V. I.   Lenin

NOTEBOOK “ι”

(“IOTA”)


 

SALE, JAPAN VERSUS GREAT BRITAIN

A very interesting article in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. LXXIV, 1911, April.

Charles W. Sale, “Some Statistics of Japan”, pp. 467–534.

The comparison with the United Kingdom is especially instructive:

Japan United Kingdom
Area (square miles) 147,648 121,390
Population (1910) 49,587,000 44,538,000
” per square mile 335 367
Birth-rate (per 1,000) 31.30 27.95
Death-rate ( ” ” ) 20.70 16.89
Increase ( ” ” ) ++10.60 ++11.06
Grain, green crops, etc. 12,894,000 (acres) 12,437,000==16%
13.6%
Grasses and pastures 3,006,000   3.2% 34,565,000==44%
Forests 55,083,000=58.0 3,070,000==4%
Price of land (+cattle, etc.) £1,299 million £1,220==11%
==57% of total na-
tional wealth
Production (1907)
rice, wheat, barley, oats ==372.8 million
bushels
307.3
Potatoes 3.9 (mill. tons) 5.2
Turnips, swedes very little 36.3 (mill. tons)
Radishes 2.3 (mill. tons)
Hay very little 15.6 ” ”
Net imports of drink, food
and tobacco
£3.46 (million) £212.4 million
Cattle (1908) 1.3 ( ” ) 11.7 ”
Horses (1908) 1.5 (million) 2.1 (million)
Sheep 87,000(==0.08 mill.) 31.3 ”
Pigs 0.28 (million) 4.0 ”
Number of coal miners
underground (1908)
126,999 796,329
Coal raised (in tons) 14.8 (mill.) 261.5
Tons of coal per miner per
annum
117 328
Value sterling 6.5 (mill.) 116.6
” per ton 8s. 9d. 8s. 11d.
Tons of coal exported 2.86 (mill.) 62.55
Value per ton exported 12s. 11d. 12s. 8d.
Railways (1908) in miles 5,020 23,280
Passengers (million) 146.9 1,265.1
5,
 
Japan United Kingdom
Goods traffic (million tons) 25.4 499.9
Earnings (per mile of rail-
way)
£1,690 4,854
Expenses ( ” ” ) 868 3,133
Net earnings (”) ++822 +1,721
Steamships (100 tons and
upward gross)
1,146,977 18,059,037
Shipping entered
at Chinese ports
(1,000 tons)
{{ 1902: 7,350 (13.6%) 26,950 (49.9%)
{{ 1909: 18,949 (21.8%) 34,027 (39.2%)
Total value of product of
textile factories (1907)
£37.77 (mill.) 247.27
{{ Operatives 355,000 808,398
{{ Value per operative £ 106 £306
Imports ++ exports
(including re-
exports)
{{ 1889: £20.99 (mill.) 744.0
{{ 1909: 82.35 1,094.0
dem per capita 1899: 10s. 6d. £19. 19s. 10d.
1909: £1. 12s. 10d. £22. 5s. 8d.
National expenditure (1909) £64.9 (mill.) 152.3
Post Office savings (1909)
Number of depositors 8.66 (mill.) 11.1
Amount (£ mill.) £10.8 (mill.) 160.6
” (per capita) £1. 5s. 1d. £14. 11s. 7d.
Value of agricultural prod-
ucts
£126 (mill.) 174.8
Number of farm labourers
(including peasant pro-
prietors)
11.50 (mill.) 2.05

|
“With less than a fifth the number of labourers, the product in the United Kingdom is larger, and 40 per cent greater in value” (p. 488)....
|


Agriculture in Japan has special features, it accounts for 60 per cent of the population (p. 481). Out of a total number of households of 9,250,000, 3,748,000 are engaged exclusively in agriculture; 1,662,000 combine other occupations with agriculture. Other farmers = 70,000. Land-owners == 43,000. Σ == 5,523,000.

The land is very heavily taxed. Agriculture is on an extremely small scale:

Per cent of
farms (p. 482)
Area of farms: less than 1 1/4 acres (5 tan) 37.26
from 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 acres (5 tan-1 cho) 32.61
2 1/2 5 (1–2 ” ) 19.62
5 12 1/4 (2–5 ” ) 9.37
over 12 1/4 acres (5 cho) . . . . . . . . . . 1.14
100.00

The productivity of agricultural labour is extremely low, chiefly owning to the small scale of agriculture and the absence of machines.

In Japan, the production of rice requires 110 days’ labour per acre.

In Texas and Louisiana, the production of rice per acre requires one man for two days ++ a team for 1 1/2 days.

(American Economic Association Journal,
1904, November)


Notes

  CRAMMOND, GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY | ARTICLE: “FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND THE WAR DEBTS OF EUROPE”  

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