Saturday Showcase | October 17, 2020

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AskHistorians is filled with questions seeking an answer. Saturday Spotlight is for answers seeking a question! It’s a place to post your original and in-depth investigation of a focused historical topic.

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ParallelPain

A short while back I shared some summary trade statistics from Nagasaki I found in Cullen, Louis. (2017). The Nagasaki Trade of the Tokugawa Era: Archives, Statistics, and Management. Japan Review, (31), 69-104.

I decided to go to it's source, the Tsūkō ichiran, compiled by the late Edo bakufu on history of diplomacy and trade with the outside world. The Nagasaki statistics are found in book 4, the Chinese statistics in volume 160 and the Dutch in volume 161.

Historians have already went through this and other sources to compile what stats are available (so those want to do detailed research should hit up a university library), but I thought I'd share this for those interested. The stats transcribed by me can be found here, hopefully without too much transcription errors. The values are rounded to the nearest whole number. Silver is recorded in kanme (3.733.75kg) and gold is recorded in ryō (37.337.5g). At the end of the trade some gold/silver are kept in Nagasaki for the trader to buy food, supplies, pay fees, etc.

Starting from 1648 detailed stats exist until 1672 for the Chinese and 1670 for the Dutch.

For the Chinese:

The records kept the shōgun and court's purchases separately from the reported total, so a combined calculated total is given, value shown in silver.

Year Ships Reported trade value (Silver or equivalent) Reported trade value (Gold) Shogun's & Court's Purchases (Silver) Shogun's & Court's Purchases (Gold) Exported Goods Value (Silver) Exported Goods Value (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Exported Currency (Silver) Exported Currency (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Silver kept in Japan Gold kept in Japan Equivalent in Silver Calculated Total Trade Value (Silver)
1648 20 4,998 2,205 1,795 998 4,998
1649 59 12,062 56 4,423 5,454 2,186 12,119
1650 70 15,299 58 5,294 6,828 3,178 15,357
1651 40 9,618 23 3,208 4,749 1,660 9,641
1652 50 13,951 36 6,166 5,867 1,917 13,987
1653 56 15,103 114 9,305 3,517 2,281 15,217
1654 51 19,081 148 7,070 8,181 3,829 19,229
1655 45 11,934 104 6,651 4,655 627 12,038
1656 57 14,217 94 7,440 5,241 1,536 14,311
1657 51 10,366 262 2,450 6,568 1,348 10,629
1658 43 16,429 173 4,365 11,029 1,036 16,603
1659 60 25,953 249 5,621 19,401 931 26,202
1660 45 23,807 184 2,449 20,151 1,207 23,991
1661 39 29,314 171 2,711 25,769 833 29,484
1662 42 18,859 230 3,335 12,943 2,581 19,089
1663 29 11,090 179 1,968 5,411 3,710 11,269
1664 38 20,871 37 2,751 16,664 470 30 1,426 20,908
1665 36 12,691 91 2,765 8,042 1,884 12,782
1666 37 13,100 35 3,866 7,236 3,700 252 1,736 13,124
1667 30 10,155 3 2,937 4,547 12,160 827^N 1,853 10,167
1668 43 17,541 130 73,507 4,116 3,415 128,818 7,894 335 29,477 1,651 17,541
1669 38 16,408 293,747 0 83 69,595 3,897 296 180,026 10,040 38,846 2,175 16,408
1670 36 15,282 263,484 0 200 54,958 3,188 395 152,304 8,834 49,416 2,866 15,282
1671 38 14,426 1 67,833 3,934 950 119,500 6,931 45,012 2,611 14,428
1672 43 15,082 2,756 8,964 25 9 3,353 15,082

^N This value is recorded as 126.88 kanme, but doesn't match the recorded exchange rate or the total given. It's assumed to be a typo and 826.88 kanme the correct value.

