The Sakoku Edicts and the Politics of Tokugawa Hegemony By Micha ...

In summary, the Europeans were present in Japan at a time of great change and turmoil. The first fifty years of Portuguese activity occurred against the backdrop of the tumultuous Warring States Period and the violent unification of the country. The Dutch and the English came onto the scene just as this final act of unification was playing out. And finally, the Europeans were eyewitnesses to the ongoing Tokugawa attempt to consolidate their control over the country vis-à-vis the other powerful daimyo. The Japanese sakoku edicts ought to be considered in light of the Tokugawa attempt to establish unquestioned political, military, and economic control throughout the country.

Although De Liefde arrived in Japan in 1600, it was not until 1609 that the Dutch finally established a factory in the province of Hirado, which was ruled by the Matsuura clan.²⁶ The English soon followed suit in 1613 with a trading post of their own, using Adams as an intermediary between the shogun and the East India Company, although Adams continued to help the Dutch as well—no small source of friction between Adams and his countrymen.²⁷ The Dutch and the English soon realized that the sole reason why the Portuguese were so successful in Japan was that they had access to the Chinese silk market through their position in Macao. The Dutch and the English—not having such access, despite years of petitioning the Chinese emperor in Beijing—had to resort to piracy against both Portuguese and Chinese ships to obtain silk to sell on the Japanese market.²⁸ Kat Eiichi, in fact, stated that the main usefulness of Hirado to the Dutch before the mid-1620s was not as a trading post per se but as a base for piracy against Portuguese ships sailing from Macao and Spanish ships sailing from Manila.²⁹ It seemed, therefore, that the Dutch and English would not be able to make their venture in Japan a success, despite the Portuguese carrying away literally tons of silver every year in their ships.

The event that changed this situation for the Dutch was the occupation of the island of Taiwan (called Formosa by Europeans) in 1624. Although the Dutch occupation of Taiwan was an accident at first (the result of an aborted and ill-planned attack on Macao), the island soon proved the linchpin in the Dutch East India Company's trade with