Wrrnour a report on the trade of Yokohama, the Commercial Reports from the Consuls in Japan are as incomplete as those from their brother officials in China, minus that from Shanghai. -No doubt the Report for the Yokohama trade is a much more Téngthy document and requires longer time to prepare than those from the amaher ports. Bat as the Blue Book of these documents for 1882 relating to all the other places la Japan which are open to trade, contains the despatch from Sir Harry Parkes, which we publish to-day, dated the 9th of June, the Consul at Yokohama might aurély have completed his labours in time to have allowed his paper to appear with those of his collesgaes, It may not now be published until ite' contents have lost much of their interest for readers. These official documents rarely contain anything that will bear keeping over,.and as, after all, they are chiefly intended for the edification of the mercantile world, it would be to the interest of the Consuls to give the result of their labours a chance of being read. Business men have no time to throw away upon reports on trade a twelvemonth old; and it cannot be plonsant to " Consul to know that his labour has been about as good as lost.
The first report in the volume now before us is from Hakodate, where there are altogether fifty-nine foreign re. siderite, twenty-five of whom are Chinese, and seventeen British, who form among them three firms out of the five.at the port, The trade decreased $450,000 daring the year, but it appears that in 1881 $110,000, worth of Government goods were included in the returns. The whole import trade in 1882 was valued at $7,417 being mainly in kerosene oil and stores for foreigners. The ox-port trade is in soa-weed and other articles for Chinese consumption. Not. withstanding what the Consul says of the poverty of the greater part of the scanty population of the district, he notes one sign of official enterprize, The: Prefect, the Consul writes, contemplates introducing a system of water. works. Like a good many other things in Japan this may not go further, bat even the contemplation of such aecheme dor the depressing circumstances of hakodate is somewhat to the credit of the official. From Hiogo and Osaka the same sad tale of bad trade ar with which we have been so rin this country. The Corean affair disorganized the import market at these and other ports in Japan, and threw the currency into disorder. 'Then, again, game of the falling off in the imports which the returns display is accounted for by." gradual abandonment -of the -custom of overstocking the' market on the chance of doing business." Goods are, instead, now imported to order. The "indirect" trade in imports, that is in goods purchased by Japanese in Yokohama for the Hiogo market, shows a continuous falling off during the last five years. The reason for this, given by the Consul, is the circumscription of trade; but we should attribute much of it to the equalizing effect on prices of the telegraph. Traders in Hiogo can buy in Manchester as quickly as in Yokohama, and though they have been able to do so for some years, it is probable that the effect on this "in. direct" trade has been very gradual and has only lately begun to be felt. From what we have heard we shall not be surprised to find that the telegraph from Tientsin has re-produced this year the direct trade in maunfactures between that port and England. And we should say there is a fair prospect of the business increasing. Writing of the trade arn, the Consul hat a larger quantity had been sold in Kobe in 1882 than in avy former year. In 1882 and 1882 the quantity of Indian yarn disposed of was about 40,000 and 45,000 piculs respectively. English spinnings, especially the commoner sorts, had been almost entirely neglected. The Japanese have several spinning mills in operation in Osaka, in which they produce yarns somewhat similar to the Indian yarns which they purchase, viz, 16s. and 20s, The Consul might have given more information about the progress of the Japanese cotton spinning mills; it would have been very interesting for aoveral reasons. The Consul at these ports and his colleague at Negasaki intimate a considerable increase having taken place in the export of camphor, although the production in 1882 was one-third less than in 1881 in the three provinees wherethetrees chiefly abound. Regarding this trade the Hiogo Report says:—It is worth remarking that the trees in the possession of private individuals are gradually becoming exhausted, and that, unless the Govertmout decide to sell their camphor forests for the manufacture of camphor instead of reserving them for ship. building and other purposes, the production of this staple export in avy quantity will conse in a few years. The value of this export from Hiogo, Osaka and Nagasaki Inst year was some $840,000. The traffic on the Railways increased slightly; on the Kidto, Kobe and Otsu section. Some 200,000 more passengers travelled—nearly 3,700,000 people using the line in the year—and the increase in revenue was 55,000 yen.
The Consul at Nagasaki commences his report on the trade in grey shirtings by saying that the decrease in the import of them is owing to the oon-sumers having found out the worthless. ness of Manchester clayed goods, They fare, in consequence, fast going back to their old practice -of spinning this class of fabric for themselves, and noticeable increase in the nutaber of new hand-looms in the houses hae followed, as also in the quantity of raw cotton imported. The trade in the latter rose from 8,000 picals in 1881 to $000 in 1882, while the entire import of grey shirtings during the year was only of the value of $10,685, sum which we should think was scarcely likely to attract and increase the misapplied ingenuity of Manchester people. A great part of the paper la occupied by particulars of the coal trade, the coat of Japanese coals, and the out-tarn which they give at various ports in China to which they are shipped.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.