Mitsui, the present head of the house, was created a peer, and other members were given titles of various degrees. After relieving this financial strain, the Mitsuis applied themselves with new energy and vigour to reforming their business undertakings on Western lines. In 1876 the old Exchange House was transformed into a bank on a joint-stock basis. This was the first private bank established in Japan. In the same year a new and most important undertaking was organised for the purpose of general trading. The firm, well known as Mitsui Bussan Kaisha in the East, and as Mitsui & Co. in Europe and America, is the outcome of this enterprise. In 1889 the house acquired from the Government the concession of the Miike Coal Mines, and Mitsui Kozan Kaisha (the mining department) was established in order to control these and many other mines owned by the house. Thus has the business been developed gradually until it has reached its present flourishing condition. It is now difficult to give anything more than a general idea of the vast sphere of influence which the Company fill in the economic world of Japan. Their operations are devisible into three distinct departments, namely, Mitsui Ginko (banking department), Mitsui Bussan Kaisha (foreign and domestic trading department), and Mitsui Kozan Kaisha (mining department). These departments comprise nearly every branch of business in the commercial and industrial world—banking, mining, home and foreign trading, shipping and warehousing, as well as fisheries, agencies, and iron and engineering works. The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, the foreign and domestic trading department, has its head office at Tokyo, and branches at Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Moji, Nagasaki, Kuchinotzu, Taipeh, Newchwang, Tientsin, Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore, Bombay, London, and New York. It has representatives at Hakodate, Yokosuka, Maizuru, Kure, Wakamatsu, Karatsu, Kishima (Suminoye), Miike, Sasebo, Seoul, Chemulpo, Antung, Vladivostock, Harbin, Mukden, Kanjvsh, Tetsurei, Tailien, Tainan, Chefoo, Hankow, Tsingtau, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Calcutta, Rangoon, Manila, Saigon, Bangkok, Sourabaya, Hamburg, San Francisco, and Portland. The firm has a fleet of 11 efficient steamers, all 100 Al, of gross tonnage aggregating over 26,500, one of which is almost exclusively engaged in the transportation of the Company's own merchandise. But, besides the shipping and agency business, the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha also does an immense trade in coal as sole proprietors of the famous Miike, Tagawa, Yamano, Hondo, and Ida Coal Mines, and as sole agents for Kanada, Ohnoura, Ohtsuji, Mameda, Mannoura, Yoshio, Tsubakuro, Yunokibara, and other coals.
The branch in Hongkong acts as agent for the Tokyo Marine Insurance Company, Meiji Fire Insurance Company, Nippon Fire Insurance Company, Government Tobacco Monopoly, Nippon Brewery Company, Shanghai Spinning Mill, Nippon Match Factory Company, Nitta Leather Belt Company, and Shinagawa Fire Brick Company. The manager of the branch is Mr. M. Kobayashi, who is a well-known resident of Hongkong and president of the Nippon Club.
THE MITSU BISHI COMPANY.
The well-known Japanese firm trading under the name of the Mitsu Bishi Goshi Kwaisha (Mitsu Bishi Company) are engaged in numerous undertakings, such as banking, mining, shipbuilding, and engineering. Their head offices are at Tokyo, and they have branches at Osaka, Kobe, Moji, Nagasaki, Wakamatsu, Karatsu, Niigata, Shanghai, Hankow, and Hongkong. The banking department has the largest deposits of any bank in Tokyo, and its credit is becoming widely known abroad. The Company's mines produce gold, silver, and copper in large quantities, and the greater part of the metal is treated at their metallurgical works at Osaka. The precious metals are refined by electrolysis to almost absolute purity, and the copper is made into electrolytic cathode of the highest conductivity, which commands good prices on the London market. The annual output of the electro refinery is as follows:—Refined gold, 18,250 ozs.; silver, 498,700 ozs.; copper cathodes, 6,000 tons; and copper vitriol, 800 tons. The Company have big colliery concessions in the provinces of Buzen, Chikuzen, and Hizen, with a total output of over 1,000,000 tons annually. Not only are the Company sole contractors of coal to several of the leading steamship lines, but they also supply coal to the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Imperial Arsenals, the State Railways, &c. For the conveyance of coal to Shanghai, Hongkong, and other ports the Company own a fleet of six colliers, besides tugs, launches, junks, and lighters. The Mitsu Bishi Dockyard and Engine Works are situated at Nagasaki and at Kobe. The former extend over 90 acres, and have a frontage of about 8,000 feet along the western shore of Nagasaki Harbour. There are three dry docks and one patent slip, and in the largest dock vessels up to 714 feet on the keel can be accommodated. The machinery is of the most modern type, and is driven to a large extent by electricity. The shipyard at Tategami has seven berths, and an annual output capacity of over 30,000 tons. The Company's dockyard and engine works at Kobe were opened in August, 1905, and have now a floating dock with a lifting power of 7,000 tons, but before long another
