Page:Illustrations of Japan.djvu/53

Rh "A thousand years ago, gold, silver, and copper, were unknown in Japan; yet there was no want of necessaries. The earth was fertile, and this is undoubtedly the most desirable species of wealth. After the discovery of these metals, the use of them spread but slowly, and so late as the time of Gongin they were still very rare. This prince was the first who caused the mines to be diligently wrought, and during his reign, so great a quantity of gold and silver was extracted from them, as no one could previously have formed any conception of: and since these metals resemble the bones of the human body, inasmuch as what is once extracted from the earth is not reproduced, if the mines continue to be thus wrought, in less than a thousand years they will be exhausted.

"I estimate the quantity of gold and silver exported from the empire, since Gongin's time, as more considerable than that exported from China into Tartary; and I compute the annual exportation of gold at about one hundred and fifty thousand kobans, so that in ten years this empire is drained of fifteen hundred thousand kobans. If then serious attention be not paid to this subject, and the most rigid economy be not observed in the expenditure, the country will soon be entirely ruined, and in less than one hundred years, the same poverty of which Chinese authors complain will be felt here.

"In ancient times, as I have said, and when the people were unacquainted with gold, silver, and copper, they knew no want, and were good and virtuous. Since those metals were discovered, the heart of man has become daily more and more depraved. With the exception, however, of medicines, we can dispense with every thing that is brought to us from abroad. The stuffs and other foreign commodities are of no real benefit to us; formerly, indeed, they were not even known here. All the gold, silver, and copper, extracted from the mines during the reign of Gongin, and since his time, is gone, and what is still more to be regretted, for things which we could do well without. If we squander our treasures in this manner, what shall we have to subsist upon? Let each of Gongin's successors reflect seriously upon this matter, and the wealth of Japan will last as long as the heavens and the earth."