We have seen in the last chapter how the whale fishery, on the one hand, and the opening of China to foreign trade, on the other, had more and more drawn attention to Japan; in the conduct of whose functionaries, however, no indication appeared of any disposition to abandon their ancient exclusive policy. It has even been asserted[112] that a new Shōgun [Iyeyoshi], who had succeeded in 1837 (after a fifty years’ reign on the part of his predecessor), had imposed new restrictions on foreign products, and, by special encouragement to home productions of similar kinds, had endeavored to supersede the necessity of receiving anything from abroad. It is certain that the Dutch trade rather diminished than increased. The amount of that trade, from 1825 to 1833, inclusive, is stated by Jancigny, from official returns, or those reputed to be such, at 289,150 florins ($115,620) for importations, and 702,675 florins ($281,078) for exportations. In 1846, the importations reached only 231,117 fr. ($92,446), and the exportations 552,319 fr. ($220,927); and those of the preceding year had been about the same. The private trade, and the attempts at smuggling connected with it, were very narrowly watched. Within the preceding ten years, one interpreter had been executed, and another had been driven to cut himself open, in consequence of complicity in smuggling. The private trade had been farmed out, for the benefit of those interested in it, at 30,000 fl. ($12,000) annually,—the amount at which Kämpfer had reckoned the profits from that source of the director alone. Among the Dutch imports upon government account, woollens, silks, velvets, cotton goods, gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, and a few other articles are mentioned. Sugar, formerly a leading article, no longer appears on the list. The returns continued to be exclusively in camphor and copper, the latter furnished by the Japanese government at the old rates, much below the current price, by which advantage alone was the Dutch trade sustained. Among the private importations were spices, chemicals, and a great variety of Paris trinkets, for which various Japanese manufactures and products were taken in exchange.