Were the Dutch really the only ones allowed to trade with the Japanese after Japan was closed in the 1600's?

by Hitty40
Sunshine_Bag

No, of course not. While "official" trade was heavily restricted there was still a great measure of unofficial, and backdoor trading. Russia was actually one of the main beneficiary of this in the late 1700s as the flood of their goods into the Japanese markets proceeded them being granted official trading privileges.

If anything trade grew in the 17th century - even much less than it would have with the Tokugawa restrictions. Chinese junks were common at Nagasaki - to the point where they were restricted to 73 per year. After Yoshimune became shogun in 1715 the Japanese actually tried to rebalance what they saw as trade deficits with China and the Dutch by offering more exotic goods along the lines of shark fin, sea slugs, and sea weed.

However a lot of the way they traded continued to assert their authority in trade. The Japanese still regularly traded with the Chinese, however after 1715 Chinese merchants wanting to trade with Japan had to have their credentials dated by the Japanese calendar instead of the Chinese one. This followed over to the Korean merchants that were used as middlemen using the Japanese calendar as well.

Cohen, W. I. (2000). East Asia at the center: Four thousand years of engagement with the world.