How a US Naval Officer Opened the Closed Nation of Japan

In ‘This Week in History,’ post-revolution America makes trade connections in Asia, but convincing the anti-Christian, anti-Western Japan proves a tall task.

A rare portrayal of Westerners in the traditional Japanese print style. Center is Commodore Perry. Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division. Public Domain

With the preliminary peace treaty signed with England in November of 1782, American merchants, led by Robert Morris, the revolution’s financier, began planning for something they had never been allowed to do: conduct direct trade with China.

The group hired a privateer and renamed his ship the Empress of China. With a crew of 34, the ship’s cargo hold was filled with lead, camel cloth, cotton, animal skins, barrels of pepper, and 30 tons of ginseng, an herb the Chinese valued for its healing properties. The ship also carried $18,000 in silver coins―the primary metal used in China’s monetary system.