14 Japan and its Currency. 



these directions is going on, and its course is fraught with 

 advantage to the peoples of both countries. 



In the magnificent exhibition of fruits and flowers of the 

 world's industrial gardens, now in full display at Paris, a con- 

 siderable section is devoted to the exposition of articles from 

 Japan. This forms, indeed, one of the most interesting portions 

 of the wondrous show, and the ingenuity and originality mani- 

 fested by the artists and workpeople who have prepared the 

 articles are extraordinary. The fact of their transmitting so 

 much valuable property to France, and taking so palpable an 

 interest in the success of the gigantic undertaking, is in itself 

 a strong proof that the Japanese are becoming fully alive to 

 the advantages of international traffic ; as it certainly proves 

 that the councils of the Tycoon are not now under the influ- 

 ence of the old spirit of exclusiveness. Taking this, with 

 other signs and portents of a similar character into account., 

 there can. be little danger in predicting that closer and far 

 more familiar relations between the states of Europe generally 

 and Japan will soon exist. Such a result cannot but be pro- 

 ductive of good to all, and we hail its approach as a certain 

 guarantee of increasing commercial prosperity, for this country 

 especially. 



If, however, there are externally to Japan, as it were, 

 symptoms of an increasing intercourse such as has been indi- 

 cated, there are corresponding symptoms within its own limits. 

 To one of these latter it is proposed now to invite attention, 

 namely, that of a proposed reformation of the metallic cur- 

 rency, which subject is under discussion by the Japanese 

 Government. On matters of trade and currency which, as 

 we so well know, have the most direct and vital bearing- 

 upon each other, the people of Japan have been instructed to 

 some extent by the Dutch, with whom their trading trans- 

 actions have hitherto been almost exclusively carried on. The 

 information thus gained nevertheless was of a limited kind, 

 and was probably sought for the purpose of- meeting the in- 

 ternal wants of the country, and the consequence was the 

 establishment of a system of coinage by no means cosmo- 

 politan in its application, but, on the contrary, most narrow 

 and artificial. The coinage of Japan was, however, it must be 

 admitted, carefully devised, from one point of view, for its 

 especial object, and its arrangement, though presenting startling 

 anomalies to those unaccustomed to it, was not ill adapted to 

 the daily necessities of the native population. The treaty 

 which was completed in 1858, conjointly between Great Britain, 

 America, and Japan, and which, to a very limited degree, 

 opened up commerce between the three countries, first induced 

 the Japanese to take into earnest consideration the nature and 



