The Nanban trade (南蛮貿易, Nanban bōeki; "Southern barbarian trade") was trade between Europeans and the Japanese that took place in Japan from the arrival of Europeans in 1543 to the first Sakoku Seclusion Edicts of isolationism in 1614.
The Nanban trade as a form of European contact began with Portuguese explorers, missionaries, and merchants in the Sengoku period and established long-distance overseas trade routes with Japan. The resulting technological and cultural exchange included the introduction of matchlock firearms, cannons, galleon-style shipbuilding, and Christianity to Japan, among other cultural aspects. The Nanban trade declined in the early Edo period with the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate which feared the influence of Christianity in Japan, particularly the Roman Catholicism of the Portuguese. The Tokugawa issued a series of Sakoku policies that increasingly isolated mainland Japan from the outside world and limited European trade to Dutch traders on the artificial island of Dejima, under total scrutiny.
Japanese accounts of Europeans
Following contact with the Portuguese on Tanegashima in 1543, the Japanese were at first rather wary of the newly arrived foreigners. The culture shock was quite strong, especially because Europeans were not able to understand the Japanese writing system nor accustomed to using chopsticks.
They eat with their fingers instead of with chopsticks such as we use. They show their feelings without any self-control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters. (from Boxer, Christian Century).
European accounts of Japan
The island of Jampon, according to what all the Chinese say, is larger than that of the Léquios, and the king is more powerful and greater and is not given to trading, nor are his subjects. He is a heathen king, a vassal of the king of China. They do not often trade in China because it is far off and they have no junks, nor are they seafaring men.
The first comprehensive and systematic report of a European about Japan is the Tratado em que se contêm muito sucinta e abreviadamente algumas contradições e diferenças de costumes entre a gente de Europa e esta província de Japão of Luís Fróis, in which he described Japanese life concerning the roles and duties of men and women, children, Japanese food, weapons, medicine, medical treatment, diseases, books, houses, gardens, horses, ships and cultural aspects of Japanese life like dances and music. Several decades later, when Hasekura Tsunenaga became the first Japanese official arriving in Europe, his presence, habits and cultural mannerisms gave rise to many picturesque descriptions circulating among the public:
Renaissance Europeans were attracted by Japan's purported immense richness in precious metals, mainly owing to Marco Polo's accounts of gilded temples and palaces, but also to the relative abundance of surface ores characteristic of a volcanic country (this was before large-scale deep-mining became possible in industrial times). Japan was to become a major exporter of copper and silver during the period. At its peak, around 1615-25, as much as one third of global silver production was Japanese.
Japan was also noted for its comparable or even exceptional levels of population and urbanization relative to the nations of the West at the time (see list of countries by population in 1600). Many Europeans became quite fascinated with Japan, with Alessandro Valignano even writing that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well".
Early European visitors noted the quality of Japanese craftsmanship and metalsmithing. The later sources, most notably those written after the end of Japan's isolation period, also report Japanese blades, and swords in general, as good quality weapons with notable artistic value.
Portuguese trade in the 16th century
Ever since 1514, the Portuguese had traded with China from Malacca, and the year after the first Portuguese landfall in Japan, trade commenced between Malacca, China, and Japan. The Chinese Emperor had decreed an embargo against Japan as a result of piratical wokou raids against China. Consequently, Chinese goods were in scarce supply in Japan; Portuguese traders found a lucrative opportunity to act as middlemen between the two realms.
Trade with Japan was initially open to any, but from 1550, the Portuguese Crown monopolized the rights to trade with Japan. Henceforth, once a year a fidalgo was awarded the rights for a single trade venture to Japan with considerable privileges, such as the title of captain-major of the voyage to Japan, with authority over any Portuguese subjects in China or Japan while he was in port, and the right to sell his post, should he lack the necessary funds to undertake the enterprise. He could charter a royal vessel or purchase his own, at about 40,000 xerafins. His ship would set sail from Goa, called at Malacca and China before proceeding to Japan and back.
In 1554, Captain-Major Leonel de Sousa negotiated with Chinese authorities the re-legalization of Portuguese trade in China, which was followed by the foundation of Macau in 1557 to support this trade.
The state of civil-war in Japan was also highly beneficial to the Portuguese, as each competing lord sought to attract trade to their domains by offering better conditions. In 1571, the fishing village of Nagasaki became the definitive anchorage of the Portuguese and in 1580, its lord, Omura Sumitada, the first Japanese lord to convert to Christianity, leased it to the Jesuits "in perpetuity". The city subsequently evolved from an unimportant fishing village to a prosperous and cosmopolitan community, the entirety of which was Christian. In time, the city would be graced with a painting school, a hospital, a charitable institution (the Misericórdia) and a Jesuit college.
Vessels
Among the vessels involved in the trade linking Goa and Japan, the most famous were Portuguese carracks, slow but large enough to hold a great deal of merchandise and enough provisions to travel safely through such a lengthy and often hazardous (because of pirates) journey. These ships initially had about 400–600 tons burden but later on could reach as many as over 1200 or 1600 tons in cargo capacity, a rare few reaching as many as 2000 tons — they were the largest vessels afloat on Earth, and easily twice or three times larger than common galleons of the time, rivalled only in size by the Spanish Manila galleons. Many of these were built at the royal Indo-Portuguese shipyards at Goa, Bassein, or Daman, out of high-quality Indian teakwood rather than European pine, and their build quality became renowned; the Spanish in Manila favoured Portuguese-built vessels, and commented that they were not only cheaper than their own, but "lasted ten times as long".
