World Trade Systems of the East and West

Nagasaki and the Asian Bullion Trade Networks

Series: 

In World Trade Systems of the East and West, Geoffrey C. Gunn profiles Nagasaki's historic role in mediating the Japanese bullion trade, especially silver exchanged against Chinese and Vietnamese silk. Founded in 1571 as the terminal port of the Portuguese Macau ships, Nagasaki served as Japan's window to the world over long time and with the East-West trade carried on by the Dutch and, with even more vigor, by the Chinese junk trade. While the final expulsion of the Portuguese in 1646 characteristically defines the “closed” period of early modern Japanese history, the real trade seclusion policy, this work argues, only came into place one century later when the Shogunate firmly grasped the true impact of the bullion trade upon the national economy.
Copyright Year:
2018
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-35856-0
Publication:
13 Nov 2017
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-35855-3
Publication:
01 Dec 2017
Cover World Trade Systems of the East and West

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€176.19€167.00 excl. VAT
Add to Cart
Geoffrey C. Gunn, Ph.D. is a graduate of Melbourne and Monash universities in Asian history. Emeritus professor of Nagasaki University, he has also published such works as First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500-1800 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), as well as dedicated studies on Vietnam and Macau.
"Gunn has contributed a detailed study of Nagasaki trade during Japan’s unification and under the Tokugawa. It is an excellent contribution to global history and a required reference to understand the place of Japan in the world economy of the Modern Era."
-Arturo Giráldez, School of International Studies, University of the Pacific, in Journal of Contemporary Asia, 03 Feb 2019.
Preface
List of Tables and Illustrations
Glossary/Abbreviations
Note on Weights and Currencies

Introduction
 Japanese Historiography
 The East-Southeast Asian Bullion Trade Zone
 The Book

1 Kyushu in the East Asian Trade Networks
 Spanish Manila and the Galleon Trade
 The Portuguese “Discovery” of the Kyushu Trade Networks
 The Ryukyu Tribute Trade
 Gold, Silver, and Copper Mines in Japan
 Japanese Maritime Trade with China and Korea
 The Portuguese Missionary Arrival in Kyushu
 Conclusion

2 Merchants and Missionaries in the Foundation of Nagasaki
 Nagasaki’s Obscure Origins
 The Portuguese Merchant-Missionary Arrival in Nagasaki
 Nagasaki under Jesuit Rule
 The Manila-Japan Trade Connection
 Return to Imperial Rule (1588) and Persecutions
 Conclusion

3 Nagasaki and the Silk Trade
 Setting the Scene on Silk Production and Procurement
 Functional Aspects of the Macau-Nagasaki Silk Trade
 The Portuguese Merchant Presence
 The VOC Silk Trade with Tonkin
 Conclusion

4 The Dutch and English at Hirado
 The Dutch Establishment at Hirado (1609–41)
 The Dutch and the Contest for Taiwan (1604–61)
 The Zheng Family Dynasty
 The Dutch Trade at Hirado
 The English at Hirado (1613–23)
 Conclusion

5 The Shimabara Rebellion (1637–38) Revisited
 Background to the Rebellion
 The Duarte Correa Manuscript and the First Stirrings of Rebellion
 The Battle for Shimabara
 Millennial Rebels or Economic Victims?
 The Anti-Christian Backlash
 Conclusion

6 Nagasaki and the Southeast Asia Trade
 Drawing the Contours of the “Red Seal” Trade
 The Chinese Junk Trade at Nagasaki in the kai-hentai Records
 Status of the Junk Traffic in 1664
 Scale and Scope of the Nagasaki-Vietnam Trade
 Conclusion

7 The Chinese of Nagasaki and their Social and Commercial Activities
 Origins of the Nagasaki Chinese Community under the Ming
 Chinese Temple Communities in Nagasaki and their Functional Role
 The Zheng Trade with Nagasaki during the Ming-Qing Transition
 The Restoration of the China Trade under the Qing
 The Seventeenth Century Chinese Legacy in Nagasaki
 Conclusion

8 Nagasaki in the Age of Kaempfer
 Kaempfer’s Nagasaki
 Dutch Trade at Deshima
 A Dutch West India Company Account of 1721–23
 Carl Peter Thunberg’s Account of 1795
 Closed Door under Foreign Pressure
 Conclusion

9 Parameters of the Bullion Trade Economy Network
 Portuguese Profits on the Silk-for-Silver Trade
 Putting a Value on the Dutch and Chinese Bullion Trade
 Portuguese and Dutch in the Global Copper Trade
 Reassessing the Silver Drain from Japan, the Role of Arai Hakuseki
 Nagasaki and the Asian Bullion Trade Reprised

Conclusion
 Global Economy and World System
 Stagnant Japan, Rising Japan, or Mid-Tokugawa Crisis?
 A Precocious Early Modernization?
 Nagasaki’s Pioneer Role in Japan’s Industrialization

Bibliography
A key resource for students of early modern Japanese history, local Nagasaki history, and to all interested in connected history with respect to China, Southeast Asia, and the global bullion trade.
  • Collapse
  • Expand
Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xviii, 360 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004358560

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com