Background of Perry’s Diplomacy With Japan

At this point Perry backtracks in his narrative and covers the background of the negotiations.

Continuing Japan Reopens Relations With Outside World,
our selection from Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan by Matthew C. Perry published in 1856. The selection is presented in seven easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Japan Reopens Relations With Outside World.

Time: 1854
Place: Tokyo Bay

When it was determined by our Government to send an expedition to Japan, those in authority were not unmindful of the peculiar characteristics of that singular nation. Unlike all other civilized peoples, it was in a state of voluntary, long-continued, and determined isolation. It neither desired nor sought communication with the rest of the world, but, on the contrary, strove to the uttermost to prevent it. It was comparatively an easy task to propose, to any Power the ports of which were freely visited by ships from every part of the world, the terms of a commercial treaty. But not so when, by any Power, commerce itself was interdicted. Before general conditions of commerce could be proposed to such a Power, it was necessary to settle the great preliminary that commerce would be allowed at all. Again, if that preliminary was settled affirmatively, a second point of great moment remained to be discussed, viz., to what degree shall intercourse for trading be extended? Among nations accustomed to the usages of Christendom, the principles and extent of national comity in the interchanges of commercial transactions have been so long and so well defined and understood that, as between them, the term “commercial treaty” needs no explanation; its meaning is comprehended alike by all, and in its stipulations it may cover the very broad extent that includes everything involved in the operations of commerce between two maritime nations. But in a kingdom which, in its polity, expressly ignored commerce and repudiated it as an evil instead of a good, it was necessary to lay the very foundation as well as to adjust the terms.

Hence the instructions to Commodore Perry covered broad ground, and his letters of credence conformed to his instructions. If he found the Japanese disposed to abandon, at once and forever, their deliberately adopted plan of non-intercourse with foreigners (an event most unlikely), his powers were ample to make with them a commercial treaty as wide and general as any we have with the nations of Europe. If they were disposed to relax but in part their jealous and suspicious system, formally to profess relations of friendship, and, opening some only of their ports to our vessels, to allow a trade in those ports between their people and ours, he was authorized to negotiate for this purpose, and secure for his country such privileges as he could, not inconsistent with the self-respect which, as a nation, we owed to ourselves. It must not be forgotten, in the contemplation of what was accomplished, that our representative went to a people who, at the time of his arrival among them, had, both by positive law and usage of more than two hundred years, allowed but one of their harbors, Nagasaki, to be opened to foreigners at all; had permitted no trade with such foreigners when they did come, except, under stringent regulations, with the Dutch and the Chinese; were in the habit of communicating with the world outside of them at second-hand only, through the medium of the Dutch who were imprisoned at Dezima; and a people who, as far as we know, never made a formal treaty with a civilized nation in the whole course of their history.

There were but two points on which the Commodore’s instructions did not allow him a large discretion to be exercised according to circumstances. These were, first, that if happily any arrangements for trade, either general or special, were made, it was to be distinctly stipulated that, under no circumstances and in no degree, would the Americans submit to the humiliating treatment so long borne by the Dutch in carrying on their trade. The citizens of our country must be dealt with as freemen, or there should be no dealings at all. The second point was that, in the event of any of our countrymen being cast, in God’s providence, as shipwrecked men on the coast of Japan, they should not be treated as prisoners, confined in cages, or subjected to inhuman treatment, but should be received with kindness and hospitably cared for until they could leave the country.

The nearest approach to a precedent was to be found in our treaty with China, made in 1844. This therefore was carefully studied by the Commodore. Its purport was “a treaty or general convention of peace, amity, and commerce,” and to settle the rules to “be mutually observed in the intercourse of the respective countries.” So far as “commerce” is concerned, it permitted “the citizens of the United States to frequent” five ports in China “and to reside with their families and trade there, and to proceed at pleasure with their vessels and merchandise to or from any foreign port, and from either of the said five ports to enter any other of them.” As to duties on articles imported, they were to pay according to a tariff that was made part of the treaty, and in no case were to be subjected to higher duties than those paid, under similar circumstances, by the people of other nations. Consuls were provided for, to reside at the five open ports, and those trading there were “permitted to import from their own or any other ports into China, and sell there and purchase therein, and export to their own or any other ports, all manner of merchandise of which the importation or exportation was not prohibited by the treaty.” In short, so far as the five ports were concerned, there existed between us and China a general treaty of commerce.

The Commodore caused to be prepared, in the Chinese characters, a transcript of the treaty, with such verbal alterations as would make it applicable to Japan, with the view of exhibiting it to the Imperial commissioners of that country should he be so successful as to open negotiations.

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