Japan and its Currency. 17 



ened the minds of the ministers of the Tycoon in respect of 

 the highly important matters of trade, currency, and coinage, 

 and it is therefore more than probable that on these, as on 

 other questions, ideas once reckoned as inadmissible, will be 

 warmly entertained, if not willingly realized. 



The currency system of Japan, during the isolation of that 

 country for many centuries from the rest of the world, was 

 constructed on principles and framed with views so entirely 

 different from those adopted by other countries within the 

 circle of general commerce, that it may well be regarded, like 

 other institutions of that strange nation, as a puzzle. The 

 Government was able to control the coinage as it pleased, and 

 there were only two channels by which it was attainable — the 

 Dutch and the Chinese establishments at Nagasaki. Now all 

 this is changed, or in process of transformation, and American 

 coins are in partial circulation throughout Japan. 



It will not astonish us very much to learn that a new 

 Imperial Mint, fitted with the best machinery and most com- 

 plete apparatus which England can furnish, is ordered, or that 

 such an establishment is actually in course of construction at 

 Nagasaki. In this respect, at least, Japan will presently be 

 placed on an equal footing with America and the states of 

 Europe. Who shall predict the future history of the mysterious 

 nation in question, or guess even at the final extent of the 

 moral, intellectual, and physical development of its people ? 



VOL. XII. — no. I. 



