“There goes out of the empire annually,” says this writer, “about one hundred and fifty thousand koban, or a million and a half in ten years. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to the public prosperity to put a stop to these exportations, which will end in draining us entirely. Nothing is thought of but the procuring foreign productions, expensive stuffs, elegant utensils, and other things not known in the good old times. Since Gongen, gold, silver, and copper have been abundantly produced; unfortunately the greater part of this wealth has gone for things we could have done quite as well without. The successors of Gongen ought to reflect upon this, in order that the wealth of the empire may be as lasting as the heavens and the earth.” Ideas like those broached in this tract seem to be the basis of the existing policy of Japan on the subject of foreign trade; and, independently of this, the failure of the Japanese mines renders any return to the old system of the Portuguese and Dutch traffic quite out of the question. Japan has no longer gold and silver to export, and if a new trade is to be established with her, it must be on an entirely new basis, the exports to consist of something else than metallic products. CHAPTER XXXIX _Thunberg’s Visit to Japan—Searches and Examinations—Smuggling—Interpreters—Deshima—Imports and Exports—Unicorn’s Horn and Ginseng—Soy—The Dutch at Deshima—Japanese Mistresses—Japanese Women—Studying the Language—Botanizing—Clocks—New Year’s Day—Trampling on Images—Departure for Yedo—Journey through the Island of Shimo—Japanese Houses and Furniture—Manufacture of Paper—Practice of Bathing—Shimonoseki—Voyage to Ōsaka—Children—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Agriculture—Animals—A.D. 1775-1776._ From the time of Kämpfer’s departure from Deshima, of all the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of upwards of eighty years, favored the world with their observations. They went to Japan in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge, either for themselves or others. At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physician, naturalist, and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kämpfer had held before him. Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the East by some wealthy merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees and plants, as well for the medical garden of that city as for their own private collections. Circumstances caused him to spend three years at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he proceeded to Batavia. He left that port June 20, 1775, and arrived off Nagasaki the 14th of the following August. From an experience of more than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the loss of one out of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was taken to select the best and strongest vessels.[38]