514 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



cars are being made in Tokio. Surely this is much progress in a 

 very short space of time. It is no wonder that they are moving 

 about new enterprises in the same direction, and have planned a 

 large number of projects whose execution may well be delayed for 

 some time yet on account of the great expense. 



3. The Foreign Trade of Japan up to the Time of the 

 Opening of the Country under Commodore Perry 



IN 1854. 



a. — Fro7n the Discovery of the Country by Mendez Pijito in 1542 



to 1639. 



" The history of Japanese expeditions to foreign lands is yet to 

 be written " is the observation of E. Satow, who remarks further 

 that the materials for this work are widely scattered and must first 

 be collected. It exceeds my power, as well as my purpose, to form 

 such a collection, but it has seemed to me of interest, to group to- 

 gether here the most prominent dates which I have met with in read- 

 ing the works quoted, as well as many others, regarding the foreign 

 trade of the Japanese in former times, because they will show the 

 change which has taken place here, as well as in many other, de- 

 partments, by comparing the ways and means of those days with 

 the present foreign commerce. We see in this that the articles 

 of export formerly of high value have either fallen back very largely 

 or disappeared entirely, while others which were scarcely regarded 

 at all thirty years ago now occupy the first place. Formerly the 

 " marrow of the country," as Kaempfer expresses it, was its mining 

 productions ; gold, silver and copper. In modern times agri- 

 cultural products, such as silk, tea, and rice (the latter only in 

 favourable years) exceed all the other numerous articles of export 

 in importance. 



In the first three decades of the 17th century the Dutch were 

 able to drive out the Portuguese, Spanish, and English in the 

 commerce with Japan, but they have been obliged to give way 

 to the powerful competition of the larger commercial and indus- 

 trial States since the time of the opening of the country thirty 

 years ago. The trade of Holland declined far below that of most 

 of the larger countries, England and North America at the head, 

 to a point corresponding to the small extent of its own industry 

 and its own consumption. The trade with Yokohama and Kobe 

 was developed in a similar way at the expense of Nagasaki and 

 Osaka. 



There is a great lack of direct information concerning the old 

 relations of Japan in trade with its Western neighbours, China and 

 Corea, before the first landing of the Portuguese. 



Hakata in Chikuzen appears to have been one of the Japanese 

 ports from which a lively intercourse with China was maintained. 



