Note 294 — APPENDIX B. JAPAN TRADE.
Reading edition
"Our commercial relations with Japan are of very peculiar nature. Every one knows ours is the only European nation admitted to it, what humiliations we are obliged to suffer for it, and what expenses we incur by our embassies to the court of Jeddo. This trade was once very lucrative, but in the latter years I think it has done little more than cover the expences incidental to it, and considering the loss of ships and people, is certainly not such as to justify an exposure to so many humiliations.
"Notwithstanding this, we have not been inclined to resign the trade; nor indeed is it either necessary or prudent to do so. But I am at a loss to know how the government of Batavia will be able to account for sending there, in the years 1797 and 1798, a strange ship bearing an American flag, by way of pretence, though really an English vessel, and commanded by Captain Stuart, a real Englishman, though possessed of an American pass, although he belonged to Madras or Bengal. To abandon this trade would be ridiculous, but as it is subject to such regulations in Japan as it will be hardly possible to get rid of, it may be impracticable to make it quite free and open. To pursue it on account of the state or of a company will never answer the purpose. I therefore venture to propose the sale by public auction, to the highest bidder, at Batavia, of a license or pass for one or two ships, of limited burthen, to trade there, either for one or more years, as may be preferred. The chief of Decima should be appointed and maintained by the government, and should act as a kind of consul, and proceed on the embassy to Jeddo, if it were required. But beyond this, the whole system and regulation of the trade should be left wholly to the owners of the ships, with the exception of such rules as the Japanese laws may render necessary with regard to our trade.
"The yearly embassies, which are so very expensive, are already dispensed with by the Japanese; and as they would be useful from time to time, it might be advisable to obtain permission, for the future, to perform them only once in every ten years, or to have it fixed for each new resident or consul to undertake it once during his stay.
"It will not be easy to obtain any other privileges or freedom of consequence, for whatever some of our latter servants there may have wanted to make us believe on this point, it is very clear that the Japanese are very indifferent whether we go there or not, and consider their permitting us to do so merely as an indulgence on their part. It cannot be doubted, that as soon as this trade is opened to individuals, they will find means to make the profits of it worth the risk and danger; and in proportion as these profits become more valuable, the value of the licenses will increase."—Hogendorp.