Reflection will show, as experience has proven, that the enumerated disadvantages are neither permanent nor irremediable. Labor and practical wisdom will gain by time, and capital and raw material will come in with greater ease and in larger quantities. Over against these diminishing disadvantages Japan possesses an unrivaled geographical position between the great Pacific on the one hand and the teeming millions of the East Asiatic population on the other, the commercial importance of both of which must grow wonderfully with the development of canals and railroads in various parts of the world and the opening of new markets in the yet slightly explored East. This superb Phoenicia-like situation of Japan toward the outside world is supported internally by a richly endowed soil and an eager and ambitious race. The soil possesses an abundant water supply and extensive coal beds, the latter already yielding well-nigh ten million tons, and produces tea and silk the peculiar quality of which is hardly matched by the product of another land. The ambition and docility of the people would seem to be well exemplified by the phenomenal growth of silk and cotton textile industries, which have risen twenty-fold in value during the last two decades, and by the creation of certain new, prosperous industries, particularly in matting, lucifer matches, straw braids, and cotton yarns. The exportation of the six principal branches of manufactures above enumerated amounted in 1888 to less than 31 million _yen_, and nearly 195 millions in 1904. It should be remembered that none of these articles have won their position without encountering embarrassing difficulties at home and a sharp competition abroad, and that with a relaxation of effort they would at once sink into insignificance.