ABSTRACT
The commercial monopoly of the Dutch had gradually lost most of its former significance for the parties concerned, being now as much out of date as was the governmental system of the Shguns of the Tokugawa house, a dynasty founded on terror. The commerce between Hakodate and several smaller ports on the island of Yezo, with Hondo and other Japanese islands, is much more important. When Japan was opened to foreign commerce, people in Christian, industrial and commercial states indulged in golden expectations about this new field. They hoped that the efforts of the Japanese to appropriate occidental means of education, intercourse, and defence would soon extend to their manner of life, housekeeping, and clothing. In its foreign commerce Japan appears like a young colony going through a rapid transition in its economics. The foreign trade of Japan had become more and more obstructed under the Tokugawa Shgunate, so that the country's resources could not be symmetrically and vigorously developed.
