ADDITIONAL REGULATIONS. 479 



points of detail not specified in the treaty. Tliese are embodied in the following additional 

 regulations : 



Additional regulations, agreed to hetween Commodore 3Iatthcw C. Perry, special envoy to Jaioan 

 from the United States of America, and Hayaslii Daigahu-no-kami ; Ido, Prince of Tsus-sima ; 

 Izawa, Prince of MimasaJd ; Tsudzuki, Prince of Suruga; Udono, member of the hoard of 

 revenue; TaJce-no-uchi Sheitaro, and Matsusalci Mlchitaro, commissioners of the Emperor of 

 Japan, on behaf of their respective governments. 



Article I. — The imperial governors of 8imoda will place watch stations wherever they deem 

 best, to designate the limits of their jurisdiction ; but Americans are at liberty to go through 



and also, if practicable, %vith the laws appertaining thereto, as the information will be valuable in facilitating all future 

 negotiations upon the subject. 



You will, of course, betbre entering into any agreement which may be considered binding, refer to me. 

 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



M. C. PERRY, 

 Commander-in-chief of the United States A'ara! Forces in the East India and China Seas. 

 Purser TVilliam Speiden', United States .Yavy. 

 Purser J. C. Eldkidge, United States JVavy. 



Un-ited States Steam-frigate Powhatan, Simoda, June 15, 1854. 



Sir : The committee appointed by you, in your letter of the 12th instant, to confer with a committee from the Japanese 

 commissioners in reference to the rate of exchange and currency between the two nations in the trade at the ports opened, and 

 to settle the price of coal to be delivered at this port, beg leave to report : 



The Japanese committee, it was soon seen, came to the conference with their minds made up to adhere to the valuation they 

 had already set upon our coins, even if the alternative was the immediate cessation of trade. The basis upon which they made 

 their calculation was the nominal rate at which the government sells bullion when it is purchased from the mint, and which 

 Seems also to be that by which the metal is received from the mines. The Japanese have a decimal system of weio-ht, like the 

 Chinese, of catty, tael, mace, candareen, and cash, by which articles in general are weighed; but gold and silver are not 

 reckoned above taels. In China, a tael of silver, in weight, and one in currency are the same, for the Chinese have no silver 

 coin ; but in Japan, as in European countries, the standard of value weight and that of currency weio-ht difTer. We were told 

 that a tael weight of silver has now come to be reckoned, when it is bullion, as equal to 225 candareens, or 2 taels, 2 mace 

 5 candareens ; but, when coined, the sime amount in weight is held to be worth 6 taels, 4 mace. It is at the bullion value that 

 the government has decided to receive our dollar, the same at which they take the silver from the mines ; assertintr that, as its 

 present die and assay give it no additional value, it is worth no more to them. In proportion to a tael a dollar weighs 7 mace 

 1 1-5 candareen, which, at the rates of bullion value, makes it worth 1 tael, 6 mace, or 1,600 cash. Thus the Japanese 

 government will make a profit of 6G| per cent, on every dollar paid them of full weight, with the trifling deduction of the 

 expense of re-coining it. The injustice of this arrangement was shown, and the propriety of paying to the seller himself the 

 coin we gave at this depreciated rate urged, but in vain. 



For gold the rate is more, as the disparity between the value of bullion and that of coin, among the Japanese, is not so great. 

 A tael weight of gold is valued at 19 taels in currency, and a mace at 1 tael, 9 mace. The gold dollar weighs almost 5 

 candareens, but the Japanese have reckoned it as the twentieth part of a $20 piece, which they give as 8 mace, 8 candareens ; 

 and, consequently, the dollar is only 4 candareens, 4 cash. This weight brings the gold dollar, when compared with the tael of 

 bullion gold worth 19 taels, to be worth 836 cash, and the $20 piece to be worth 16,720 cash, or 16 taels, 7 mace, 9 candareens. 

 This, when converted into a silver value, makes a gold dollar wort i 52i cents, and a $20 piece worth $10 45, at which the 

 Japanese propose to take them. But this valuation of the gold dollar at 52^ cents, when reckoned at 836 cash, its assessed 

 value by the Japanese government, suffers the same depreciation as our silver ; and its real value, when compared with the 

 inflated currency in use among the people, is only about 17^ cents. Consequently, by this estimate, gold becomes 50 per cent, 

 worse for us to pay in than silver. The currency value of a gold dollar, taking the ichibu as of equal purity, and comparimr 

 them weight for weight, is only 1,045 cash, or nearly 22 cents in silver ; so that the actual depreciation on the part of the 

 .Tapanese is not so great as silver— being for the two metals, when weighed with each other, for silver as 100 to 33^, and for 

 gold as 22 to 17. The elements of this comparison are not quite certain, and therefore its results are somewhat doubtful ; but 

 the extraordinary discrepancy of both metals, compared with our coins and with their own copper coins, shows how the 

 government has inflated the whole monetary system in order to benefit itself. 



The parties could come to no agreement, as we declined to consent to the proposals of the Japanese, who were decided to 

 adhere to their valuation of a silver dollar at 1 tael, 6 mace, or 1,600 cash ; neither would they consent to do justly by us in 

 relation to the moneys paid them at this place before our departure for Hakodadi, at the rate of only 1 tael, S mace, or 1,200 



