who wanted to be paid, they were being badgered daily by these merchants, and they had fallen into dire straits, driven to hunger and poverty.” See Leonard Blussé and Cynthia Viallé, eds., The Deshima Dagregisters, vol. 11, 1641–1650 (Leiden, the Netherlands: Institute for the History of European Expansion, 2001), 5–6.

22. The Dutch, when considering whether to open commercial relations with Japan, received a report from Nicholas Puyck (captain of one of the first ships to arrive in Japan in 1609) stating that Japanese silver was “better silver than Reals-of-Eight”—which were coins minted in Spain and considered the unofficial standard unit of silver in Asia at the time. Peter Rietbergen, Japan Verwoord: Nihon door Nederlandse Ogen, 1600–1799 (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2003), 43.

23. Linschoten stated that the Portuguese take Chinese silk to Japan, “and they return nothing but silver, whereby they do greatly profit.” After describing the Portuguese trade with Japan, he said that the captain of the vessel takes away from the venture a yearly profit of 150,000–200,000 ducats. See Jan Huygen van Linschoten, The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies, vol. 1, trans. Arthur Coke Burnell (London: Hakluyt Society, 1885), 146–147.

24. For the complete logbook of William Adams on his journey to Japan, see Christopher James Purnell, The Log Book of William Adams, 1614–1619 (London: Eastern Press, 1915). Giles Milton has also written a more popular account of Will Adams's life, although it does rely on primary sources: Giles Milton, Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan (New York: Penguin Press, 2003). Another, more scholarly, account of Will Adams's life is provided by William Corr in his book entitled Adams the Pilot: The Life and Times of Captain Will Adams, 1564–1620 (Folkstone, Kent: Japan Library, 1995).

25. It is telling that when the United East India Company (or VOC) was founded in 1602, the States General gave the company the right to make war as well as the right to conclude treaties with sovereign rulers in Asia. Therefore, though the company was certainly a commercial venture, it can also be argued that it was an arm of the Dutch state with the purpose of carrying out Dutch foreign policy in East Asia, especially carrying the war with the Spanish crown to the East Indies. Niels Steensgaard, “The Companies as a Specific Institution in the History of European Expansion,” in Companies and Trade: Essays on Overseas Trading Companies During the Ancien Regime, eds. Leonard Blussé and Femme Gaastra (Leiden, the Netherlands: Leiden University Press, 1981), 55–56.