246 COMMERCE WITH bitants under their natural prices, or of selling fo- reiirn wares to them for more than they were worth, and without such aids the costly traffic of joint- stock companies could not be conducted. There is no country of Asia in which the un- principled ambition and avarice of the traders of Europe have brought them into such utter dis- grace as Japan, next to China, and in some re- spects before it, the most civilized country of Asia — that in which Europeans were received at one time with the least reserve, and that in which the institutions and civilization of Europe had made at one time the greatest progress. By their intem- perate zeal the Portuguese had indeed brought persecution and discredit upon themselves and their religion. But this state of things had in a great degree subsided for near half a century, and it was not until the Dutch East India Company had established themselves in Japan, that the Christian religion and free intercourse with Eu- ropeans were for ever interdicted through their intrigues, and even their active assistance. The mean compliances of the Dutch were of no use to them. From year to year their privileges were abridged, and their persons treated with new con- tumelies. At first the Japanese could not do without European commodities, but the inter- course gradually contracted, they learnt in time to dispense with them, and lastly almost to despise
