THE JESUITS AND THE JAPAN TRADE

COMMERCE WITH JAPAN THE GREAT SHIP OF CHINA

The Portuguese carried on the 'China trade' for less than century, roughly between 1550 and 1640. Trading with China and Japan in the role of intermediaries, they drew fabulous profits from the transport of silk and silver cargoes.

Their initial destination in Japan was the island of Kyushu, there being no fixed disembarkation site. This was due in part to the internal politics pf Japan, which was undergoing a period of profound political instability with warring between the provinces, as Francine Hérail describes,

[L]a période finale de l'époque de Muromachi... se caractérise par l'effacement total de toute autorité centrale et par le renouvellement rapide, surtout au XVIe siécle, des familles de daimyô, ce que des contemporains appellent, d'une expression reprise par certains historiens, "l'âge de la subversion", du renversement des hiérarchies, gekokujô jidai. 1

As a result of this decentralization there was no coherent external policy, as Kiichi Matsuda emphasizes: "the junks depended not only on the conveniences of the trade but also on the good will of the feudal lords".2 However, the situation changed after the founding of Nagasaki in 1571, when the city became, as Charles Ralph Boxer writes: "the official entrepôt of trade with Macau".3

Every year a great ship of Portuguese merchants would dock in Japan and these voyages evolved into an integral part of the Far East trade routes.

They were the longest voyages the Portuguese undertook, but they were also subject to the most delays, on account of waiting for the monsoons, the route itself and the purchasing of merchandise in the Canton fairs. They required a wide variety of merchandise which came via Northern Europe (clocks from Flanders), passing through Portugal (wines), India (fabrics), Malacca(spices, aromatic woods, furs), Macau, and Canton (silks). Goods were traded at the various seaports but only in Macau did the Portuguese obtain the chief merchandise with which they traded in Japan, namely silks.

The degree of effort involved is a clear indication of the gains to be had, and leads one to conclude that for such efforts to be worthwhile these particular voyages must have been unusually profitable. Diogo de Couto, writing his Diálogo do Soldado Prático que trata dos Enganos e Desenganos da Índia, in the 1570s, mentioned "the silver, which comes from Japan every year in our great ship of commerce... the cargo of which is exchanged for bullion and amounts to more than a million in gold".4

At the helm of each of voyage was the captain-major who was initially appointed by the king. He would undertake the voyage at his own cost but in return he enjoyed the profits in full. These voyages would later be auctioned in Goa, and from 1635 the post of captain-major was eventually seconded, with the Portuguese crown retaining the profits and the captain only a salary and allowances. 5

It is evident from these changes that we are dealing with a highly lucrative voyage in which profits compensated to a great extent the capital invested. According to Diogo do Couto in the work cited above, a Japan voyage yielded the captain-major almost "seventy to eighty thousand xerafins each time".6 That is, between 21,000,000 and 24,000,000 reis.7

In the Livro das Cidades, e Fortalezas, que a Coroa de Portugal tem nas partes da India, e das Capitanias e mais Cargos que nelas ha, e da Importância delles, dating from 1582, the numbers are more modest: "each one had yielded from thirty five thousand cruzados and above more or less".8 Nearly 14,700,000 reis, 9 yet the author still maintains that these voyages: "are the best and most profitable of the all those undertaken in the Indian regions".10

The voyages grew even more profitable in the century to follow. Both Luís de Figueiredo Falcão and Jean Hugues Linschoten cite even higher figures, the former in his work Fortalesas, baluartes e cargos que el Rey proue no Estado da Índia, e o que importão aos prouidos que entrão nelles pouco mais a menos, dated 1607, and the latter in his Histoire de la Navigation, dated 1610.

The China voyage to Japan, undertaken every year, must yield its grantee between eighty and a hundred thousand.11

This is the amount registered by Luís de Figueiredo Falcão, giving the captain gains of between 33,600,000 and 42,000,000 reis. Linschoten set forth the even higher sum of 63,000,000 to 84,000,000 reis.

Ceux qui commandent au voyage de Iapon en tirent grand profit principalement quand ils ont bon argent à change & bon navire de sept ou huict cent lasts, car ils ont bien pour cent cinquante ou deux cents mille ducats12 de marchandises pretieuses.13

These figures, those referring to both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are frankly outrageous if we juxtapose them with the overall revenues of the Estado da Índia.

