During Japan’s famous period of isolation they were known for only being willing to trade with the Dutch in a period where global trade was becoming increasingly important. My question is did other Europeans ever attempt to fly Dutch flags and dress as Dutch people in order to try and trade with Japan? Or would that have been too complicated to be worth it? I’d be really interested if there was some source out there that indicated this
The VOC (Dutch East India Company) had a permanent presence in Nagasaki harbour and was in constant contact with the Japanese government representatives. The Edo Bakufu also set a strict number of ships the Dutch were allowed to send to Nagasaki each year. So if anyone tried this the they would immediately get told off by the VOC in Nagasaki.
This problem goes away, however, if said foreigners were asked by the Dutch to do so, that problem would disappear. This happened when during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the Dutch were in such dire straits that they had to hire other ships to fly Dutch colours to trade with the Japanese, and between 1797 and 1817, of 22 western ships that went to Nagasaki, only 8 were Dutch, with 9 being American, 3 British, one Danish, and one from Bremen (Germany). However the Japanese did find out afterwards and it contributed to anti-foreign sentiments.