312 INTKRCOLONIAL COMMERCE. ing, as they are at present permitted to do, an embassy every three years to the Emperor of Ja- pan, with proper presents to himself and his offi- cers, which will compensate for the loss of such articles of European supply as they have been in the habit of receiving — and to rejecting all com- mercial intercourse not founded on a perfect free- dom of trade. No one nation can expect to con- duct with another an equal and beneficial com- merce to the exclusion of the rest of the world. A trade of this description would be liable to abuses on both sides, for the competition of na- tions may be reckoned almost as necessaiy to the wholesome conduct of a trade as that of indivi- duals. By a generous policy of the nature now recommended, the Dutch nation would consult its own dignity, and considering the neighbourhood of their settlements to Japan, the expence of a mis- sion would be but inconsiderable. This line of conduct would give some chance to the re-establish- ment of an useful intercourse with Europeans, and a better one to a free intercourse with China, by which an indirect but beneficial commerce in Euro- pean commodities might be carried on. The only people besides the Dutch who are ad- mitted to Japan are the Chinese; and as their commerce, as will presently be seen, is not un- connected with my present subject, I shall fur- nish a short sketch of it. The Chinese, after
