ABSTRACT
IT is probable that the applications made in remote times to the rulers of Ohina for liberty to trade with their subjects, partook in their opinion very much of the nature of an acknowledgment of their power; the presents accompanying the request were termed kung, and regarded as tribute, while the traders themselves also looked upon the intercourse in somewhat the same light. The chapter of the Book of Records, called the "Tribute of Yu," is one of the most ancient documents in existence relating to the products of a country, and indicates a trade in them of no small extent. Silk, lacquer, furs, grass-cloth, salt, gems, gold, silver, and other metals, ivory and manufactured goods are enumerated; they are mostly identified with articles still produced, as Legge has shown in his translation. The records of the origin and early course of this trade are lost to a great extent, but the Ohinese annals furnish proof of .similar traffic for two thousand years after the days of Yu. It had the effect of extending the influence of Ohinese institutions among less civilized neighbors, and of making foreign commerce a means of benefit to all parties. The restrictions and charges upon all trade were of small amount at this early period; as it extended, the cupidity of local officers led them to burden it with numerous illegal fees, which gradually reduced its value, and finally, in some instances, drove it away altogether.
