Western Merchants in the Foreign Settlements of Japan (c.1850–1890)

Abstract

Before 1800, Western trade with East Asia was either strongly regulated by the state or absent, as was the case in Korea. In Siam, China and Japan, foreign trade was limited to only one port in each country: respectively Bangkok, Canton and Nagasaki. Attempts to open up more ports and introduce free trade remained largely unsuccessful up to the 1840s, when Western economic power and naval superiority inaugurated the era of gunboat diplomacy; ushering in new commercial treaties on more favourable terms. These treaties introduced a new type of port city in East Asia: the ‘treaty port’. These acted as bridgeheads between Western merchants and Asian markets.1 The treaty ports functioned as the main gateways to the hinterland or simply as commercial hubs and entrepots. In most cases, they were important ‘zones of contact’ between Westerners and natives.2