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

CHAPTER V

EFFECTS ON INDUSTRY
GENERAL REMARKS
Industry always goes hand in hand with trade; rarely does
one prosper without the other. In the early stage of the war,
trade, especially home trade, was hit hard, but with the
progress of the war it somewhat rallied. On the whole, trade
suffered comparatively little, considering the magnitude of
the war. This statement applies to industry with equal force.
To be more precise, trade was affected chiefly in the lines of
luxuries for home consumption, but suffered little or no
damage in lines of daily necessaries, while the trade in war
supplies as well as the foreign trade in general increased.
We have said that industry was most seriously affected in
the early stage of the war, but the statement is in danger of
being challenged when examined from a certain point of view.
For instance, a cursory survey of the statistics regarding the
numbers of factories and workmen would clearly tend to
misconception.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF WORKERS PER DIEM IN FACTORIES, 1902-1906
Workers 1902 1903 1904 1905 I906
Male................. 185,622 182,404 207,95I 240,288 242,944
Female............... 313,269 301,435 318,264 347,563 369,233
Total.. 498,891 483,839 526,215 587,851 612,177

These figures show the steady increase in the number of
workers in the first and second years of the war. It might be
concluded from this that the war exerted a favorable influence
upon industry from its beginning; but nothing is farther from
the truth. The industry of Japan being mostly hand-work
and more than half the articles turned out being by-products,
204