Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/339

 INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. 323 per, as an article of commerce, until the removal of the Dutch to the prison of Desima, when they obtained leave to trade in it ; and for a long time the quantity exported was unlimited. From the history of the commerce in copper, we may learn, that it has become, like gold and silver, scarcer in late times, and that it is given to the Dutch at a price far below its intrinsic value. This appears by the constant reductions made by the Japanese government in the extent of the sup- ply ; and the acknowledgment of the Dutch themselves, that the copper was given to them as a favour, and must have been a tax on the traders who supplied it. * ImhofF accordingly acknowledges that the price which ought to be paid for copper was 20 tahils the picul, or L. 5, 12s. per cwt. in- stead of L. 3, 9s. 2d. There is, it must be con- fessed, something very perplexing in the accounts we receive of the fluctuation in the price both of the precious and useful metals in Japan. IroUy • " Nothing is more natural, therefore," says the Baron Imhoff, " than that our exportation of copper should have be- come a burden to that class of people, and that their com- plaints contributed to the restrictions to which we are now subject. There is no doubt that, could the Japanese keep up the communication without allowing us a single chest of copper, they would willingly grant us GOOO tahils (L. 2000) as a gratification, over and above the stipulated price for our cargo."