SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis describes the first ten years of general foreign trade with Japan. It was one of those formative periods in history which have an importance far exceeding their duration in time. This work forms a contribution to the knowledge of this era in the detailed workings of an Agency house, the import and export of gold and the effect of custom's duty evasion upon the trade statistics. It also provides new material with which to modify much of the existing thought on the commodity price rise, the sale of ships to the Japanese, the trade restriction policy, the necessity for government direction of commerce and the export potential of the Japanese economy. The relations between diplomat and merchant are also explored for the first time by the use of a commercial archive. The Jardine, Matheson archive, the Parkes Papers, the French diplomatic records and. Foreign Office Series No. 262 are, the author believes, utilized for the first time for a detailed study of this period. It is hoped in future to document this story Lore fully from Japanese sources. The author regrets that questions of finance and a university lecturing schedule in America prevented his checking the final draft against the original archive sources but he believes that in spite of errors in days of the month, call or page numbers that the footnote references are detailed enough to take the interested researcher to the source without difficulty.