Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/490

The largest copper-producing country in the world is at present the United States of America, while Spain and Chili follow. Japan takes the third rank, although her name does not appear in the statistics. Even if her name does appear, it occupies the lowest rank, in spite of the fact that her producing capacity is never lower than third. The amount of copper produced in Japan in 1899 was 40,459,709 catties (1 catty equals about 1⅓ pounds), of which over 10,000,000 catties were produced in the Ashio Mines. Besides being the most important mine in point of production, Ashio is also the most advanced in methods of working, and it is noteworthy that all of the thousands of men and officials and engineers employed are Japanese. There are many copper-mines in Japan, the noted ones numbering as many as fifteen or sixteen, while Ashio alone supplies a quarter of the whole amount of Japan’s copper production. The Besshi Mine ranks next to Ashio, but its production has never been more than one-half of that of Ashio. The others are comparatively small mines.

Japan, being one of the old countries of the world, was not ignorant of the work of mining and metallurgy. This was, of course, not only known, but practised, in the earliest times; but in Japan the work was limited to the demand of coal for domestic consumption, and so was of slow development. Moreover, in the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, foreign trade