From Southeast Asia to Japan. Trade, Circulation, and Uses of Silk in Seventeenth Century East Asia

During the sixteenth century, the depredationsJapan committed by Sino-Japanese wakō pirates closed the doors of Chinese ports to Japanese merchants. In the early eighteenth century, restrictions on Chinese merchants’ trade corresponded to a shift in Japanese economic policyEconomic policy towards import substitution, especially of silk. In the meantime, silk had played a crucial role in the commercial expansion of Japanese merchants. It was Japan'sJapan main import commodity and due to the high demand in silk, Đại Việt (present-day VietnamVietnam), which produced and re-exported Chinese silk, became Japan'sJapan main partner. This chapter explores the different functions performed by silk in Japan'sJapan interactions with the outside world. It identifies its role in transnational trade flows to JapanJapan, but also its social and diplomatic function, as a frequent gift from foreigners to Japanese authorities and merchants. In doing so, this chapter analyses how the silk tradeSilksilk trade and circulation shaped Japan'sJapan foreign relations between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries.