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35. For an exhaustive compilation of primary sources on the English factory in Japan, see Farrington, English Factory in Japan.

36. The Tokugawa Jikki recorded that on one day in 1611, the shogun issued shuinj (“red seal passes”) to trade in Annam, Luzon, Siam, and Cochin-China. In other years, both before and after this date, there is also recorded many instances of Ieyasu's friendly relations with other countries in Southeast Asia as well as in Europe. See Kuroita Katsumi, ed., Kokushi Taikei: Tokugawa Jikki, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 1981), 507.

37. Watanabe Yogoro, Kinsei Nihon Beki Ron no Tenkai, 1600–1866 (Tokyo: Bunka Shob Hakubunsha, 1978), 23–24.

38. Nakamura Tadashi, ed., Ikoku Nikki: Konchiin Suden Gaiko Monjo Shusei (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijitsu, 1989).

39. Nagazumi Yoko, Nihon Rekishi Ssho 60: Shuinsen (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 2001), 2–3.

40. The most exhaustive study of the shuinsen to date is undoubtedly Iwao Seiichi's Shuinsen Beki-shi no Kenky (Tokyo: Kybund, 1958).

41. Iwao estimated that during the Keich period (1596–1615), Japanese ships carried about 16,000 kan of silver each year to ports in Southeast Asia. One kan of silver is equal to 3.75 kilograms, yielding approximately 60,000 kilograms of silver each year. Iwao, Sakoku, 222.

42. See, for example, my Japan's Economy by Proxy in the Seventeenth Century: China, the Netherlands, and the Bakufu (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2008).

43. For the best treatment to date of the nihonmachi, see Iwao Seiichi, Shuinsen to Nihonmachi (Tokyo: Shibund, 1964).

44. Nagazumi Yoko told the tale of Yamada Nagamasa, who went to Siam as a merchant adventurer and rose to become a trusted advisor to the king. He was later forcibly expelled from the country, along with most of his Japanese compatriots, after he lost favor at court after a series of court intrigues. See Nagazumi Yoko, “Yamada Nagamasa—Shijitsu to Densetsu,” in Nihon Rekishi 9: Shuinsen to Minami e no Senkishi, ed. ishi Shinzaburo (Tokyo: Gyosei, 1986), 48–61.

45. Tashiro Kazui argued that there was an implicit hierarchy in the regions with which Japan had relations during the sakoku period: first were the Koreans and next were the Ryukyu Islanders, followed by the Dutch and the Chinese. She argued for the special place of Korea because, even when the shogunate placed drastic restrictions on trade with these other areas, special pains were taken to ensure that trade with Korea was maintained. Furthermore, the trade with Korea exceeded by volume trade with these