Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

CHAPTER IV

EFFECTS ON COMMERCE
GENERAL REMARKS
The Russo-Japanese War had various effects on our commerce. Trade in general and domestic commerce in particular became extremely inactive immediately after the outbreak
of the war. But when the first shock of war passed and as the
conflict progressed, both economic conditions and the popular
mind recovered their normal equanimity. Purchasing power
was stimulated and increased by various circumstances, which
gradually revived the home market, while foreign trade grew
apace through the importation of war supplies and through
the thrift and industry of the people, who were determined to
bring the national struggle to a successful issue. Thus, the
blow to commerce dealt by the war was not severe. The
home market began to improve toward the end of the war, and
rapidly developed with the recovery of peaceful demands
after the war. Our foreign trade, too, though it experienced
adverse fortune for a time, made marked progress throughout
the war. What features of war, then, produced such commercial prosperity? This is the subject of our study in this
chapter, and we shall begin with the internal trade.
DOMESTIC COMMERCE
General view of the effects
Available statistics being incomplete, it is hardly possible
to show in accurate figures the effects of the Russo-Japanese
War on our home trade; but it is not difficult to state and
explain the general trend of these effects without numerical
evidence.
In a word, the domestic commerce was injured to some extent by the war, from the following causes: (I) The RussoJapanese War was the greatest war Japan ever waged, and
180