South Manchuria Railway. of 470 m. At the close of 1906 this road was handed over to a joint-stock company with a capital of 20 millions sterling, the government contributing 10 millions in the form of the road and its associated properties; the public subscribing 2 millions, and the company being entitled to issue debentures to the extent of 8 millions, the principal and interest of these debentures being officially guaranteed. Four millions’ worth of debentures were issued in London in 1907 and 4 millions in 1908. This company’s programme is not limited to operating the railway. It also works coal-fields at Yentai and Fushun; has a line of steamers plying between Tairen and Shanghai; and engages in enterprises of electricity, warehousing and the management of houses and lands within zones 50 li (17 m.) wide on either side of the line. The government guarantees 6% interest on the capital paid up by the general public.
Not until 1905 did Japan come into possession of an electric railway. It was a short line of 8 m., built in Kiōto for the purposes of a domestic exhibition held in that city. Thenceforth this class of enterprise grew steadily in favour, so that, in 1907, there were 16 companies with an Electric Railways. aggregate capital of 8 millions sterling, having 165 m. open to traffic and 77 m. under construction. Fifteen other companies with an aggregate capital of 3 millions had also obtained charters. The principal of these is the Tōkyō railway company, with a subscribed capital of 6 millions (312 paid up), 9012 m. of line open and 149 m. under construction. In 1907 it carried 153 million passengers, and its net earnings were £300,000.
The traditional story of prehistoric Japan indicates that the first recorded emperor was an over-sea invader, whose followers must therefore have possessed some knowledge of ship-building and navigation. But in what kind of craft they sailed and how they handled them, there is Maritime Communications. nothing to show clearly. Nine centuries later, but still 500 years before the era of surviving written annals, an empress is said to have invaded Korea, embarking her forces at Kobe (then called Takekura) in 500 vessels. In the middle of the 6th century we read of a general named Abe-no-hirafu who led a flotilla up the Amur river to the invasion of Manchuria (then called Shukushin). All these things show that the Japanese of the earliest era navigated the high sea with some skill, and at later dates down to medieval times they are found occasionally sending forces to Korea and constantly visiting China in vessels which seem to have experienced no difficulty in making the voyage. The 16th century was a period of maritime activity so marked that, had not artificial checks been applied, the Japanese, in all probability, would have obtained partial command of Far-Eastern waters. They invaded Korea; their corsairs harried the coasts of China; two hundred of their vessels, sailing under authority of the Taikō’s vermilion seal, visited Siam, Luzon, Cochin China and Annam, and they built ships in European style which crossed the Pacific to Acapulco. But this spirit of adventure was chilled at the close of the 16th century and early in the 17th, when events connected with the propagation of Christianity taught the Japanese to believe that national safety could not be secured without international isolation. In 1638 the ports were closed to all foreign ships except those flying the flag of Holland or of China, and a strictly enforced edict forbade the building of any vessel having a capacity of more than 500 koku (150 tons) or constructed for purposes of ocean navigation. Thenceforth, with rare exceptions, Japanese craft confined themselves to the coastwise trade. Ocean-going enterprise ceased altogether.
Things remained thus until the middle of the 19th century, when a growing knowledge of the conditions existing in the West warned the Tokugawa administration that continued isolation would be suicidal. In 1853 the law prohibiting the construction of sea-going ships was revoked and the Yedo government built at Uraga a sailing vessel of European type aptly called the “Phoenix” (“Howo Maru”). Just 243 years had elapsed since the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty constructed Japan’s first ship after a foreign model, with the aid of an English pilot, Will Adams. In 1853 Commodore M. C. Perry made his appearance, and thenceforth everything conspired to push Japan along the new path. The Dutch, who had been proximately responsible for the adoption of the seclusion policy in the 17th century, now took a prominent part in promoting a liberal view. They sent to the Tokugawa a present of a man-of-war and urged the vital necessity of equipping the country with a navy. Then followed the establishment of a naval college at Tsukiji in Yedo, the building of iron-works at Nagasaki, and the construction at Yokosuka of a dockyard destined to become one of the greatest enterprises of its kind in the East. This last undertaking bore witness to the patriotism of the Tokugawa rulers, for they resolutely carried it to completion during the throes of a revolution which involved the downfall of their dynasty. Their encouragement of maritime enterprise had borne fruit, for when, in 1867, they restored the administration to the Imperial court, 44 ocean-going ships were found among their possessions and 94 were in the hands of the feudatories, a steamer and 20 sailing vessels having been constructed in Japan and the rest purchased abroad.
If the Tokugawa had been energetic in this respect, the new government was still more so. It caused the various maritime carriers to amalgamate into one association called the Nippon-koku yubin jokisen kaisha (Mail SS. Company of Japan), to which were transferred, free of charge, the steamers, previously the property of the Tokugawa or the feudatories, and a substantial subsidy was granted by the state. This, the first steamship company ever organized in Japan, remained in existence only four years. Defective management and incapacity to compete with foreign-owned vessels plying between the open ports caused its downfall (1875). Already, however, an independent company had appeared upon the scene. Organized and controlled by a man (Iwasaki Yataro) of exceptional enterprise and business faculty, this mitsubishi kaisha (three lozenge company, so called from the design on its flag), working with steamers chartered from the former feudatory of Tosa, to which clan Iwasaki belonged, proved a success from the outset, and grew with each vicissitude of the state. For when (1874) the Meiji government’s first complications with a foreign country necessitated the despatch of a military expedition to Formosa, the administration had to purchase 63 foreign steamers for transport purposes, and these were subsequently transferred to the mitsubishi company together with all the vessels (17) hitherto in the possession of the Mail SS. Company, the Treasury further granting to the mitsubishi a subsidy of £50,000 annually. Shortly afterwards it was decided to purchase a service maintained by the Pacific Mail SS. Company with 4 steamers between Yokohama and Shanghai, and money for the purpose having been lent by the state to the mitsubishi, Japan’s first line of steamers to a foreign country was firmly established, just 20 years after the law interdicting the construction of ocean-going vessels had been rescinded.
The next memorable event in this chapter of history occurred in 1877, when the Satsuma clan, eminently the most powerful and most warlike among all the former feudatories, took the field in open rebellion. For a time the fate of the government hung in the balance, and only by a flanking movement over-sea was the rebellion crushed. This strategy compelled the purchase of 10 foreign steamers, and these too were subsequently handed over to the mitsubishi company, which, in 1880, found itself possessed of 32 ships aggregating 25,600 tons, whereas all the other vessels of foreign type in the country totalled only 27 with a tonnage of 6500. It had now become
