This much has been said of the effects of the operations of a successful company, conducted on a conservative basis, merely to show that the advantages of the development of Korean resources about which so much has been said, are not unmixed blessings. The matter is of some importance in the light of all that has been published of late upon the subject.... English and German companies each obtained a mining concession, but neither proved financially successful. Japanese also obtained one concession, in which American capital is at present interested.... The system of granting mining concessions was open to so many objections that foreign representatives frequently importuned the Korean Government to issue mining regulations under which the mineral resources of the country could be systematically developed. Nothing was done, however, until after the establishment of the Residency-General, when a mining law was passed. This law provides for mining under proper safeguards as regards public and private interests. Under the old system, or rather lack of system, the concessionaire could do practically what he pleased within the limits of his concession. Now he must conform to laws and regulations which permit him to carry on his business under conditions which promote the interests and conserve the rights of all concerned. The business methods which have developed in Korea since intercourse with foreigners began are the natural outgrowth of the circumstances and of the practices prevailing before that time. Reference is not here intended to ordinary commercial transactions, but to that species of business which has its rise in government favors and thrives by government patronage. In a country where the Government is the fountain-head of favors of every description, it was perhaps inevitable that the results should be those which we see in Korea. Viewed from the most favorable standpoint they certainly leave much to be desired. The Government, or, as has really been the actual fact, the Emperor, has been persuaded to enter into a number of business enterprises, both public and private, not a single one of which has been successful and every one of which has been the occasion of loss either to the public treasury or to His Majesty’s privy purse. Undertakings of various kinds—wooden manufactories, glass factories, railways, etc.—have been projected, but have gone no further than the stage of involving the employment of foreign directors, assistants, and the like, and have stopped there. Sometimes foreign experts have been employed who were really capable of conducting the business for which their services were secured. They have come to Korea, only to discover that no preparations have been made to carry on the enterprises with which they were to be connected. In