An unprecedented boom in shipbuilding occurred and imports of manufactured articles decreased sharply. Mining output increased threefold between 1914 and 1919 and manufacturing output expanded almost fivefold, overtaking the agricultural sector for the first time in Japan's history and accounting for over half of total production. Cotton goods exports nearly doubled in volume. For the first time, Japanese textiles gained a foothold in India, the Dutch East Indies, and other countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Booming exports and industrial expansion necessitated larger imports of raw materials and equipment from abroad, but wartime controls in supplying countries kept the increase in imports far below the level of export growth, so that the country experienced a huge trade surplus.