The figures cited by Diogo do Couto in Soldado Prático, written in the 1570s, may be juxtaposed with the 1574 budget of the Estado da Índia drawn up by Simão Fernandes and António de Abreu in which "The Estado da Índia's total revenue is worth two hundred and seventy eight contos fifty thousand six hundred and eighty reis".14

Correlating these two sources, the captain-major of a Japan voyage was able to earn the equivalent of around 8% of the total sum rendered annually to the Portuguese Crown by the Estado da Índia. The figures provided in the 1582 Livro das Cidades, e Fortalezas, may be compared with the 1581 budget, which is calculated at 238,801,953 reis15 (about 6% of the annual revenues of the Estado da Índia).

The seventeenth century figures, finally, may be culled from the very accounts of the abovementioned Luís de Figueiredo Falcão, in which the revenues of the Estado da Índia would balance out at 355,560,600 reis. In this case the percentages rise even further: the profits of a captain of one of these voyages could reach 10% of the Estado da Índia's overall revenues according to Luís de Figueiredo Falcão, and 20% in the case of Linschoten.

Why was it that this voyage provided so much profit?

There are various factors to bear in mind. The first is linked to the intermediary role the Portuguese merchants played between Japan and China at a time when the two countries had severed relations. Further, gold and silver were differently valued in the two countries, rendering the Portuguese, as Boxer dubbed them: "brokers of silver bullion in Japan in the trading of Japanese silver for Chinese gold".16 Another contributory factor was the Japanese preference for Chinese silk over the home-produced product, this being the chief merchandise used by the Portuguese in their role as intermediaries.

Japan had other European visitors besides the Portuguese merchants: the missionaries whose objective Diogo do Couto's Soldado Prático mentioned in describing the riches as the daily conversion of Christians.

[Y]ou know that throughout India, from Sofala to Japan, there are more than two million Christians besides the great number who are brought forth daily from the fonts of the holy baptism.17

What was the relation between the Portuguese merchants and the Japan missionaries?

PORTUGUESE MERCHANTS AND JESUITS IN JAPAN:

THEIR ROLES AND ALLIANCES

THE GREAT SHIP OF CHINA AS A FAVOURABLE FACTOR IN THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN

The alliance of Jesuits with Portuguese merchants in Japan dates from the beginning of their establishment on the archipelago. It was via Portuguese merchants that Francisco Xavier received his first concrete tidings of Japan and was induced to visit the country, as he wrote on January 20th, 1548,

I was in the city of Malacca [at the end of the year 1547] when some Portuguese merchants, men of much credibility, brought me the great news of some grand islands, discovered only shortly before, which are called the islands of Japan.18

It was also Portuguese merchants who first made the cross of Christ known in Japan, as Padre Sebastião Gonçalves recounted in his work, Primeira Parte da História dos Religiosos da Companhia de Jesus.

I know not how many months it was since certain Portuguese merchants had erected a cross against the devil and with this all but taken possession of Japan in the name of the Catholic Church.19

Portuguese merchants and Jesuits would be visitors to Japan for many years. The merchants engaged in trading came and went every year - as a rule they never remained. The Jesuits, with the goal of establishing missions, stayed and set up residences. This was not in itself unusual in the Portuguese discoveries, but it did acquire a new dimension when the priests begin to use the arrival of the boat as a means for conversion. Luís Fróis, 20 a missionary in Japan, wrote that the Fathers and the Christians "lived in the shadow of the great ship".21

What did he mean by this statement? This relationship between the Fathers and the great ship of the Portuguese traders surfaces anew in the work of another missionary in Japan, Alessandro Valignano. 22 In Chapter 17 of his Sumario de las cosas que pertenecen a la Provincia de la India Oriental, entitled "Del modo de hazer y conservar los christianos", Valignano considered the great ship second only to God as the principal aid in conversion: "That after the grace and favour of God the principal help we had and until now have is the ship".23 Further on he explains:

[T]he lords of Japan are very poor as was said, and the interest they show when the ships arrive at their ports is immense. They try and coax them to their lands and because they are convinced that the boats will go where the Christians and churches are and wherever the Fathers want them to go, it follows that many of them, although gentiles, attempt to have the Fathers in their lands and make churches and Christians, it seeming to them that by these means they will secure the boats and other favours they seek of the Fathers.24

By dint of the testimony of Luís Fróis and subsequently Valignano, we can ascertain that in the early years the Japan mission depended heavily on commerce conducted by the Portuguese. On the island of Kyushu, the missions of Yokoseura, Nagasaki, Kuchinotsu, Shimabara, Shiki and Kawachinoura were opened in return for regular visits by the ship. 25 The ship served as a stimulant for the great lords interested in merchandise, but it also provided an opportunity for mass conversion of the peasants who converted at the behest of the lords. 26 The absence of the ship could have led to a resurgence of previous creeds. This was what happened in Shiki, where the lord returned to his original beliefs when the ship failed to appear, taking with him many of his men.

