Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/188

 Japanese began to increase the supply, the price fell, and at the beginning of the sixteenth century all the "diplomacy" of the Japanese envoys was needed to obtain good figures for the large and constantly growing quantity of goods that they took over by way of supplement to the tribute. Buddhist priests generally enjoyed the distinction of being selected as envoys, for experience showed that their subtle reasoning invariably overcame the economical scruples of the Chinese authorities and secured a fine profit for their master, the Shōgun. The whole business must, indeed, have proved no small drain upon China's resources. It is recorded that three ships despatched in 1532 by the Ouchi family carried, in addition to the tribute, 24,152 pairs of swords and 298,500 catties (398,000 lbs.) of copper, 26 officials, 297 merchants, and 130 seamen. In the middle of the sixteenth century these tribute-bearing missions came to an end with the ruin of the Ouchi family and the overthrow of the Ashikaga Shōguns, and it need scarcely be said that they were never renewed. The impartial historian is compelled by these records to confess, however, that not all China's claims of suzerainty over neighbouring countries rest on such an unsubstantial basis as some critics have been disposed to believe.

Commerce between Japan and Korea was not surrounded with such ceremonies. No passport from the Korean Government had to be carried