Woollen industries did not exist in Japan until recently, for the simple reason that sheep were not introduced until after the opening of the ports to Europeans. In 1897, woollen goods were imported to the value of £133,700, and textile fabrics to £1,020,000; while watches, which were never seen in Japan until 1850, are now in general use, and in 1897, 305,894 of these necessary articles were imported and retailed at an average of about 12s. each. The second class of manufactured articles imported into the Empire in 1897 includes £830,000 worth of wrought iron, £1,360,000 of machinery and boilers, £510,000 of locomotives and railway carriages and trucks, £330,000 of rails, and £200,000 of other railway stock, _i.e._, 15 per cent. of the total imports. This rapid development, which compares very favourably with the two preceding years, 1896 and 1895, is mainly due to increased activity in railway construction since the Chinese War, and also to the rapid commercial expansion throughout the Empire. The following table shows the manner in which Japanese foreign trade was shared among the various nations in 1896: ─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬───────────────── │Exportation from │Importation into │ Total. │ Japan. │ Japan. │ ─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼───────────────── Great Britain │ £900,000│ £5,920,000│ £6,820,000 United States │ 3,150,000│ 1,640,000│ 4,780,000 China │ 1,380,000│ 2,130,000│ 3,510,000 Hong-Kong │ 2,000,000│ 910,000│ 2,970,000 British India │ 450,000│ 2,250,000│ 2,700,000 France │ 1,900,000│ 770,000│ 2,670,000 Germany │ 300,000│ 1,720,000│ 2,020,000 Korea │ 340,000│ 510,000│ 850,000 ─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────