The Portuguese referred to this vessel as the nau da prata ("silver carrack") or nau do trato ("trade carrack"); the Japanese dubbed them kurofune, meaning "black ships", on account of the colour of their hulls, painted black with pitch for water-tightening, and later the name was extended to refer to Matthew C. Perry's black warships that reopened Japan to the wider world in 1853.
In the 16th century, large junks belonging to private owners from Macau often accompanied the great ship to Japan, about two or three; these could reach about 400 or 500 tons burden. After 1618, the Portuguese switched to using smaller and more maneuverable pinnaces and galliots, to avoid interception from Dutch raiders.
Traded goods
By far the most valuable commodities exchanged in the "nanban trade" were Chinese silks for Japanese silver, which was then traded in China for more silk. Although accurate statistics are lacking, it has been estimated that roughly half of Japan's yearly silver output was exported, most of it through the Wokou (Japanese and Chinese), Ryukyuans, and Portuguese, amounting to about 18–20 tons in silver bullion. The English merchant Peter Mundy estimated that Portuguese investment at Canton ascended to 1,500,000 silver taels or 2,000,000 Spanish dollars. The Portuguese also exported surplus silk from Macau to Goa and Europe via Manila.
Nonetheless, numerous other items were also traded, such as gold, Chinese porcelain, musk, and rhubarb; Arabian horses, Bengal tigers and peacocks; fine Indian scarlet cloths, calico and chintz; European manufactured items such as Flemish clocks and Venetian glass and Portuguese wine and rapiers; in return for Japanese copper, lacquer and lacquerware or weapons (as purely exotic items to be displayed in Europe). Japanese lacquerware attracted European aristocrats and missionaries from Europe, and western style chests and church furniture were exported in response to their requests.
Japanese and other Asians captured in battle were also sold by their compatriots to the Portuguese as slaves, but the Japanese would also sell family members they could not afford to sustain because of the civil war. According to Charles Boxer, both old and modern Asian authors have "conveniently overlooked" their part in the enslavement of their countrymen. They were well regarded for their skills and warlike character, and some ended as far as India and even Europe, some armed retainers or as concubines or slaves to other slaves of the Portuguese.
In 1571, King Sebastian of Portugal issued a ban on the enslavement of both Chinese and Japanese, probably fearing the negative effects it might have on proselytization efforts as well as the standing diplomacy and trade between the countries. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the de facto ruler of Japan, enforced the end of the enslavement of his countrymen starting in 1587 and it was suppressed shortly thereafter. However, Hideyoshi later sold Korean prisoners of war captured during the Imjin War as slaves to the Portuguese.
The overall profits from the Japan trade, carried on through the black ship, was estimated to ascend to over 600,000 cruzados, according to various contemporary authors such as Diogo do Couto, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, and William Adams. A captain-major who invested at Goa 20,000 cruzados to this venture could expect 150,000 cruzados in profits upon returning. The value of Portuguese exports from Nagasaki during the 16th century were estimated to ascend to over 1,000,000 cruzados, reaching as many as 3,000,000 in 1637. The Dutch estimated this was the equivalent of some 6,100,000 guilders, almost as much as the entire founding capital of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) (6,500,000 guilders). VOC profits in all of Asia amounted to "just" about 1,200,000 guilders, all its assets worth 9,500,000 guilders.
The monopoly of Portugal on trade with Japan for a European nation started being challenged by Spanish ships from Manila after 1600 (until 1620), the Dutch after 1609 and the English in 1613 (until 1623). Nonetheless, it was found that neither the Dutch nor the Spanish could effectively replace the Portuguese because Portugal had privileged access to Chinese markets and investors through Macau. The Portuguese were only definitively banned in 1638 after the Shimabara Rebellion, on the grounds that they smuggled priests into Japan aboard their vessels.
Dutch trade
The Dutch, who, rather than "Nanban" were called "Kōmō" (Jp: 紅毛, lit. "Red Hair") by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, on board the Liefde ("liefde" meaning "love"). Their pilot was William Adams, the first Englishman to reach Japan. In 1605, two of the Liefde's crew were sent to Pattani by Tokugawa Ieyasu, to invite Dutch trade to Japan. The head of the Pattani Dutch trading post, Victor Sprinckel, refused on the ground that he was too busy dealing with Portuguese opposition in Southeast Asia. In 1609 however, the Dutchman Jacques Specx arrived with two ships in Hirado, and through Adams obtained trading privileges from Ieyasu. The Dutch also engaged in piracy and naval combat to weaken Portuguese and Spanish shipping in the Pacific, and ultimately became the only westerners to be allowed access to Japan from the small enclave of Dejima after 1639 and for the next two centuries.
Technological and cultural exchanges
The Japanese were introduced to several new technologies and cultural practices (so were the Europeans to Japanese, see Japonisme), whether in the military area (the arquebus, cannon, European-style cuirasses, European ships such as galleons), religion (Christianity), decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced the tempura and European-style confectionery, creating nanbangashi (南蛮菓子), "southern barbarian confectionery", with confectioneries like castella, konpeitō, aruheitō, karumera, keiran sōmen, bōro, and bisukauto. Other traded goods brought by Europeans to Japan were clocks, soap, tobacco, among other products.