In the 7th year of Kaei (1854 in the Western calendar), the negotiations between the shogunate and the Mi people went through several stages:

First of all, the shogunate sent small boats to negotiate with the rice people on the location of the negotiations, which took a full thirteen days—from the 16th day of the first month of the 7th year of the Shogunate to the 28th day of the first month (February 25, 1854).

After that, the details such as the construction of the reception place in Yokohama Village and the number of people to negotiate with took 10 days from February 26 to March 7.

The period from February 13 to March 7 can be seen as the preparation period, followed by the formal negotiation stage.

The two sides officially met on March 8, but the first meeting fell apart - the first person at the University of Lin said that "due to the change of maharaja, please put it on hold until the following year", which caused Perry to go into a frenzy on the spot, and walked away after announcing the threat of war, and the first round of negotiations was suspended.

On March 12, the first class of the Lamin University received permission from the shogunate to return to Yokohama Village, and the next day began a second round of negotiations with Perry.

On that day, the two sides not only exchanged reference texts - the Mi side provided the "Wangxia Agreement", and the shogunate side provided the "Summary of the Western Kingdom Agreement" co-authored by Egawa Hideryu and Oguri Tadashun, but Perry also asked people to take out a large number of exquisite gifts, and the atmosphere was a little happy for a while.

The next day, the shogunate returned the favor, including Fuso's calligraphy and paintings, porcelain, lacquerware, fans, katanas, and elaborate smoothbore guns, as well as 200 rice and 200 chickens, which were carried by five wrestlers (sumo wrestlers) in the hope of showing Fuso's bravery.

Perry and the others also laughed at this, but they did not think of the fat and powerful wrestlers - since the popularization of the steam engine, it has been a foregone conclusion that machines and machinery are far superior to manpower in Western countries, and no matter how strong a person is, what is the use!

The second round of negotiations proceeded quickly, and the part of mutual relief for the drifters was quickly agreed, but the two sides took different positions on trade:

The shogunate insisted on not agreeing to the opening of the port for trade, for the same reason as China at the time: "I have a lot of land and resources, and there is no need for trade and exchange."

Perry exhorted, "I will cooperate with all domestic gold, silver, lead and mercury, pearls, and natural treasures, artificial and ingenious things. Fusang is also rich in products, and there will be great profits in trade, and it will be tried for five years, or ten years, that is, if it is unfavorable, it will be ~ city", but the head of Lin University shook his head as if he was stunned, "I don't listen, I don't listen." ”

Why was the shogunate so resistant to the opening of the country?

If you are not of my race, their hearts will be different—because they don't understand, Fuso is instinctively hostile to Westerners, and you come all the way to ask for trade with warships, saying that it is good to cheap me, and to deceive ghosts, and to be courteous and courteous, and to be either a traitor or a thief!

In addition, the shogunate suffered a great loss in its dealings with the Southern Barbarian States:

In the 14th year of Kanei (1637), the "Shimabara Rebellion" ("Amakusa Rebellion") broke out, and the rebellious peasants rebelled against the harsh government and atrocities of the lord with the people as the core, and repelled the first, second, and third attacks of the shogunate coalition army in succession according to the castle defense, and also killed the raider Itakura Shigemasa sent by the shogunate on the spot, and later the shogunate mobilized more than 120,000 princes' coalition troops, and the siege of the city took nearly two months before the rebel army ran out of ammunition and food, and then successfully attacked the city.

This incident was a great shock to the shogunate, the daimyo and the Fuso society at the time, the Shimabara Matsukura family was confiscated of the territory, the head of the family Matsukura Katsuya was sentenced to beheading, becoming the only person in the Edo period daimyo to be beheaded (cutting the belly is not beheaded), the Amakusa Tera Sawa family was confiscated territory, the head of the family Terasawa Kentaka committed suicide due to mental disorders, and the Terazawa family has been cut off since then.

So far, the two daimyo who caused the Shimabara War have suffered the doom of destruction.

Because of this, the shogunate deepened its fear of foreign culture, and in the sixteenth year of Kanei (163

9) issued the fifth and final lockdown decree: a total ban on foreign ships coming to Fuso, an order for the princes to inspect the ships of the voyage, a threefold increase in the bonus for smuggling foreign ships into the country, and a ban on all contact and influence of the Western Church on the people of Fusan Chezhidan—in this negotiation, Perry did not raise the question of proselytizing, and the first people of the University of Lin were happy to ignore it.

But in case of trade, these two sides are mixed, won't there be a resurgence of Chezhidan? ——At that time, the shogunate repeatedly ordered that the southern barbarians were not allowed to preach, but taking advantage of the opportunity of trade, except for the Lan people who kept their duty, other barbarians were not secretly preaching.

In addition, the shogunate also suffered a lot of losses in simple trade and trade, and it can be summed up as "rich daimyo and wealthy merchants, and lost the world and the shogunate" - Tokugawa Saiaki and his family resolutely opposed trade, and it was not just by shouting, people had evidence in their hands.

The Tokugawa shogunate was not closed from the beginning, and at that time, Fuso experienced more than 100 years of war, the Warring States period (1467-1603), especially in the Munroku period with China and Goryeo? The economic downturn of the Keicho War (1592-1598) led to economic exhaustion, and the Southern Barbarians were so powerful that they colluded with the daimyo on Kyushu Island and the coast.

In the 8th year of Keicho (1603), Ieyasu was appointed as the shogun of Seiyi, and the Tokugawa shogunate was officially established.

