Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/271

 —Another serious obstacle to the industrial development of the Japanese is their difficulty in deciphering foreign tastes. It results that in fields where their capacity is highest, their success is often smallest. They export some two millions of umbrellas at a cost of $10 1⁄2$d. apiece; thirty thousand pairs of boots at $11 1⁄4$d. a pair, and a hundred and ninety thousand dozen pairs of socks at 1s. 3d. a dozen. There can be no mistake about the shape and style of these things: a pattern alone suffices for guide. But, on the other hand, take the case of lacquer. In the quality and beauty of their lacquer the Japanese stand easily at the head of all nations. There, if anywhere, they should be able to defy rivalry. Yet what are the facts? Japanese lacquer experts, in their attempts to capture the New York market, have been distanced by Germans, who gauge the taste of the Americans with much greater accuracy, and produce lacquers better appreciated and cheaper than those of the Japanese themselves,—not finer lacquer indeed, nor nearly so fine, but better suited to the immediate purpose of its manufacturers.  —The average daily wage of twenty-six classes of labourers in 1885 was $15 1⁄4$ sen per diem, whereas in 1900 it was $47 3⁄4$ sen. 