Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 296

282

Notices of Japan, No. LX.

MAY,

With respect to commerce, the external trade is now limited to two Dutch ships, and twelve Chinese junks yearly. Nor is this all. The value of the cargoes these vessels import is limited; for the Dutch to about £75,000 sterling, for the Chinese to half as much more, annually. The exports have been progressively narrowed, until they are nearly confined to camphor and copper, and the quantity. of the latter to be allowed is matter of constant dispute between the Dutch fac- tory and the exchequer of Nagasaki. The government dreads the exhaustion of

the mines.

The internal trade is said to be very considerable, its activity and importance originating in the variety of produce, resulting from the great variety of climate. The islands constituting the empire of Japan and its dependencies, the Lewchew islands to the south, and Yezo and the Kurile archipelago to the north, extend* from the 24th to the 50th degree of north latitude, and from the 123d to the 150th of east longitude. Hence the southern islands, although all of them are not hot enough for the sugar-cane, teem with most of the fruits of the tropics, whilst the northern yield those of the temperate zones. The mountains abound in mineral wealth of every description, and the volcanic districts in sulphur.

The circulating medium of the country is gold, silver, and copper, but only the gold and higher silver pieces can properly be called coin. They bear the mint stamp, and are of ascertained value; the smaller silver pieces, and all the copper, appear to pass by weight. Paper-money is likewise current in some principalities.t judgment and attention; if it is not washed long enough, the paper will be strong and of a good body, but coarse and of little value. If, on the contrary, the washing has been continued too long, it will afford a whiter paper, but too spongy in its texture and unfit to write on; so that the greatest care and judgment is necessary to avoid either extreme. The washing takes place in a running stream, the bark being placed in a sort of fan or sieve, which will let the water run through; it is stirred continually with the hands until it becomes a delicately soft woolly pulp. For the finer sort of paper the washing must be repeated; but, in this case the bark must be put into a linen bag, instead of a sieve, for fear it should escape along with the water. The bark having been sufficiently washed, it is spread on a thick smooth wooden table, and beaten with a wooden mallet until it is suffi- ciently fine.

"The bark, thus prepared, is put into a narrow tub with a slimy infusion of rice and of a root called oreni. It is then stirred with a thin clean reed, until the ingredients are mixed into a uniform liquid mass of a proper consistence; this succeeds better in a narrow tub, but the pulp is afterwards placed in a larger and wider-mouthed vessel. The moulds on which the paper is to be made are formed of the stems of bulrushes cut into narrow strips, instead of brass wire, as in Europe. Out of this larger vessel the leaves of paper are lifted, one by one, by means of the mould. Nothing remains now, but proper management in the drying of them. In order to this, they are laid up in heaps upon a table covered with a double mat, and a small piece of reed is placed between every leaf, which standing out a little way, serves afterwards to lift them up coveniently, leaf by leaf. "Every heap is covered with a small plank or board of the same shape and size as the paper, on which are laid weights, first, indeed, very small ones, for fear the leaves, being yet very wet and tender, should be pressed into a solid mass; but, by degrees, the pressure is increased, for the purpose of pressing out all the water. The next day, the weights are taken off, and the leaves lifted up singly, by the help of the small reeds already mentioned, and carried on the palm of the hand to a long rough plank, on which they are placed, and afterwards dried in the sun."]

* Siebold.

+ [We have lying before us a Japanese work on numismatology, he Kin Gin Dzu Roku, Memoir and Plates on Gold and Silver [coins],

金銀圖綠