Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/152

 for governmental monopoly, all over-sea goods being purchased in the first instance by officials and subsequently sold to the people, who exposed themselves to the penalty of having their acquisitions confiscated if they attempted to conclude any independent bargains. No restriction was placed upon the travel of foreigners in the interior, but they were required to have their baggage passed by the duly appointed officials, and were strictly forbidden to purchase weapons of war from the inhabitants.

Looking to the facts that, according to the system introduced in the eighth century, all weights and measures used in the capital, whether officially or privately, had to be submitted for examination at the Finance Department in March, each year, and that those employed in the provinces were tested by the local governors, it might be inferred that these things were regulated in accordance with scientific and approved principles. But the Japanese never showed any intelligent originality in such matters. They were either primitive or imitative. Their indigenous methods of measurement were three: the "span" (atari), or greatest distance that could be covered between the tips of the thumb and middle finger; the "grasp" (tsuka), or greatest circumference that could be encircled by the hand; and the stretch (hiro), or width across the extended arms. Intercourse with China and Korea, however, must have familiarised them with the weights