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LIKE THE BREATH OF A CLAM 341
based and an inflation of paper money,
the economic
troubles of the peasantry were becoming chronic :
but whereas the native, accustomed to despotism,
submitted quietly, the foreigners protested, chafed,
and fumed.
Sometimes words ran high about the regulations
made and to be made, for to the foreign merchant
accustomed to freedom there seemed to be too much
official interference. It appeared also to be the design
of the Japanese government
to fence in the foreigners,
and to inclose them with gates and guards
and annoying regulations. In vain did the Yedo
officers assure the consuls and diplomatic corps that
this was for the protection of their countrymen
against the attacks of ronins, assassins, and other
violent characters. The foreign merchants were possessed
with the idea that the only purpose was to
hinder trade, and they clamored for unrestricted
communication with the people.
Gradually the natives and foreigners began to
understand each other, and business was settled on
a basis of prosperity. Immediately, as the demand
for gold, silver, tea, silk, tobacco, copper, and curios,
or art works, became stronger, production was stimulated,
and long trains of pack-horses and fleets of
junks set their heads toward the new port. Whatever
could be reared from the soil, or made by the
people, at once felt the influence of the magnet of
foreign commerce, and was attracted to Yokohama.
At once prices rose, and the whole economic system
of wages, cost, and contracts was disturbed, creating