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

190 ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

firm determination of the nation to fight the war to a finish
favorably influenced the export trade by making good a
deficiency of labor by means of various labor-saving inventions and through a more concentrated application of energy,
as will be noted hereafter, and by encouraging a habit of
thrift and economy. In the second place, Korea and China
absorbed a considerable portion of our war funds, and the
purchasing power of the people of these countries naturally
increased. The rise in the price of silver must also have
greatly stimulated our exports to these countries. Again,
when the command of the sea passed to the hands of Japan
early in the development of the war, Japan's comparative
freedom in foreign trade must have been a strong aid to her
trade expansion. In the third place, there is no denying
that the world-wide boom which culminated in I906 favorably affected our trade in the preceding two years. These
are the reasons why our exports saw some increase during
the war, despite many adverse factors.
It is easy to imagine, moreover, that the popular tendency
to thrift and economy inclined to check the growth of imports,
but the increase in the importation of war supplies was inevitable. There were, besides, imports made in anticipation of
higher tariff, while the high prices mainly due to inflation of
currency also tended to encourage general imports. In
consequence, the imports increased from less than 320,000,000
yen in I903 to more than 370,000,000 yen in I904. In I905
the figure bounded up to no less than 490,000,000 yen. The
total value of the foreign trade, therefore, increased year after
year, as exports somewhat increased instead of decreasing,
while imports advanced by leaps and bounds. The foreign
trade stood at 600,000,000 yen in 1903, but in I904 it increased
to 690,000,000 yen, and in 1905 to 8Io,ooo,ooo yen, an increase
of 35 per cent as compared with the year previous to the war.
In this connection it should be noted that the war with
Russia marked a turning-point in Japan's foreign trade.
During the war the volume of trade markedly increased, and
this tendency was unchanged after the war. Indeed, it