Note 132 — Chapter XXVI

Unfortunately for the English, their attempt at a revival of intercourse, mentioned in the last chapter, was made the very year of the introduction of this new check on foreign trade. The appraisement extended as well to the Chinese as the Dutch cargoes, as is apparent from the following closing paragraph of the English narrative: “During the time (July and August, 1673) we were in port, there came twelve junks in all, eight from Batavia, two from Siam, one from Canton, one from Cambodia, and six Dutch ships of the Company’s. They had not any from Taiwan (Formosa), by reason the year before they put the price upon their sugar and skins; and so they intend to do for all other people, for whatsoever goods shall be brought to their port; which if they do, few will seek after their commodities on such unequal terms.”

There is strong reason to suppose that these new restrictions on foreign trade grew out of the diminished produce of the mines, which furnished the chief article of export. The working of these mines seems to have greatly increased after the pacification of Japan by its subjection to the imperial authority. Such is the statement in the Japanese tract on the wealth of Japan, already referred to. According to this tract the first gold coins were struck by Taikō-Sama. This increase of metallic product seems to have given, about the time of the commencement of the Dutch trade, a new impulse to foreign commerce. Though the Portuguese trade had been stopped, it had been a good deal more than replaced by the increase of the Chinese traffic, and already the metallic drain appears to have been seriously felt. This is a much more likely reason for the policy now adopted than the mere personal hostility of certain Japanese grandees, to which the Dutch at Deshima, and Kämpfer as their echo, ascribed it.