]
[Footnote EZ: Parl. papers: Report of com. of enquiry into Steamship
Subsidies, 1901.]
[Footnote FA: List given in Rept. of Mer. Marine Com., with totals paid
in 1902-03, vol. 2, p. 946.]
[Footnote FB: Mecker.]
CHAPTER XI
JAPAN--CHINA
While France is the bounty-giving nation _par excellence_, Japan is a
pressing second. The development of a modern merchant marine, together
with a modern navy, was among the first undertakings of the awakening
empire upon her assumption of Occidental civilization. Adopting what
seemed to her statesmen of the new regime, from their study of Western
methods, to be the speediest way to that end, she started out
energetically to attain it through lavish money-grants from the national
treasury for the establishment of steamship companies of her own people
in coastwise and ocean service, and of modernized ship-yards and
shipbuilders.
The initial venture resulted in the creation of a steamship monopoly.
This was the subsidizing, in 1877, of the pioneer concern, to supply
steam communication between various domestic ports, and also with
Siberia, China, and Corea. It was founded by a broad-visioned Japanese
merchant, Jwasaki Yataro,[FC] and controlled by him.
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