Hence it was important that merchants and Jesuits should have made their destinies coincide in Japan.

An exemplary case, cited by Bryan de Souza in his book A Sobrevivência do Império: os portugueses na China, refers to the Portuguese merchant Bartholomeu Vaz Landeiro who "would not enter with his merchandise any port or region of Japan in which the Fathers were not adequately received and favoured".27

THE GREAT SHIP OF CHINA AS A MEANS TO PRESERVATION OF THE JAPAN MISSION

Nevertheless, there is no small difference between merely making the most of circumstances to which the Jesuits were somewhat averse, and turning into merchants. How was this bridge crossed?

It all began when a Portuguese merchant, Luís de Almeida, decided to enter the Society of Jesus, bringing with him four thousand ducats. 28 With this money the ex-merchant, now a priest, decided to continue investing in commerce with the objective of increasing revenues in Japan. Valignano explains in detail in Chapter 16 of his work Apologia:

[Luís de Almeida] employed this money through the hands of other Portuguese merchant friends, and he would buy silk in China, they themselves would load it, and sell it in Japan without the Fathers becoming involved beyond receiving from the hands of the Portuguese what they gained from this occupation.29

And this is how Jesuit entry into the famed silk trade can be explained. However, such participation was the target of criticism in the very heart of the Japan Mission. An example of this was the attitude of Father Francisco Cabral, who according to Professor Alvarez-Taladriz,

Understood... that this left the door wide open for the relaxation of the former discipline of the Order, since with commerce came money and with the latter followed the use of silk for clothing and bed clothes, more abundant food, the use of servants, a decrease in zeal for work and prayer, to the point that a Father in Japan seemed more a high lord than a poor priest.30

Unhappy at this prospect, the Superiors of the Society in Rome ordered Father Alessandro Valignano, who was to leave for the East as Visitor in 1573, to investigate in depth the participation of the Jesuits in business and relay the facts to Rome.

[I]n the year 1573 I [Alessandro Valignano], sent to Rome by our Jesuit Superior Everardo Mercuriano as Visitor of India and Japan, amongst the other directives brought that of examining with utmost diligence precisely what necessity there was of this help with the aim of permitting it or forbidding it in full or in part, as deemed necessary, and thus arriving here in Macau in the year 1578, and informing myself of what was happening in this regard.31

After availing himself of the information, he settled on what seems to have been an intermediate solution: preserving business on the one hand and on the other diminishing the extent of Jesuit participation (from ninety to forty piculs32). Doing justice to his training as a lawyer, Alessandro Valignano, whilst diminishing the participation of the Jesuits, secured the acceptance of the merchants on the following counts. Firstly, the priority sale of the Society's piculs at the pancada rate, that is, the first price obtained on arriving in Japan (hence this accord is called the "Pancada Agreement"). Secondly, the surplus was always reserved for the Society which later sold it on its own account. Thirdly, the returns, which had previously fluctuated, became fixed.

These conditions frankly favoured the Jesuits in commerce, making Alessandro Valignano a staunch defender of Jesuit participation in the fruitful commerce of the great ship of China.

Later Valignano realized that these measures did not entirely resolve the financial problems of the Japan Mission. This explains why he requested of the Pope in 1583 in Sumario de las Cosas del Japón, "ten thousand ducats and thirty or forty thousand ducats in reserve",33 in the chapter entitled "Del grande peligro en que está Japón si no se proveyere de renta y del fruto que se pierde por falta de ella".34

To justify the request he cited diminutive revenues, alluding to both insufficient financial input and the insecurity of this commerce.

[T]his trade and way of living... is insufficient, not drawing enough profits to defray the necessary costs, nor can this trade be increased since there is no capital for it and because the merchants and people of Macau do not permit it. 35

This insecurity resulted from the frequent loss of ships and from the lack of raw materials, in this case silk.

It is very uncertain and dangerous, this capital always running great risks outward bound and on the return journey, on account of the extremely stormy seas of China and Japan... and in addition to this there is often a lack of silk on account of which it is impossible to send the quantity customarily sent and because of this profits diminish.36

At the end of the century a new factor emerged which undermined once again the initial accord. The terms that the Japan Jesuits and the merchants of Macau had agreed upon ceased altogether to be observed. The latter no longer brought raw silk, replacing it with "wrought silk and silk piece goods, they no longer complied with the said agreement".37

