VARENNES: LA DESAPROBACIÓN REAL DE LA REVOLUCIÓN (Junio de 1791)

more like a contact between the two governments rather than a trade relationship. See Atsushi Kobata and Mitsugu Matsuda, Ryukyuan Relations with Korea and South Sea Countries, Atsushi Kobata, Kyoto, 1969, p .l85.

4 For the term, see Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680, Yale University, Hew Haven and Longdon, 1988.

doubled or tripled Cochinchina’s resources in almost every way. For other Southeast Asian countries the question of overseas trade may only have been a m atter of whether they were rich or poor. For early Cochinchina, it was a question of life or death.

The year of 1600 can be regarded as the watershed for overseas trade in Cochinchina. Before 1600, when Nguyen Hoang finally gave up hope of winning power in the north, trade was carried on more or less freely, but without and government attention or interference. During this period, Cochinchina traded most with the Portuguese in Macao from the 1550s, and with of Red Seal Ships (known as shuin-sen )from Japan in 1592.5 The main trade items in the 1590s seem to have been lead and saltpetre, with the port of Cochinchina acting as an entrepot. A report written by Xu Fu-yuan, the governor of Fukien in the 1590s, says:

The fulangji (Portuguese) in Macao trade the most of lead and saltpetre among other overseas traders... Lead and saltpetre are abundantly produced in Cambodia, there are lead and saltpetre in Siam too. The Japanese yearly send ships to Jiaozhi (Cochinchina) and Luzon to trade these items and carry them away.6

Japan needed these items because of its war with Korea between 1596 and 1598. The same report counted 10 ships going overseas from Satsuma each year: 3 to Luzon, 3 to Cochinchina, 2 to Macao, 1 to Cambodia, and 1 to Siam. As this list indicates, Dang Trong was already becoming a popular destination by the end of the 16th century.

Trade with Cochinchina also benefited from the changed policy on overseas trade of the Chinese government. After navigation and trade to Southeast Asian countries was permitted in 1567, many Chinese junks went to trade in the South Seas. According to the Quan Zhe Bing Zhi Kao, a decade later in 1577, 14 junks from Fujian carried copper, iron and porcelain to Thuan Hoa to trade.7 These and other indications all suggest that regular commercial relations between

‘ In 1567, Ming Mu-zong(l 567-1572) decided to renounce the traditional policy of cun ban

bu xia hai (even a small piece of plank would not be allowed to float on the sea), but only

navigation and trade to Southeast Asian countries were permitted and trade with Japan was still strictly prohibited. Under such circumstance, the de facto rulers of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi then Tokugawa Ieyasu encouraged the Japanese merchants to trade with Chinese by sending Red Seal Ships to Southeast Asian ports.

' Ming Jing Shi Wen Bian (A Collection of reports to the emperors in the Ming Dynasty), Photomechanical printed by Zhu Li Press, Hong Kong, ? Vol. 400, p.4334.

7 Cited from Chen Chingho, "The Chinese street in Hoi An and its trade in the 17th to 18th centuries", Xin Ya Xue Bao (New Asia Journal), Vol.3, No.l, Hong Kong, 1960, p.279.

Nguyen Dang Trong and her various neighbours had begun some time between the 1550s and the 1570s at the latest.

The turning point came in 1600, however, when Nguyen Hoang returned from the north determined to try to set up the best possible relations with overseas trading countries. Concerned at northern hostility, he judged that his own rule, and the Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam areas, were under threat unless he could secure the much-needed resources and supplies from somewhere else to meet the coming dangers. Encouraging trade with foreign merchants provided a solution to his predicament; and the Japanese Red Seal ships were a means already at hand. The Japanese trade gave Dang Trong, and its Nguyen rulers, hope for the future. Let us consider this vital connection.

T he J a p a n e s e

The Red Seal ships were not the first official contact between Japan and Cochinchina. That honour fell to a Japanese pirate, Shirahama Kenki. The first Japanese to be mentioned in the Tien Bien,8 Kenki was ironically mistaken for a W esterner when, in 1585, he "came to the Cua V iet (Port of Viet) with 5 large ships and plundered the coast. His majesty (Nguyen Hoang) ordered the 6th prince to lead more than 10 galleys immediately to the port. The prince destroyed 2 of the pirates’ ships, and Kenki fled in dismay. Very much pleased, His majesty said: How brave my son is! Thenceforward, the pirates quieted down."

Curiously, Kenki’s name appeared again 16 years later, in a letter sent by Nguyen Hoang to Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun, in 1601. In 1599 Kenki’s ship had been wrecked in the Thuan An seaport. "Not knowing that Kenki was a lawful merchant", the letter explained, "our magistrate at Thuan Hoa got into a fight with the ship’s crew and thus lost his life by mistake". As a result, the generals gathered troops to kill Kenki for revenge. When Nguyen Hoang returned from the north in 1600, he found Kenki was still held in the country, as no ship had gone to Japan that year. Kenki stayed in Cochinchina until 1601.

Nguyen Hoang may possibly have mistaken Kenki for a merchant sent by the Tokugawa government; or he may have seen his presence as a convenient pretext th at allowed the Nguyen to make overtures of good will to Japan, under the guise of wanting "to continue [our good] relations according to previous examples", as