THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE
was provided, and each person had an allowance of five sho (one-quarter of a bushel, or fully a ten days' ration for an able-bodied man) of pounded rice per diem, together with seven or eight other kinds of food. Passports secured a safe journey for them to Nanking[1] or Peking, where again they were handsomely housed at the Government's charges and received the same quantity of rice with eleven kinds of edibles. Their sojourn extended to several days, for it was necessary not only that they should be equipped with Chinese costumes, but also that full instructions in the etiquette of the Middle Kingdom should be given to them prior to their presentation at Court. After presentation a further allowance of rice, amply sufficient for one hundred and twenty days' rations, was granted out of the Government's stores for the purposes of the home voyage, and it will thus be seen that from first to last they were treated unequivocally as a tribute-bearing embassy. It appears that the articles found most salable in China were swords, fans, screens, lacquer wares, copper, and agate, and that the goods brought back to Japan were brocade and other silk fabrics, keramic productions, jade, and fragrant woods. The Chinese seem to have had a just appreciation of the wonderful swords of Japan. At first they were willing to pay the equivalent of twelve guineas for a pair of blades, but by degrees, as the
- ↑ See Appendix, note 50.
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