US - Asian Trade Prewar

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Carl Schwamberger
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US - Asian Trade Prewar

#1

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 12 Dec 2014, 05:10

Anyone able to point to a source or have data on Japan, China, and the European colonies trade with the US. I'm interested in the basic numbers for ranking them in importance dueing the 1930s, particularly before the 'China Incident'.

Thanks for any assistance in this.

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Wellgunde
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#2

Post by Wellgunde » 12 Dec 2014, 08:24

I'm assuming you have already poked around the web and come up short. If you have access to a large library, check The World Almanac and Book of Facts for the years in question. Each volume has extensive data on all aspects of U.S. trade.
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Carl Schwamberger
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#3

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 12 Dec 2014, 09:14

Thanks

Stephen_Rynerson
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#4

Post by Stephen_Rynerson » 13 Dec 2014, 22:38

It's focused on the later part of the 1930s and early 1940s, but the book "Bankrupting the Enemy: The U.S. Financial Siege of Japan Before Pearl Harbor," by Edward S. Miller has some helpful information on this and probably some of the sources in the bibliography would cover earlier periods as well.

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#5

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 13 Dec 2014, 23:34

Thanks. I've seen it in the used bookstores. Does it indicate Japans relative place in volume of trade with the US?


Carl Schwamberger
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#7

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 14 Dec 2014, 04:48

Skimmed through those, but found nothing connected to what I was looking for ????

Jerry Asher
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#8

Post by Jerry Asher » 14 Dec 2014, 16:45

Hi Carl----The Miles book is excellent, if I recall correctly it has one of the maps where width equals relative status, and the map covers Indian Ocean as well as Pacific. Italian and German trade begining in late 1932 through late 30's is also of interest. I think a book by Kirby on Germany and Republican China gives some relative standings and the search term Tungstun and perhaps rubber would be particular commodities yielding relative trade of that era. Hope this helps.

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Wellgunde
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#9

Post by Wellgunde » 14 Dec 2014, 20:47

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Carl Schwamberger
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#10

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 15 Dec 2014, 00:50

Table XXIV of the International Trade statistics had what I was looking for. Was suprised by how long Japan had been the dominate US trading partner in Asia. China was superceeded by the end of the 19th Century. In knew that was correct duting the 1930s, but not in the previous three decades. Will look for the Miles book soon.

Thanks very much.

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Sewer King
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#11

Post by Sewer King » 15 Dec 2014, 15:28

Carl,

Recently I found this book by serendipity:
  • Mitsubishi Economic Trade Bureau. Japanese Trade and Industry: Present and Future. (London: MacMillan and Co Ltd); Printed in Tokyo: Hosokawa Printing Co Ltd, 1936. 663 pages, hardcover.
A digitized copy in large files might be available by member or other arrangement at source. As of this date, one worn hardcopy original seems to be on the market.
  • The report is extensive and well-tabulated, with only oblique reference to tensions in China. It looks at figures for most sectors of Japanese manufacture, agriculture, resources, and industry. To import / export matters it devotes 150 pages. These were broken out in detail over time by regions of trading partners, and by commodities, mostly in figures of 1000x yen.

    According to its dust-jacket blurb:
    The Mitsubishi Economic Research Bureau was founded in April 1922 by Baron Koyata Iwasaki, President of the Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha, as an independent institution, with the main object of investigating and interpreting economic problems in Japan and foreign countries. The Bureau succeeded to the Economic Research Department of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha which had been established in 1922.

    The Mitsubishi Economic Research Bureau is conducted on strictly scientific lines, and the results of its investigations are compiled in a number of periodical as well as special publications,
    As requested, this tome is from just before the China war. Preface, publication, and print date are all May 1936. I am not enough of an economic historian to judge how much, if any, might be written for the most favorable trade picture. It seems to be the only such Japanese-authored English-language report of its time, with any future edition (say, 1940) precluded by events.
You might see if this report is a primary source for any of the authors given earlier.

Here is its worldwide picture of Japan's trade by graph and tables (in millions of yen):
Japanese Trade & Industry 1936 001.jpg
Japanese Trade & Industry 1936 001.jpg (135.52 KiB) Viewed 755 times
I hope this is of some use, or at least interest. If anything more focused might be wanted from the report, let me know. I could scan its table of contents. It covers a great deal of domestic industry, which was my interest in getting it.

-- Alan

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: US - Asian Trade Prewar

#12

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 16 Dec 2014, 02:25

Alan... The pages that show the trade between Japan & the US would be of clear interest. If you had time to post part here, it is likely to be of some future use to someone else too.

Thanks

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