There were two main forces behind NYK's expansion in the 1890s. One was the support of the cotton-spinning industry, which enabled NYK to start a line to Bombay in 1893 to import raw cotton. This trade entailed a series of mutual guarantees among the cotton spinners, NYK, and trading firms such as Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, as well as credit to shippers from government-affiliated banks. The second impetus came from greatly increased subsidization made possible by the indemnity Japan received from China after the Sino-Japanese War. This encouraged NYK to establish lines to Australia and Europe, and to Seattle in the United States in 1896. The subsidies were particularly efficacious on the European line, where they gave the company bargaining power to overcome initial opposition from British firms to NYK's entrance into the Far Eastern Freight Conference, which operated between Europe and East Asia. Generally, lines to India could operate with little or no subsidization, whereas the Seattle line was more dependent. In contrast to the plentiful cargo of the outward-bound silk trade, the inward-bound trans-Pacific route was much less profitable because many manufactured goods from the eastern and southern United States went to Japan via the Suez Canal before the Panama Canal was opened. The European line generated about 40 percent of the company's revenue, and was strong on its eastward run because Japan imported much of its machinery. On the westward run, however, Japanese export freight was insufficient, and NYK came to depend on Chinese goods, which it loaded through feeder services in China, with trans-shipment at Shanghai.