For the Dutch:

Year Ships Reported trade value (Silver or equivalent) Reported trade value (Gold) Exported Goods Value (Silver) Exported Goods Value (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Exported Currency (Silver) Exported Currency (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Silver kept in Japan Taxes/Fees Gold kept in Japan Equivalent in Silver
1648 6 6,988 557 6,221 209
1649 7 7,076 776 5,340 960
1650 7 5,473 1,025 3,941 507
1651 8 6,656 1,294 4,896 466
1652 9 7,052 1,062 5,539 451
1653 5 7,424 787 6,190 447
1654 4 5,191 900 3,848 442
1655 4 5,103 704 4,012 387
1656 8 8,435 1,669 6,190 576
1657 8 5,873 2,017 3,444 412
1658 9 7,962 1,812 5,641 509
1659 8 8,066 1,422 5,960 684
1660 5 6,545 1,716 4,268 561
1661 11 9,129 2,958 5,544 627
1662 8 9,204 2,068 5,960 1,176 57
1663 6 6,411 2,260 3,671 480 39
1664 9 11,014 4,139 5,602 1,273 61
1665 12 10,621 2,574 7,046 1,001 55
1666 7 8,700 1,996 3,787^N 30,000 2,040 877 55
1667 8 10,430 2,145 3,579 50,000 3,400 1,306 63
1668 9 11,420 203,928 33,557 1,879 158,755 8,890 72 11,616 650
1669 5 10,454 186,677 36,526 2,045 144,464 8,090 62 5,687 318
1670 6 11,875 204,748 60,308 3,498 132,684 7,696 72 11,756 682

^N This value is missing in the records and was calculated by subtracting other reported values from the reported total.

Combined Chinese and Dutch Trade:

Year Ships Reported trade value (Silver or equivalent) Reported trade value (Gold) Shogun's & Court's Purchases (Silver) Shogun's & Court's Purchases (Gold) Exported Goods Value (Silver) Exported Goods Value (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Exported Currency (Silver) Exported Currency (Gold) Equivalent in Silver Silver kept in Japan Taxes/Fees (Included) Gold kept in Japan Equivalent in Silver Calculated Total Trade Value (Silver)
1648 26 11,985 2,761 8,016 1,208 11,985
1649 66 19,139 56 5,198 10,795 3,146 19,195
1650 77 20,772 58 6,319 10,768 3,685 20,830
1651 48 16,274 23 4,503 9,645 2,126 16,297
1652 59 21,003 36 7,228 11,406 2,369 21,039
1653 61 22,527 114 10,091 9,708 2,728 22,641
1654 55 24,271 148 7,970 12,029 4,272 24,419
1655 49 17,036 104 7,355 8,667 1,015 17,140
1656 65 22,652 94 9,109 11,431 2,112 22,747
1657 59 16,240 262 4,467 10,012 1,760 16,502
1658 52 24,391 173 6,177 16,669 1,545 24,564
1659 68 34,019 249 7,043 25,361 1,615 34,268
1660 50 30,352 184 4,164 24,420 1,768 30,536
1661 50 38,442 171 5,669 31,313 1,460 38,613
1662 50 28,063 230 5,403 18,903 3,758 57 28,293
1663 35 17,501 179 4,228 9,083 4,190 39 17,680
1664 47 31,885 37 6,890 22,266 470 30 2,699 61 31,922
1665 48 23,311 91 5,339 15,088 2,885 55 23,403
1666 44 21,799 35 5,862 11,023 33,700 2,292 2,613 55 21,824
1667 38 20,585 3 5,082 8,126 62,160 4,227 3,160 63 20,598
1668 52 28,961 203,928 130 107,064 5,996 3,415 287,573 16,784 335 72 41,092 2,301 28,961
1669 43 26,862 480,424 0 83 106,120 5,943 296 324,491 18,130 62 44,533 2,494 26,862
1670 42 27,157 468,232 0 200 115,267 6,685 395 284,988 16,529 72 61,172 3,548 27,157

Exported Gold and Silver (kg)

If we use 3.75kg for each kanme and 37.5g for each ryō, then (ignoring purity) the exported precious metals are:

Year Silver Gold
1648 30,059.84
1649 40,479.77
1650 40,381.16
1651 36,167.73
1652 42,773.25
1653 36,403.66
1654 45,110.13
1655 32,499.56
1656 42,867.60
1657 37,546.29
1658 62,509.08
1659 95,104.85
1660 91,573.77
1661 117,423.87
1662 70,884.99
1663 34,060.30
1664 83,498.09 17.63
1665 56,578.44
1666 41,335.56 1,263.75
1667 30,471.95 2,331.00
1668 12,806.39 10,784.00
1669 1,108.73 12,168.39
1670 1,480.25 10,687.06
Total 1,083,125.24 37,251.83

Also the shōgun and court's purchases were excluded as it's not recorded where the payments ended up.