The most important amongst establishments owned by the Mitsui family, who may be termed the Rothchilds of Japan, is perhaps the Mitsui Bank, and of the successful working of that estab li ment, the oldest of its kind in Japa balance sheet for the half-year ending December lst, 1897, gives very satisfactory evidence, showing' Yen 25,064,693 in deposits, and the very handsome sum of Yen 440,030 net profits for the half-year.
'The deposit business shows an increase of about 70% in the short space of only three years, as will be seen from the following table Deposits of all kinds on 30th June. Yen 14,921,514 99 17,748,685 5 23,919,147 25,312,777 in spite' of the present stringency of the money market, is only slightly in excess of the amount of deposits at the end of the year, when, as a rule, a great deal of money is withdrawn inks to meet annual payments. Under such circumstances then there was no necessity for the veteran Bank to follow the example of other Japanese Banks who raised their rate of interest on deposits to 7 and even 8 per cent to attract deposits, a measure which, on the one hand, and, especially amongst foreigners, gave rise to a suspicion of insecurity—whether justified or not, we are not in a position to say—so that the Mitsui Ginko of all the more. business, whilst, on the other hand, the Mitsui Ginko was also in a position to grant loans, if it chose to do so, at an interest just so much lower as the other banks had increased their rates of interest on deposits. I¢ maintained its rate of interest therefore and remained master of the situation, The Bank, in addition to public business, must also do an immense business in financing the affairs of the other establishments of the Miteui family, with which it is connected, in so far as the liability of its partner are the owners of those establishments, is an unlimited one, so that the security of the depositors is not limited by the capital ind assets of the Bank, but also by- the value of the entire property of its partners. Space does not permit us to enter the details of those establishments, 60 that can but enumerate them. First there is the Mitsui Bank 2.—The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, carrying on general export and import business 3.—The Mitsui Mining riy, Owl the Miike coal mine, gold, silver, and other mines 4.—The Mitsui Dry Goods Company, carrying on business in Tokio, Kioto. and Osaka, under the firm name of ' Yechigoya," and having its own factories and Syeing works 5.—The Mitsui Land Department which manages the firm's real estates in Tokio and elsewhere 6.—The Mitsui Industrial and Engineer-Works, with the following subdivisions.
1, Shibaura Engineering Works, No. 1 Shibahama-cho, Kanasugi, Shiba-ku, Tokio.
2, Shinmachi Silk Spummery, Shinmachi, buehiy Seager, Gemma in, cee 3. Mayebashi Spinnery,
'4. Tomioka Filature, Tomoka, Kitakanragori, Gumma-ken.
5, NagioFilature, Tabata, Nishi-kasogai-FOG? side Pilstare, Higashi-Sakabe, Miye-6. Miye gon, Biye-ken.
7. Oshima Filature, Hiraishi-mura, Ka-machi-gon, Tochigi-ken.
The number of these establishments will be sufficient to show that the Mitsui Bank thas had its hands full with the financing of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.