four grades.[FK] The rates were slightly increased over those of the law of 1896, and their benefits were limited to steel vessels of over 1000 tons instead of 700 tons. The total appropriations for ship subsidies in the budget for 1911-12 amounted, in American money, to $6,845,995, of which $6,294,020 were for navigation, and $551,975 for construction subsidies: an increase of $478,387 in the former class over the appropriation of the previous year, and a decrease in the latter class of $6,835.[FL] The total Japanese tonnage in 1910 stood at 1,149,200 tons.[FM] The _Nippon Yusen Kaisha_ practically owns nine-tenths of the ocean-going steamships flying the Japanese flag.[FN] * * * * * China, too, taking on Western ways, is emulating Japan in establishing a modern merchant marine. The Government is giving State aid to native steamship companies, and subsidizing ship-yards. According to the United States consul-general at Hongkong the Government is now (1911) to furnish half of the amount of an extension of the capital of the Chinese Merchants' Steam Navigation Company to twenty million taels (about $12,600,000 gold), and thirty additional steamers of modern type are to be built for service--ten on foreign routes, including a route to the United States, and twenty on routes between Chinese ports; while a new ship-yard is to be set up at Shanghai under Government auspices, capitalized at five million taels (about $3,200,000 gold). FOOTNOTES: [Footnote FC: Meeker.] [Footnote FD: Meeker.] [Footnote FE: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 282, March, 1904.] [Footnote FF: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 316, Jan, 1907, pp. 92-93.] [Footnote FG: Con. Gen. H.B. Miller, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no. 32, pp. 120-121, May, 1907.] [Footnote FH: Vice Con. Gen. E.G. Babbitt, Yokohama, in Con. Repts., no. 344, p. 216, May, 1909.] [Footnote FI: Japan Year Book, 1911.] [Footnote FJ: U.S. Con. Gen. Thomas Sammons, Yokohama, in Daily Con. Repts., no. 38, Aug. 17, 1910.] [Footnote FK: Japan Year Book, 1911.] [Footnote FL: U.S. Ambassador Thomas J. O'Brien, Tokyo, in Daily Con. Repts., no. 123, May 26, 1911.] [Footnote FM: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.] [Footnote FN: Japan Year Book, 1911.] CHAPTER XII SOUTH AMERICA Brazil gives subventions from the Federal treasury to several foreign steamship companies, and some of the States of the federation also make similar grants from their treasuries. Besides the subventions to lines to foreign ports, the Government grants State aid to a considerable number of coast lines operating between Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian ports. The total amount of the subventions in 1910 was equal to $1,437,880.[FO] The principal beneficiary was the _Lloyd Brazileiro_, maintaining the line between Brazilian ports and the United States. * * * * *