Unlike what had occurred in Britain, the industrialization of Japan did not occur by the alignment of chance and circumstance. Rather, the process of moving Japan out of feudalism and into the modern global economy was as deliberate as it was rapid. Japan's leaders knew that their country lagged far behind other industrialized nations. To catch up, they sent observers around the world to learn modern industrial techniques in silk weaving, shipbuilding, cotton textile manufacturing, and weapons making. By the late 19th century, Japan's investments had paid off. Japan's rapid development of its textile industries resulted in making it the world's leading exporter of raw silk. It was producing 21.3 metric tons of coal by 1913. And it had laid 7,100 miles