There and Back Again. The History of Spanish and Japanese Trade in the Early Modern Period

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject World History - Modern History, grade: 2, University of Salzburg, language: English, abstract: This paper is going to find its main focus in the trade with one of these peoples form the other side of the world, the Spanish and Portuguese mostly, and their major involvement in the trade with Japanese Silver and other commodities, both across the Pacific and within the region. Of course, that does not mean, that other facets are going to be excluded, quite on the contrary, they play important roles in the beginning and the end of this trading network, but the main focus is going to be with the Spanish. One has to note, though, that although the main focus will be the Spanish ventures in this region of the world, that this will entail more then what we would today call Spain, but also Portugal and the colonial possessions of either of the two. Also, we will mostly operate in the time between 1543, the landing of the first Portuguese in Japan, and 1636, the closure of Japan to Foreigners for over two centuries (with a few exceptions, but we'll come to that). That will of course not mean, that we will exclude anything before and after, for important foundations were laid before, which would be used by many of the merchants, travellers and pirates of that time.