Note 216 — Chapter VI · JAPANESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF LOYALTY

“The obloquy attached to the calling brought within its pale such as cared little for social repute” (Nitobé, Bushido, p. 66). “The trades-people,” writes Chamberlain, “stood at the very bottom of the scale. The hucksters or traders were a degraded class in old Japan, and degraded their business morals remain, which is the principal cause of the difficulties experienced by European merchants in dealing with them” (Things Japanese, 4th ed., p. 93).