INTfiRCOLONIAL COMMERCE. 313 the tacit permission given to them on the last Tartarian conquest, to carry on foreign trade, entered with avidity into that with Japan, so conveniently situated for an intercourse with their country. At first, they were permitted to trade in- discriminately with every part of the empire, and to what extent they thought proper ; but in process of time, like the Eui'opean nations, they were con- fined to the port of Nangasaki. Even after this event, they came over to Japan in great numbers ; and Kaempfer describes no less than two hundred junks, with fifty men each, coming annually to Ja- pan. It is remarkable enough that it was the mis- conduct of the European nations, and not their own, that chiefly brought about the restrictions to which their trade was subjected. The emperor of Japan heard that the monarch of China protected the Christians ; and some books on Christianity hav- ing found their way to Japan among the goods of the Chinese, the jealousy of the government was roused, and limits immediately put to their trade. In 1688, they were placed, like the Dutch, under the surveillance of the police of Nangasaki, and imprisoned as they were. In the year 1685, the same year in which the Dutch trade was limited to 300,000 tahils, the Chinese was also limited, and the sum fixed upon was double the amount of that of the Dutch trade. This measure, founded on a principle of dealing with impartiality towards all
