Japan and the Japanese

386 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776.
reduced to poverty. Titsingh ascribes the origin of this tract to the
extravagance of the reigning emperor,
which it was desired to check
by good advice but the ; exportation of the
precious metals by foreigners
is evidently the point aimed at.
" There goes out of the empire annually," says this "
writer, about
one hundred and fifty thousand kobangs, or a million and a half in
ten years.
It is, therefore, of the highest importance to the public
which will end in
prosperity to put a stop to these exportations,
draining us entirely. Nothing is thought of but the procuring
foreign productions, expensive stuffs, elegant utensils, and other
things not known in the good old times. Since Gongin, gold, silver
and copper have been abundantly produced ; unfortunately the
greater part of this wealth has gone for things we could have done
quite as well without. The successors of Gongin ought
to reflect
upon this, in order that the wealth of the empire may be as lasting
as the heavens and the earth." Ideas like those broached in this
tract seem to be the basis of the existing policy of Japan on the
subject of foreign trade ; and, independently of this, the failure of
the Japanese mines renders any return to the old system of the Por-
tuguese and Dutch traffic quite out of the question. Japan has no
longer gold and silver to export, and if a new trade is to be established
with her, it must be on an entirely new basis, the exports to
consist of something else than metallic products.