This book is a welcome addition to the literature on the Meiji period on two counts. In the first place, it gives a systematic account of the two decades of negotiations which led to the Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty of July 1894, the first since the standard work by F.C. Jones of the University of Bristol published by Yale University Press as long ago as 1931 and, to a lesser extent, the account by Professor Hilary Conroy in his more general study in 1960. In this latest work, Professor Perez deals with what could be ponderous material with a light touch and commendable brevity and provides a remarkably readable account.
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