However, while doing so, the shogunate found that something was wrong, and in addition to the Kishitan missionary work that shook the country's capital, Fuso's economy was also hit hard - in addition to the necessary pig iron, medicinal herbs, dyes, lead and mercury, cane sugar, etc., raw silk, silk, and various luxury goods such as furs and Western gadgets also poured in, resulting in a large influx of Fuso has always been a super.

What should I do if I enter the super? What else can be done, it can only be made up with heavy metals, so it causes a large loss of gold, silver and copper.

According to the shogunate's own statistics, gold and silver alone lose more than 400,000 taels of gold (small judgments) every year!

The loss of copper was even greater, because of the low copper in Fuso, the merchants at that time even transported a large amount of copper coins.

The massive exodus of precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, as well as the reduction in the cultivation of agricultural crops, all of which were used as cash crops, led to a sharp increase in the prices of various goods, especially grain, and caused a large number of civil unrest.

What's more, the power of the daimyo on Kyushu Island and some of the coastal daimyo swelled rapidly, and the wealthy merchants who made profits also formed a large number of personal guards because they had to sail far away, which posed a serious threat to the stability of the shogunate's rule.

At the same time, Fuso's economy has recovered very quickly, and various necessities no longer need to be imported in large quantities.

After many considerations, the shogunate decided to gradually close the country.

The shogunate kept documents related to the consideration of seclusion, so although the shogunate had been closed for more than 200 years, there were still some important ministers of the shogunate who were aware of the disadvantages of foreign trade.

For example, Tokugawa Saiaki, the old lord of Mito, believed that trade with foreign countries was harmful to the Shogunate, based on the missing information left behind by the shogunate:

"What is imported from another country is useless, and what is exported from Japan is useful. It is the first evil to exchange what is useful for what is useless;

Increasing exports will lead to a shortage of Fusang materials, which is the second evil;

Insufficient materials will cause prices to boil, which is the third evil;

Only a few wealthy merchants will benefit, and the majority of townspeople and ordinary people will be damaged, which is the fourth evil;

Unable to make ends meet, the fifth evil is the financial cut.

Of course, the early trade of Fuso led to a large number of supercities and backward management methods, but at this time, the shogunate did not make much progress, and there was no experience in this, so the upper and lower people were consistent

Trade with foreign countries is regarded as a beast of prey.

Therefore, no matter how Perry persuaded him, the first class of Lin University had no interest in trade.

Seeing that the other side was very resolute, the Mi side turned its efforts to focus on the port of refuge and the supply of Hong Kong merchants, and the part of mutual relief for the drifters had already been negotiated at that time.

There have been precedents of "mistreatment" of rice drifters in the past:

In the first year of Kaei (1848) and the second year of Kaei, the rice whaling ships Lawrence and Lagda were wrecked in the waters of Fuso, in fact, Fuso began to relieve the Nanban drifters at that time - although there was no official agreement, but the shogunate was afraid of creating an excuse for the Nanban to invade, so the shogunate sent these Nanban sailors to the Lan Koku Merchant House in Nagasaki and asked the Lan people to send them away.

However, at that time, the Languo Merchant House was also reluctant to help, and only said that it could notify the rice side, so these wrecked crew members were detained by the shogunate in Nagasaki, and they were not picked up by the rice boat until later.

When these crew members returned to the United States, they all said that they had been seriously abused by Fuso - the prison conditions of the shogunate were notoriously bad, and at that time, Fuso was vegetarian, and the Mi crew probably did not even eat meat once, and they did not understand the language, anyway, these sailors suffered a lot. In this regard, the public opinion of the rice people was in an uproar, thinking that Fusang despised the rice country too much.

In 1844, the Mi people and the Tang people signed the "Wangxia Agreement", and even China, a big country in the East, politely said to the Allied States, why are you so horizontal in the land of Fusang projectiles?

So Perry gave this example, saying, "Our drifters don't worry about you taking care of us, so we want to build a settlement."

And he also thought that since there were settlements, supply ports had to be set up.

At that time, everyone in Fusang was stunned! What did we just say, from which cloud did this supply port come from?

But Perry spoke eloquently, not to mention, the truth is quite smooth:

Previously, the top class of the University of Forestry had agreed that "the drifters who help each other can keep their legitimate belongings and weapons for self-defense, and they cannot be detained". - There's nothing to discuss, and it doesn't seem to have any loopholes.

But the courtiers were too happy too early, and Perry started from this inconspicuous agreement, pressing step by step:

First of all, "since you can move freely, you must have a formal place to live", so there must be a settlement.

Fusang agreed with this - they were afraid that "if the rice people move casually, they will inevitably come into contact with some ill-intentioned people."

After that, "since a man has a place to live, the ship must also have a place to stay," so it is necessary to have a port of refuge.

"What ship?"

"Where did the Drifters come from?" Perry smiled slightly.

"It must be a shipwreck."

"What if the shipwreck hadn't sunk?" Micchi tips.

Hearing this, the heads of the shogunate negotiators present were all "buzzing"! Fooled, the previous agreed that "the drifters can keep their legitimate property", isn't the boat property?!

But once the ship enters the port, what is the port called? O haven of refuge!

The first person of Lin University only then knew how powerful foreigners were-Perry said, if it weren't for the fact that you are not easy to deceive, have you ever heard of a place with a big cowhide? It also takes such a big circle.

Perry was dumbfounded when he saw the other party, and he felt that the time had come to continue to add fierce material:

"Is this port of refuge separated from the port of supply, and if there is no supply ship, will it be shipwrecked? So, agreeing to help the drifters is agreeing to open a port of refuge and a supply port! We thought you already knew. ”

After speaking, the six rice people present laughed.