Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/197

RV 171 cloth, glass, porcelain, leather, toys, oils, mirrors, clocks, cutlery, surgical instruments, gold and silver wares, birds and animals. Those exported were copper, camphor, lacquered articles, porcelains, silk fabrics, soy, tea, cotton fabrics, saké, wax, screens, bamboos, toys, and bamboo-ware.

Originally, it was not considered necessary to subject Chinese tradesmen to similar restrictions. They lodged in the houses of the citizens of Nagasaki, who levied a brokerage on their sales and purchases, and were consequently eager to welcome them. But owing to the quarrelling and other abuses resulting from that system, a special settlement was ultimately assigned. It measured something over seven acres, was surrounded by a ditch and palisade, and might not be entered by any one unless he carried a passport. But the Chinese were not confined there after the manner of the Dutch in Deshima. They paid a duty of a little over two per cent of their total transactions during the year, and thereafter enjoyed a considerable measure of freedom. In their case also, the import trade, especially that in raw silk, was controlled by official assessors, whose method was to make three appraisements, pay the average of the three to the Chinese importers, sell the goods at the highest appraisement to the Japanese dealers, and appropriate the difference. The Chinese of that era were very active merchants. Their junks plied between Japan and twenty-two ports in China,