New Fields for American Commerce [pp. 475-486]

CO03MERCE, R.ESOURCES, &C., OF JAPAN.
hilgher qualities of a mariner, have undertaken the management, ratlh er of the ship's boats than of the ship herself. Surely, the reined —
ing of these defects would be worth a month or so of warehouse rent,
and the charges of transhipment.
"To conclude this chapter with a brief view of the actual state oi'
trade, there arrived in Honolulu alone, from 1836 to 1839, inclusiv,,
three hundred and sixty-nine vessels. Of these, the whalers
amounted to two hundred and fifty-five, all but five being either Ameri.
call or British. As many of the whalers, particularly when they re -
quire nothing but such refreshment as the islands themselves yield'.
call at other ports, perhaps the annual number of this class of arriva!:
cannot be estimated at less than a hundred. During the same periodl,
the imports of Honolulu-equivalent, I take it, to the imports of tlow
group-averaged, one year with another, nearly 340,000 dollars V.,
prime cost; and, what is to my mind far more worthy of notice than
their mere value, they had been brought from the United States,
England, Prussia, Chili, Mexico, California, North-west Coast, Tahiti,
wvith other southern islands, China and Manilla. Again, during thl
same period, the exports averaged, one year with another, about
7?,000 dollars, of local value, consisting of sandal wood, hides, goatskins, salt, tobacco, sugar, molasses, kukui oil, sperm oil, the pl:d(uce of a vessel fitted out from Woahoo, arrow-root, and sundriec..
All these articles, as may be seen from the qualified description oi
thie sperm oil, were native productions. But of exports, properly s)
called, the true amount differed considerably from the foregoing
statement. Under the head of sundries was included little or nothin,'
but supplies of mneat and vegetables for the shipping; and, as tli}
ILead in question amounted, as nearly as possible, to a half of tilh,
whole, the exports, in the technical meaning of the word, would bnot 7S,000 dollars, but 39,000 dollars. The exports proper, however, were rapidly increasing. It IS40, down to the middle of Atugust, as compared with the whole of the preceding year, hides, at
two dollars each, had risen from 6,000 to IS,500 dollars; goat-skiis,
at twenty-five cents each, had risen from 1,000 to 10,000 dollars;
sugar had risen from 6,000 dollars, at six cents a pound, to 18,000
dollars, at five cents; molasses had risen from 3,000 dollars, at
twentv-five cents a gallon, to $7,300 at twenty-three cents; andi
arrow-root had risen from nothing, in 1839, the average of the preceding three years having been less than 300 dollars, to 1,700 do].
lars in the part aforesaid, of 1840. To add one particular more
to this statement of arrivals, and imports and exports, there were
owned in Honolulu, in 1840, ten vessels by foreign residents, seven
by American citizens, and three by British subjects; and besides
these more considerable craft, which averaged one hundred aund
thirty tons, there were five small schooners owned by natives.
' Of the imports a considerable proportion, as I have elsewhere
stated, is again exported-a feature, by the by, in the trade, which i:~
a more characteristic omen of the future than any amount of internali
demand."
JAPAN,
During the last session of Congress Mr. A. H. Palmer, of Nce-v
4xi3