American and European enterprise has not been so conspicuous in the field of ordinary commercial enterprise as in other directions. Concessions of one kind and another have attracted more attention than trade and commerce. The most conspicuous and successful undertaking of this kind is the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company at Unsan in Northern Korea, originally American; now it is generally understood to be largely English in ownership. This was the first mining concession ever granted to foreigners in Korea. His Majesty the Emperor was originally a half owner in the company, but sold out his interest for 300,000 _yen_ and a payment of 25,000 _yen_ per annum. The company’s concession covers a large area, and the capital is $5,000,000, American money. At the outset the enterprise did not look very promising, but by skilful management it grew until it reached its present important proportions. It would probably be idle to attempt an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages to Korea of enterprises of this kind. Certainly, if there are any advantages, the Unsan concession should be a favorable example. That it has been of great advantage to Korea is at least an open question. On the one side, in its favor, may be set the large amounts annually expended by the company in wages, etc. This is undoubtedly a good thing while it lasts; but gold mines are exhausted sooner or later, and the benefits they confer are only temporary. The abandoned mining sites in America, no matter how prosperous in their day, can hardly be instanced as examples of prosperity for the people of the country in which they are located, who are _not_ owners of successful mines.... Against this, and other like enterprises, may be cited, for one thing, the disadvantage of the wholesale destruction of timber. The country about Unsan has been practically denuded of timber, and in an agricultural country like Korea this is undoubtedly an evil.