526 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



embassies and presents to the court. They paid no taxes either, 

 but were, like the Dutch, compelled to hand over their goods at a 

 price fixed by the " Chamber of Commerce of the Shogun." They 

 brought much more merchandize than the Dutch ; but we have only 

 estimates of its total value. Up to the year 1684 there came, 

 according to Thunberg, 200 Chinese junks annually to Nagasaki, 

 each with a crew of 50 men. From thence, the number fell 

 away to 70 and the crews to 30 men apiece. According to the 

 same source, their imports had a total value of only 600,000 Taels 

 (= about ;^ 1 80,000) annually. They consisted chiefly in raw 

 silk and silken cloths, besides sugar, turpentine, myrrh, aloe-wood,^ 

 Baros camphor, ginseng, and other drugs, and medical books. In 

 addition to these there were various other products of their in- 

 dustry, such as porcelain, soap-stone, goat-skins, and other things, 

 some of which they sold to the Dutch. In this list the reader will 

 perceive that part of the drugs came from tropical Asia, 



In the first period of the Dutch trade with Japan (1611-1641), 

 i.e. as long as its centre was the factory at Hirado, it never 

 suffered any considerable falling off, either in the number of ships 

 that arrived, or otherwise. This was its most flourishing and 

 profitable era, despite the low prices of many imported articles 

 occasioned by competition. The total value of exported precious 

 metals, copper, and camphor, the most profitable articles in those 

 thirty years, is estimated at ;^i 5,000,000. This agrees with Thun- 

 berg's figures, who places the yearly export trade of the Dutch 

 at 6,000,000 gulden (;^5 10,000). Of this, 4,000,000 fl. (^^590,000) 

 are for silver alone. The transition year, 1641, was still very 

 favourable to the Dutch trade. The Dutch sold wares worth 80 

 tons of gold, besides exporting 1,400 chests of silver, each contain- 

 ing I Pikul (60 kg.). 



The Dutch, and also Kaempfer and others, call the time of their 

 monopoly in Nagasaki, 1641-1859, the second period. In the 

 early part of it, the Dutch could still regulate prices, and made 

 great profits. But in 1672, that ceased to be the case, as has been 

 said. Hence Kaempfer, with much discrimination, says in refer- 

 ence to this year and the poor ones that followed : " Our golden 

 fleece, which we carried off annually from this Colchis, changed 

 into an ordinary skin." Nevertheless, the profit on imported 

 wares, after deducting all costs, was still 40-45 per cent., and that 

 on the copper taken in exchange was just as great. It formerly 

 amounted to 90-95 per cent. The annual exportation of this 

 metal, which for a while (i 637-1 646) was forbidden, amounted to 

 20,000 to 25,000 Pikul (24-30,000 cwt.). 



From the year 1640 forward, coined gold was again allowed to 

 be exported. In the course of two years, 100,000 pieces of Koban 



1 Aloe-wood, Jap. Kiyara, named after a Sanskrit word, came from India and 

 Siam ; the Dutch and Portuguese called it Calumbak and Kalambak. It is the 

 fragrant wood oi Aloexylon Aquilaria^ Roxb. 



