Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/141

the world are engaged in a bloody strife, such as the world has never seen before, some of the neutrals, and one at least of the Allies, are making hay while the sun shines—over millions of dead and dying, wounded and starving. For Japan the war has come as a god-send.

The immediate consequence of the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 was, of course, a severe blow to the economic organization of Japan, involving great dislocation, and even partial paralysis of her trade and industry. But this state of affairs did not last long, and the year 1915, especially the latter half of it, was for her a time of unprecedented prosperity. The principal factors which contributed, more than anything else, to bring about this change were two in number. First a remarkable expansion of her foreign export trade, due to a large sale of munitions to Russia, and the other Allies, and also to increased exportation to India, the South Seas and Australia and to other countries whieh had hitherto been supplied by the belligerent Powers. Side by side with this great growth of exports, there occurred a sudden fall in her import trade, thus turning the international trade balance, which had been uniformly against her since 1896, with the exception of two brief years, 1906, and 1909, heavily in her favour. We give in the following table some figures to illustrate our statement.

Total Values of Exports and Imports of Merchandise

Year Exports Imports Excess of exports (+) or Imports (−)

Yen Yen Yen

1913 632,460,213 729,431,644 − 96,971,481

1914 591,101,461 595,735,725 − 4,634,264

1915 708,306,997 532,449,938 + 175,857,059

It will appear from the above figures that, as compared with 1914 exporrs went up, in round numbers, by Yen 117,000,000 (£11,987,021), imports went down by Yen 63,000,000 (£6,428,935) and there was a net increase of Yen 58,000,000 (£5,428,659) in the total trade. The balance of trade which had been unfavourable in 1914, turned heavily in favour of Japan, and led, it may be pointed out, to a marked increase in her specie holdings in the foreign markets.