AN OUTLINE OF THE IITSUBISHI ENTERPRISES. 
THE MITSUBISHI GOSHI KAISHA. 
(The Mitsubishi Company.) 
The Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha, which is the “fountain head” of 
the various Mitsubishi enterprises, is a partnership established in 
the year 1893. It is purely a family concern, founded by the two 
Barons of the Iwasakis, tracing its origin back to the middle of the 
Nineteenth Century, when, towards the end of the Tokugawa Sho- 
gunate, the Lord Yodo Yamanouchi (formerly head of the Tosa Clan) 
established a “clan company” in Osaka, having for its object the 
transportation of merchandise. 
In October 1870, this company ceased to exist, and Mr. Yataro 
Iwasaki, Vice-Councillor of the Clan, took over its affairs and became 
the sole proprietor, reorganising and expanding the business under 
the style of the Tosa Kaisei Shosha, which name was afterwards 
changed to the Tsukumo Shokai. This was the origin of the Mitsu- 
bishi Company. 
Gradually new fields of commerce were developed besides 
transportation, including the manufacture of thread and camphor, 
and the mining of coal and metals. In the year 1875, the Company 
received a Navigation Charter from the Imperial Government and 
then changed its title to the Yubin Kisen Mitsubishi Kaisha (the 
Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company), from which time the business 
of the Company developed considerably. About this period the 
activities of certain foreign steamship companies threatened to gain