The Dutch East India Company and Japan: focusing on the trading city of Nagasaki

Japan and the Netherlands met each other at a time of change in their respective countries. Their political regimes and societies’ systems were very different. Although the two countries did not establish a state-to-state relationship, they maintained trade throughout the early modern period. All Dutch ships coming to Japan were prepared by the Dutch East India Company(VOC), and sent from Batavia. The shogunate toward the end of the seventeenth century established a foreign relations regime characterized by a strict ban on Christianity, coastal defenses, a rigid prohibition on overseas travel by Japanese people, and high level of economic independence due to thorough trade regulations. In that situation, VOC, a purely commercial enterprise unrelated to missionary work, could continue to come to Japan. In the intra-Asian trade network, VOC imported raw silk and silk textiles, later, cotton cloth, sugar, medicine and so on. In return, they carried gold, silver and copper. Nagasaki was the locus of the trade with the Dutch and Chinese. At first, this port city was opened for Portuguese trading ships, but after their ban, the Dutch relocated from Hirado to Deshima. Nagasaki was under the direct control of the shogunate, but the people actually involved in the management of the Dutch trade were townspeople sent through the organization of local officials. For this purpose, the number of the local officials increased very large and their organization became extremely complicated. They worked to maintain trade, a common interest between the foreign residents and the Nagasaki people. Since the last quarter of the seventeenth century, both the total amount of trade and the number of trading ships were restricted. Within these limitations, the people of Nagasaki built a system to monopolize the entire trade process through the city organization and share profits instead of competing for them. Since the management and operation of the trading posts were largely entrusted to the Japanese side, the Dutch in such small numbers could live and trade without leaving the island. In the port city of Nagasaki, which was the frontier of intercultural contact, the mechanism of symbiosis created by people from both sides working on the ground did not change easily. This rigidity contributed to the continuation of relations between Japan and the Netherlands.