REMARKS OF COMMODORE PERRY 



UPON THE PROBABLE 



FUTURE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH JAPAN AND LEW CHEW. 



The extent and value of American trade with these countries will mainly depend upon the 

 will and decided action of the United States government, and the enterprise of our own 

 merchants, who are rarely wanting in this element of success ; douhtless, a profitable inter- 

 change of commodities could he Drought about by a judicious prosecution of the friendly rela- 

 tions already established by the treaties of " Ka-na-ga-wa" and "Napha," and by the formation, 

 in due time, of commercial treaties, which will embrace, in their details, all the stipulations of 

 reciprocal trade. 



Some few of the trading community have either wilfully, or through ignorance, misconstrued 

 the meaning of the letter and spirit of the treaties above referred to, and have adventured upon 

 speculations which, though in some instances remunerative in their results, were not authorized 

 by promises held out either by the treaties or by incidental information officially or privately 

 communicated. 



The treaty with Japan professes to be nothing more than a compact, establishing between 

 the United States and that empire certain obligations of friendly intercourse with, and mutual 

 protection to, the citizens and subjects of the contracting powers, and granting to American 

 citizens rights and privileges never before extended to strangers. 



This treaty, in its concessions on the part of the Japanese, far exceeds the most sanguine 

 expectations, even of those who, from the first, advocated the policy of the Japan expedition. 

 It purports to be a preliminary, and surely a most important step, in advance of a commercial 

 arrangement to be agreed upon when the Japanese government may be better prepared by a 

 more perfect knowledge of the usual requirements of international law and comity to enter 

 upon additional pledges. Certainly the advantages of this treaty have been considered of 

 sufficient importance by four of the great powers of Europe to be sought for by them. 



It was expressly stated, pending the negotiations, that as Japan had not, at the time, any 

 foreign commerce, the people were ignorant of the requirements necessary to its re-establish- 

 ment and prosecution ; that in consequence of the long discontinuance of foreign intercourse, 

 the country furnished nothing more than was needed for its home consumption ; and time would 

 be required to produce the commodities suitable for exportation, in payment for articles pur- 

 chased from strangers. That the laws of Japan in regard to foreigners had been for a long 

 period inflexibly stringent, and though it was admitted that they were not suited to the present 

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