Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/268

 basing any inference on the apparent sequence of events as here described. It was not in the cause of inter-state trade that the Taikō invaded Korea. Her continued refusal to open her ports to the fleet of over fifty Japanese vessels which twenty-three feudal houses had been in the habit of sending every year, probably prejudiced Hideyoshi against her, but his proximate purpose was to use her as a basis for attacking China.  —It is recorded that when this trade flourished, the total yearly sales made to Chinese dealers at Nagasaki were a million pounds, approximately. An idea of the development of Japan's foreign commerce in modern times may be gathered by comparing that figure with her present annual sales of marine products, namely, one hundred and eleven million pounds.  —He was consequently known in commercial circles as Yamato-ya.  —At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Yedo confederation paid nearly £20,000 to the Government.  —In 1725, when the population of Yedo was about three-quarters of a million, the merchandise that entered the city was 861,893 bags of rice; 795,856 casks of saké; 132,829 casks of fish-sauce; 18,209,987 bundles of firewood; 809,790 bags of charcoal; 90,811 tubs of oil; 1,670,880 bags of salt, and 3,613,500 pieces of cotton cloth.  —This shipping guild was called Higaki-kaisen (water caltrops company), a name derived from the form of the bulwark railings. In 1730 the business of carrying saké was entrusted to another company, the Taru-kaisen (barrel company), and the two subsequently engaged in a competition which is still well remembered in Yedo and Ōsaka.  —The figures were chiefly influenced by the quality of the coins issuing from the mint. From 1608 to 1643 the current price of a riyo was 4,000 copper cash (4 kwan) but in 1842 it was 6,500 cash and in 1859, 8,688 cash. As to gold and silver, a riyo of gold was the equivalent of 65 momme of silver; in 1733, the riyo was 61.2 momme; in 1789, 55.4 momme; in 1825, 64.3 momme, and in 1864, 85.5 momme.  —One-tenth of everything below water and one- <section end="Note 58" />