Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/237

RV 209 two and one-fourth, approximately; the second of fifteen years (1885-1900), during which the growth was from thirteen millions to forty-nine millions, a ratio of nearly one to four. That a commerce which did little more than double itself in the first eighteen years should have quadrupled itself in the next fourteen, is a fact inviting explanation.

There were two principal causes: the one general, the other special. The general cause was that several years elapsed before the nation's material condition began to respond visibly to the administrative, fiscal, and transport improvements effected by the Meiji Government. Taxes had been reduced and security of life and property obtained, but political unrest did not finally disappear until 1881, when the promise of constitutional government was proclaimed; neither did railway building, road-making, harbour construction, and the development of a mercantile marine exercise a sensible influence upon the people's prosperity until 1884 or 1885. From that time the country entered upon a period of steadily growing prosperity, and from that time private enterprise may be said to have finally shaken off official restraints and started upon a career of independent activity.

The special cause which, from 1885, contributed to a marked growth of trade, was the resumption of specie payments, spoken of in a previous chapter. Up to that time the Treas-