crease in the number of depositors, the increase in this respect being far more remarkable than the increase in the amount of the deposits, as shown by the decreasing amount per depositor. This means, if it means anything, that the advantages offered by the Postal Savings Bank are more and more extensively appreciated by the poorer classes.

The amount of deposits at the Postal Savings Bank seems to be steadily increasing since the end of last year, for Mr. Matsunaga of the Communications Department, writing in the March number of the "Ginkō TsushinRoku," tells us that it is already nearly 30,000,000 yen. Not altogether unsatisfactory as is this result of the official efforts to encourage the saving habit among the people, it must be noted that we are in this respect far behind some of the European countries. Consulting the statistics for the year 1898, we find the postal savings reached in that year to £120,000,000 in England, £33,000,000 in France, £21,000,000 in Belgium, £4,800,000 in Austria, £1,000,000 in Hungary, £2,700,000 in Holland, and £3,400,000 in Sweden. In spite of the great improvement effected in the system of late years, especially in the way of simplifying the official procedure connected with the acceptance and repayment of the deposits, much still remains to be done in order to bring the facilities provided by it within easy reach of the people by increasing the number of the Post Offices authorized to receive deposits throughout the country.

While speaking of savings, it may not be uninteresting to mention a few figures on the state of the deposits at the ordinary banks. We do not happen to have at hand the statistics covering all the banking concerns in the country. The "Ginko Tsushin-Roku," however, supplies us with reliable statistics up to February, 1902, so far as the principal banking centres are concerned. We find, then, that the total amount of deposits at the banks

belonging to the clearing-houses of Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyōto, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kōbe, stood at the end of February at 308,289,000 yen, made up as follows:

The above figures do not include the deposits at the Bank of Japan, which usually amount to from fifty to sixty million yen. We may approximately estimate the maximum limit of the loanable capital in our money market at any one moment at about 500,000,000 yen.

THE OIL INDUSTRY IN JAPAN 1

Japan's oil industry has a brilliant future before it. The use of kerosene in the country has grown at a wonderfully rapid pace. In the first year of Meiji the amount of oil imported was 639 koku. In 1901 it had reached 1,300,000 koku. The value of the oil imported in 1868 was only 7,236 yen; that imported in 1901 was 14 million yen. The following table shows the rate at which the import of kerosene into Japan increased: :

Notwithstanding the large supply that has come from abroad, of late years the demand for the Echigo oil has gone on increasing, as shown in the subjoined table, which covers seven years.

It is calculated that about 5/10 of the total quantity of this crude petroleum was used for lighting purposes. It would seem, then, that Echigo supplied 3/10 of the total amount of oil used for lighting in Japan during the seven years, and that the remaining 7/10 came from abroad. Taking the year 1901, the value of the crude petroleum being 2,345,916 yen, it is estimated that when refined this amount of petroleum would fetch not less than 4 million yen. But the fact remains that the proportion of oil imported is still very large, so that there is room for a further great development of the business. As to the limits of the Japanese supply of oil, it seems impossible to obtain any trustworthy information. Echigo is by no means worked out: new fields are constantly being discovered in that province. Then petroleum has been found in Hokkaido and in the Yamagata and Shizuoka prefectures. So that among Japan's modern industries her oil trade may be pronounced to be full of promise. How the quality of the Japanese oil compares with the American and Russian brands, we are not told by the Jiji, but from other sources we gather that when properly refined Japanese petroleum is equal to the best American and Russian oils.

NATIONAL

The following table shows the national development in population, the past 30 years.

NOTE. In expenditure, the figures from 1872 up to 1898 are taken from the settled account, and those of 1899, 1900, and 1901 from the actual account. 1902 is from the Budget. In railways, the figures show the mileages of the lines belonging to the government as well as those belonging to private firms opened to traffic at the end of the respective years. The tonnage of vessels shown in the table is that of steamers. Before

From the "Tōyō Keizai Shimpo" (Oriental Economist).

DEVELOPMENT.

finance, trade, railway, vessels, telegraphs, savings, and currency, within

1896, the figures represented the aggregate amount of both registered and unregistered tonnage, while from that year up to 1902, the figures only represented registered tonnage. In savings, the figures show the total amount saved in the post offices as well in the savings banks at the end of the respective years. The figures from 1890 to 1900 indicate, however, the amounts of the postal savings only.