ar as
the Mitsui family was concerned. In the same year, for the purpose of
engaging in general foreign trade, the Mitsui Bussan Kwiasha was
formed, better known in Europe and America as Mitsui & Co. In 1899 the
family acquired from the Government the concession of the Meike
coal-mines, and there was then formed the Mitsui Kaishan, or Mining
Department, which has the management of this mining concession
together with many others which have since been acquired.

To-day the house of Mitsui consists of eleven families under a system
of joint liability bound together by the old rules drawn up close upon
two centuries back. The wealth of the collective families is
unquestionably great, and the confidence of the people of Japan in
this great financial firm is shown by the immense amount of money it
holds on deposit. In one or other branches of their varied businesses
they give employment to a very large number of persons. They have
initiated an exceedingly interesting system of insurance for their
employees. Each is allowed 10 per cent. interest on his wages up to
three years on condition of its being deposited in the Mitsui Bank,
with the proviso that the sum shall be forfeited in case of the
embezzlement of any of the Company's money. During the late war, as
well as in that with China, the Mitsui house had immense transactions
with the Government in providing war material, steamers for transport,
supplies, &c., and their magnificent organisation enabled them to
carry out their various undertakings without the slightest hitch. I
may also add that the name of Mitsui headed the various charitable
funds which were started in the country in connection with the war. I
am sure that this necessarily imperfect sketch of this famous Japanese
house will convince my readers of the fact that in finance, as in
other respects, Japan has already shown a capacity for holding her own
with Western nations.

I have headed this chapter "Japan's Financial Burdens and Resources,"
but I am not quite sure that the word "burdens" is not a misnomer.
Japan appears to me--and I may claim to have studied the matter with
some little attention--to have no financial burdens, if burdens be
taken to mean something that is inconveniently felt, that is difficult
to carry. There is here no people weighed down under the crushing
incubus of debt. There is a springiness and alertness, a go-ahead
energy about the nation--symptoms not usually connected with the
c