THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF JAPAN 331 



and the privilege of establishing a " factory " or trading post and 

 settlement. The hostilities between the Portuguese and Dutch, 

 however, and the extreme demands of the Portuguese, who con- 

 sidered themselves already established in the commerce of 

 Japan, coupled with dissatisfaction with the attitude of foreign 

 missionaries toward the popular religion of Japan, led to the 

 exclusion of all traders except the Dutch, who were permitted 

 to take up their residence on a small island, Deshima. Here 

 they remained for more than two centuries in undisturbed mo- 

 nopoly of the entire European trade of Japan. In 1852 serious 

 complaints of mistreatment of American sailors wrecked on the 

 coast of Japan having been made, Commodore M. C. Perry, with 

 a fleet of American vessels, was sent by the United States gov- 

 ernment to demand from Japan a treaty by which American 

 vessels should be allowed to enter one or more of its ports to ob- 

 tain supplies, and, if practicable, that Americans should also be 

 given general trading privileges in these ports. This undertak- 

 ing was peacefully carried to a successful termination, a treaty 

 being signed March 31, 1854, by which the ports of Shimoda 

 and Hakodate were opened as harbors of refuge, supply, trade, 

 and consular residence to the United States. This action was 

 quickly followed by a successful demand for similar privileges 

 by the British, Russian, and Dutch governments, and by 1860 

 the ports of Hakodate, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, and Niigata were 

 opened to the commerce of the leading nations of the world. 



From this time forward the commercial relations of Japan with 

 the world made rapid progress. In 1860 and 1861 a Japanese 

 embassy visited the United States and Europe. The decade 

 1860-70, while largely occupied by dissensions, and in some cases 

 hostilities, between the elements favoring commercial relations 

 with the world and those preferring former methods, saw marked 

 developments within Japan, the beginning of the adoption of the 

 customs and methods of western nations, and laid the founda- 

 tion of the progress which has since been made. In 1871 another 

 embassy, consisting of the ambassador and junior prime minister, 

 Iwakura, the vice-ambassador, Kido, Count Ito Hirobumi, the 

 three ministers of the cabinet, and several officers, sailed from 

 Japan to visit all the nations having treaties with that country. 



The development of Japan which followed these tours of ob- 

 servation and intercourse with other nations of the world was 

 very rapid. Schools were increased, students were sent abroad 

 to obtain a higher education and study foreign methods, internal 



