Japan Trade
F1. Maritime HistoryDefinition
Dejima-era seventeenth to nineteenth century Dutch maritime commerce.
The Dutch monopoly on European commerce with Japan during the sakoku period, conducted through Dejima, an artificial island in Nagasaki harbor, from 1641 to 1853. After the Portuguese were expelled in 1639, the Dutch VOC alone among Westerners was permitted to trade, shipping in raw silk, sugar, and books and exporting Japanese copper, silver, camphor, and porcelain. Trade was capped at a few ships a year. Commodore Perry’s 1853 to 1854 expedition forced Japan open under the Convention of Kanagawa.
Source: Dutch trade at Dejima 1641 to 1853; Convention of Kanagawa, 31 March 1854