Research Statement: Portuguese–Dutch Conflicts and the Macao–Nagasaki Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century

Itinerario ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-74
Author(s):  
Dong Shaoxin

The Macao–Nagasaki connection in the early seventeenth century involved a complex set of interrelationships with regard to trade, mission, cultural intercourse, and other important topics between China, Japan, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. The rise to importance of Macao and Nagasaki was the result of the interruption of Sino–Japanese trade relations and the policy adjustments by the governments of China and Japan to bring the Portuguese under their control and administration. One of the main differences between Macao and Nagasaki was that the former remained a Portuguese settlement for centuries, while the latter was an enclave first of the Portuguese and later of the Dutch. This short article, mainly based on secondary sources by C. R. Boxer, Leonard Blussé, and others, is a tentative study of the international relations in East Asia and their changes after the appearance of the Portuguese and the Dutch in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.Two important facts make the sixteen-century international relations in East Asia different from the situation before: the appearance of the Portuguese in this area and the deterioration of Sino–Japanese relations.For the first thirty years after the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Guangdong in 1514, encounters between them and the Chinese were rife with misunderstandings and conflicts, because Portugal was not a tributary country of China; the Portuguese were totally new to the Chinese. As the Portuguese could not establish formal commercial relations with China, in order to acquire Chinese goods they sought close relations with Chinese and later Japanese smugglers and pirates. They even engaged in the slave trade, which gave them a very bad name in China.

Itinerario ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Leonard Blussé

Abstract This article, originally presented as a public lecture at the occasion of the Fukuoka Prize Ceremony in September 2019, approaches from biographical and microhistorical perspectives the careers of three early-modern protagonists, Suminokura Ryōi, François Caron, and Zheng Zhilong, who were all involved in the maritime trade of the Eastern Seas. It shows how these Japanese, Dutch, and Chinese entrepreneurs became entangled with the epochal changes of regime in China and Japan in the first half of the seventeenth century, and concludes with remarks on their agency, loyalty, and legacy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Trambaiolo

Abstract Toxic mercury chloride compounds, including preparations and mixtures of corrosive sublimate (HgCl2) and calomel (Hg2Cl2), were widely used in early modern Chinese and Japanese medicine. Some of these drugs had been manufactured in East Asia for more than a thousand years, while others were produced using newer recipes developed in East Asia after the arrival of syphilis or introduced through contact with European medical knowledge. This paper traces the history of the uses and methods of production of sublimated mercury chloride drugs in early modern East Asia, showing how the Chinese doctor Chen Sicheng’s invention of the drug shengshengru (J. seiseinyū) 生生乳 in the seventeenth century exerted a strong influence over eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japanese doctors’ treatment of syphilis. Japanese doctors’ efforts to produce and use seiseinyū provided a foundation of technical knowledge that was important for their later reception of European-style mercury chloride drugs.


1999 ◽  
Vol 72 (179) ◽  
pp. 334-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. B. Trim

Abstract The article presents and interprets (based on primary as well as secondary sources) transcriptions of five letters of Sir Horace Vere, written from the Netherlands to the Stuart court in 1610 and 1612. The letters reveal new data about the 1610 Cleves–Ju¨lich War, a precursor of the Thirty Years War; cast new light on the Arminian crisis, especially in the Netherlands; and illustrate in detail the workings of military patronage in early seventeenth‐century England and Holland.


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kurowiak

AbstractAs a work of propaganda, graphics Austroseraphicum Coelum Paulus Pontius should create a new reality, make appearances. The main impression while seeing the graphics is the admiration for the power of Habsburgs, which interacts with the power of the Mother of God. She, in turn, refers the viewer to God, as well as Franciscans placed on the graphic, they become a symbol of the Church. This is a starting point for further interpretation of the drawing. By the presence of certain characters, allegories, symbols, we can see references to a particular political situation in the Netherlands - the war with the northern provinces of Spain. The message of the graphic is: the Spanish Habsburgs, commissioned by the mission of God, they are able to fight all of the enemies, especially Protestants, with the help of Immaculate and the Franciscans. The main aim of the graphic is to convince the viewer that this will happen and to create in his mind a vision of the new reality. But Spain was in the seventeenth century nothing but a shadow of former itself (in the time of Philip IV the general condition of Spain get worse). That was the reason why they wanted to hold the belief that the empire continues unwavering. The form of this work (graphics), also allowed to export them around the world, and the ambiguity of the symbolic system, its contents relate to different contexts, and as a result, the Habsburgs, not only Spanish, they could promote their strength everywhere. Therefore it was used very well as a single work of propaganda, as well as a part of a broader campaign


