ABSTRACT
The tasks which Sir Harry Parkes confronted on arriving in Japan had a setting like the China coast, where diplomacy was a far cry from the orderly processes of Europe. The problems which British diplomacy faced in Japan were so distinctive that experience in East Asia, such as Parkes possessed, appeared almost essential for any effective action. By the middle of 1865 three ports were open to the activities of Western traders and ahead lay the prospect of four more cities being thrown open to foreign merchants.
