Dan,
I'm just beginning to research James J. Hill, by the time he came around, China had already been carved up by the West and had become a European Colony (where there were European Interests) and most everywhere else, a Feudal state run by warlords.
Also, from what I've read so far, it seems that the Congress of the United States was more responsible for the failure of his North America and Asian trade enterprise, than either the Japanese or Chinese.
www3.sk.sympatico.ca
"The ICC, for example, was created in 1887 to ban rate discrimination. The Hepburn Act, passed in 1906, made it illegal for railroads to charge different rates to different customers... But the Hepburn Act, according to Hill, immediately cut in half American trade to these countries... He was furious that he now had to publish his rates and give all shippers anywhere the special discount he was giving the Asians to capture their business. Since he couldn't do this and survive, he eventually sold his ships and almost completely abandoned the Asian trade" |
