Excerpt from Japan: Travels and Researches: Undertaken at the Cost of the Prussian GovernmentBut as there can be no doubt that the nature of a country, the historical and social development of its inhabitants, and their relations to other nations, are the basis upon which the form and substance of its commercial and industrial, as well as its intel lectual, life are unfolded, it seemed advisable first to publish the present work.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.