Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas & Japan.

PERRY, Matthew [Ulysses S. Grant].

$8,800.00

Item Number: 134782

Washington, D.C: Beverley Tucker, Senate Printer, 1856.

Special presentation first edition with secretarial note signed by Ulysses S. Grant as President, sending this specially bound example to Sir Edward Thornton, “As a slight evidence of his kindness in undertaking the laborious task of arbitrating the questions between the United States and Brazil in the case of the ship Canada,” signed January 14, 1871. Quarto, four volumes, bound in full contemporary morocco over beveled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, with Grant’s note tipped between endpapers in volume one, illustrated throughout, the censored bathing plate present, lacking three hand colored natural history plates (one bird, one fish, one shells), with two duplicate copies of fish plate XII. In near fine condition.

On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tôkyô harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna. Perry, on behalf of the U.S. government, forced Japan to enter into trade with the United States and demanded a treaty permitting trade and the opening of Japanese ports to U.S. merchant ships. This was the era when all Western powers were seeking to open new markets for their manufactured goods abroad, as well as new countries to supply raw materials for industry. It was clear that Commodore Perry could impose his demands by force. The Japanese had no navy with which to defend themselves, and thus they had to agree to the demands. Perry's small squadron itself was not enough to force the massive changes that then took place in Japan, but the Japanese knew that his ships were just the beginning of Western interest in their islands. Russia, Britain, France, and Holland all followed Perry's example and used their fleets to force Japan to sign treaties that promised regular relations and trade. They did not just threaten Japan — they combination their navies on several occasions to defeat and disarm the Japanese feudal domains that defied them.