Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/151

 within the bounds of the market; the name of the purchaser had to be proclaimed, and any attempt to charge a price higher than the fixed rate, or any other violation of rule, involved confiscation of the goods. The men's and women's quarters of the market were strictly separated; over each stall the name of its keeper had to be eligibly posted; the market was opened exactly at noon and closed at sunset by a signal consisting of three beats on a drum. Already, even at this early era, a derogatory character appears to have been attached to transactions of commerce, for it was enacted that no prince of the blood nor any nobleman of or above the fifth official rank might send articles into the market for sale by a servant of his own.

These regulations suggest a well-ordered and strictly supervised system, but show also that officialdom usurped a right of arbitrary interference, based on the doctrine that the people's reward for the products of their labour must be regulated primarily with regard to the convenience of the ruling classes.

That commerce with China and Korea was carried on prior to the eighth century cannot be doubted. Two harbours in the southern island of the Empire are mentioned as places of entry for foreign ships; and these ports were under the control of officials whose functions resembled those of superintendent of customs. Foreign trade, however, was regarded as a legitimate field