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-347
Author(s):  
Hugo Agra

O artigo analisa um tema pouco abordado na literatura brasileira de relações internacionais: a atuação das políticas externas do Brasil e do México para a criação do Grupo de Contadora (1983), Grupo de Apoio à Contadora (1985) e do Grupo do Rio (1987). Esses grupos tiveram papéis importantes nas tentativas de estabilização dos problemas políticos, econômicos e sociais da América Central a partir dos anos 1980. O artigo está dividido em quatro partes: i) compreensão da criação do Grupo de Contadora, do Grupo de Apoio à Contadora e a atuação do Brasil e do México, ii) destaque aos principais objetivos desses dois grupos, iii) explica o “dilema” das políticas externas do Brasil e do México diante das ações estadunidenses para a América Central e iv) e descreve a criação e os objetivos do Grupo do Rio. Por meio de uma pesquisa explicativa, onde é fundamental reunir informações sobre vários assuntos para entender de forma mais abrangente um tema específico, o artigo faz uso de fontes secundárias que analisam as relações internacionais da América Latina e os processos decisórios das políticas externas do Brasil e do México na década de 1980, além de algumas fontes primárias, como documentos oficiais dos acordos celebrados e declarações presidenciais disponíveis em arquivos dos sites eletrônicos da presidência ou chancelaria dos países. Conclui-se mostrando que os dois países foram fundamentais para o processo de estabilização política, principalmente na região centro-americana, não só pela importância histórica, política e econômica de cada um, mas também pelo fato de que a formação desses grupos foram importantes para dirimir litígios, acelerar a resolução de conflitos entre os países do continente, além de ter sido um período de aproximação e fortalecimento da relação bilateral Brasil-México.         ABSTRACT: The article analyzes a theme little addressed in the Brazilian literature of international relations: the performance of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico for the creation of the Contadora Group (1983), the Contadora Support Group (1985) and the Rio Group (1987). These groups played important roles in attempts to stabilize the political, economic and social problems of Central America from the 1980s onwards. The article is divided into four parts: i) an understanding of the creation of the Contadora Group, the Contadora Support Group and the actions of Brazil and Mexico, ii) highlighting the main objectives of these two groups, iii) explaining the "dilemma" of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico in the face of US actions for Central America, and iv) describing the creation and objectives of the Rio Group. By means of an explanatory survey, where it is essential to gather information on various subjects in order to understand more comprehensively a specific theme, the article makes use of secondary sources that analyze the international relations of Latin America and the decision-making processes of the foreign policies of Brazil and Mexico in the 1980s, in addition to some primary sources, such as official documents of the agreements signed and presidential declarations available on the archives of the electronic sites of the presidency or chancellery of the countries. It concludes by showing that both countries were fundamental to the process of political stabilization, especially in the Central American region, not only because of their historical, political and economic importance, but also because the formation of these groups was important to settle disputes, accelerate the resolution of conflicts between the countries of the continent, and was a period of rapprochement and strengthening of the bilateral relationship between Brazil and Mexico. Keywords: International Relations; Latin America; Contadora Group; Rio Group.       Aprovado em: setembro/2019. Recebido em: agosto/2020.


2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Lovejoy

AbstractA reassessment of the institution of pawnship in Africa for the period from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century tightens the reference to situations in which individuals were held as collateral for debts that had been incurred by others, usually relatives. Contrary to the assumptions of some scholars, pawnship was not related to poverty and enslavement for debt but rather to commercial liquidity and the mechanisms by which funds were acquired to promote trade or to cover the expenses of funerals, weddings, and religious obligations. A distinction is made, therefore, between enslavement for debt and pawnship. It is demonstrated that pawnship characterized trade with European and American ships in many parts of Atlantic Africa, but not everywhere. While pawnship was common north of the Congo River, at Gabon, Cameroon, Calabar, the interior of the Bights of Biafra and Benin, the Gold Coast, and the upper Guinea coast, it was illegal in most of Muslim Africa and the Portuguese colony of Angola, while it was not used in commercial dealings with Europeans at Bonny, Ouidah, and other places.


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