JAPAN
five annually, and the settlements were abolished altogether. Another complication, thirty years later, again resulting from Japanese truculence, led to the imposition of fresh restrictions, though on this occasion the Shōgun Yoshiharu caused the offenders to be arrested and handed them over to Korea for punishment. The Japanese of those days showed a spirit which did not render them very desirable as visitors to a foreign country, and the Söul Court obdurately refused either to restore the system of settlements or to allow trade to resume its old dimensions. Then followed the invasion of Korea by the Taikō's armies. During seven years the peninsula was overrun by these troops, and when they retired in 1595, they left behind them a country so broken and impoverished that it no longer offered any attraction to commercial enterprise.[1]
- ↑ See Appendix, note 51.
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