n one way--that of matches. In
1904 matches to the value of 9,763,860 yen, or, roughly, one million
sterling, were exported, and, strange to relate, European clothing to
the value of 287,464 yen.

The glib people who talk about Japan biting off more than she can
chew, and with a light heart borrowing money she will find a
difficulty in repaying, have apparently not grasped the fact that
Japan possesses many very eminent financiers who have quite as much,
if not more, claim to be considered financial experts than some of
those gentlemen who pose in that capacity here in England. The
Japanese financiers have, moreover, the advantage of an intimate
knowledge of their own country and its potentialities. The Japanese
Government has always had the benefit of the advice of these
singularly able men, and the result has been that its financial
operations of recent years at any rate have invariably been well
organised and skilfully and economically effected. I cannot speak too
highly of the capacity shown by the Japanese in everything relating to
banking. The Banks--of course I refer to the National Banks and not to
the European Banks having branches in the country--have very quickly
attained a high status in the International Banking world, and are
undoubtedly on a very firm financial basis. And there are many great
houses in Japan which, although not ostensibly bankers, cannot be left
out of consideration in any remarks on this head. They occupy a
position somewhat analogous to that of the Rothschilds in this
country. Let me take for example the house of Mitsui, the name of
which constantly crops up in Japanese finance.

The history of this ancient house has much that is picturesque about
it, reminding one of the old merchant princes of Venice. The family
originally belonged to the Jujiwara clan, and its origin is traced
back to a certain Mitsui who lived as a feudal lord in the fifteenth
century. At the time of the fall of the Ashikaja Shogun he lived in a
state of perpetual war, and the god of war was not propitious to him.
He retired to a neighbouring village and became the overlord of the
district. He was succeeded by his son, who removed to Matsusuzaka,
where he settled down as a private citizen and man of business, and
laid the foundations of the present Mitsui house. In the middle of the
sixteenth century his descendant became a merchant. His son moved to
Kyoto, where he started a large goods store, which is represente