ABSTRACT
The invention of the iron steamship and the screw propeller led to the end of the wooden sailing ship. In the middle of the nineteenth century, American wooden sailing ships were very active in the Asia-Pacific area and virtually dominated trade in the Yantze. Britain was then at war with both India and China. British ships were also made of wood so it was difficult for them to make the long voyage to the Far East. In 1859, J.B. Harris of America and Lord Elgin of the UK signed an Amicable and Trade Agreement with Japan, and the seaports of Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Hakodate were opened to foreign ships and people. International factors lay behind the opening of a new phase of commerce with Asian countries in the late nineteenth century. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the completion of the trans-America railway speeded up the movement of goods and people to Asia.
