business by accurately forecasting the coming political and economic situations, by acquaintance with high-ranking government officials or politicians, and bold investment.

Mitsui's main business in the early period was drapery, finance, and trade, the first two being the businesses it inherited from the Edo period. It entered into mining when it acquired a mine as collateral from a loan it had made, partly because it could buy a mine cheaply from the government, Mitsui then diversified to become the