As a consequence, the Jesuits went back to trading one hundred piculs, and moreover, they also sought new destinations and new goods. Such is the case with an India voyage, of which the Jesuit Superior learned in 1597, when gold was traded: "We returned to the former custom of 100 piculs and part of them was sent to India together with some gold."38 At the turn of the century there was a greater tendency to vary the merchandise and the destination. In the light of a letter of 1621 from the Jesuit Superior to the Father Visitor Jerónimo Rodrigues, it seems not only gold appeared in the commercial transactions of the Fathers but also musk, in addition to other destinations. [O]ne might take up gold or musk to be sent from Macau to Japan in order to meet the necessities of Province... As regards your highness having sent silk to Manila on account of the absence of the Japan voyage.39 As the years went by, other new products were traded by the Jesuits. [T]he kind of contract varied, because the location also varied, and according to the destination, the Procurator [of the Province] sent silk, gold, musk and copper.40 This growing search for new products and destinations arose as a result of the difficulties experienced in the silk trade in Japan. The misfortunes experienced in Japanese territory by both the Fathers41 and the Portuguese traders 42 led to the search for new markets. It should be pointed out that the expulsion of the Fathers from Japan and the closure of this mission did not put paid to the necessity of Jesuit participation in local commerce. It was necessary to maintain a whole chain of new missions, such as those of Tongking, Cochin-China, Canton and Hanoi. From 1640 onwards things more or less altered completely on account of the absence of the Japan trade and the Missions of those kingdoms, expenditure increased rather than decreased in this Province with the Missions which were opened after the loss of Japan in Tongking, Cochin-China, Canton and Hanoi and other regions.43 This increasing diversity in both products and destinations meant that the expulsion of the Portuguese from Japan in 1639 did not put a stop to Jesuit participation in Far East commerce. How was this mercantile attitude of the Jesuits received and judged in Europe? What was the attitude of the Portuguese crown and the Fathers superior of the Society of Jesus in Rome? ^^THE TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL AUTHORITIES IN THE FACE OF THE PARTICIPATION OF THE JAPAN JESUITS IN THE PROFITS OF THE CHINA VOYAGE Europe and the Far East were separated by a great distance in time and space, and this meant that the respective attitudes of both the Portuguese crown and the Society of Jesus were at times contradictory. Initially, this trade did not meet with approval in the heart of the Society in Rome. The Jesuit Superior Francisco de Borja (who governed the Society from 1565 to 1572) demonstrated this discontent in a letter he sent to the Provincial Father of India on October 8th 1567. We are unhappy about the way our brothers in Japan are maintaining themselves with those uncertain profits of scant edifying value, and were there a more secure way we would all be relieved.44 Everardo Mercuriano (1573-1580) had already settled the question by prohibiting this trade. However, he had simultaneously sent the Visitor Alessandro Valignano to take stock of the situation in loco. This betrays a certain hesitancy, but such was not to be found in his successor Claudio Aquaviva (1581-1615), as is clear from the latter's letter of February 10th 1582 to Father Valignano, giving his backing to the commerce. As regards the silk trade that maintains the Order in Japan and the doubt expressed partly because of its nature as trade, partly because of the prohibition by Father Everardo Mercuriano, we saw here the long report your honour gave us about the maintenance of our own... We all judge this to be one of those cases in which necessity prevails over the law.45 The Portuguese crown's first official account of this matter was the written transcription of the agreement made by Alessandro Valignano, as described above. The document in question is a decree from Philip II, dated April 1584, consisting of several pages, in which one may detect the crown's full acceptance of Jesuit participation in the China trade. Here, the terms which Alessandro Valignano had negotiated with the inhabitants of Macau are confirmed. Dom Philip, by the grace of God King of Portugal and of the Algarve and beyond... since the Japan Fathers have not until now had a means of sustenance and of defraying the great expenses... they were forced to help themselves by sending a certain quantity of silk from China to Japan,... Father Alessandro Valignano, then Visitor and now Provincial, reached with the said merchants and with the People of Macau the agreement that in the aforesaid volume of 1,600 piculs the Fathers should have an allocation of only 40 thereof instead of 90 or one hundred, to be sent on the condition that the said 40 piculs be sold always to the Fathers at the 'pancada' price. I hereby notify the captain-major of China to this effect.46 In order to dispel all uncertainty, in the very same decade the Portuguese crown confirmed Jesuit participation in Macau trade with a new decree. [I]n order to confirm the same agreement with the officials of the Cámara [of Macau] they are making another public deed on the 29th of the month of April 1589 the record of which is in the City archives.47 If the 1580s were especially positive vis-àvis the Portuguese crown's position on Jesuit trade in Japan, such was not the case in the heart of the Society, which led Jesuit Superior Claudio Aquaviva to revise his position and entirely prohibit this commerce since "it seems that during 1585 there were a number of complaints about this trade in Rome".48 These complaints were alluded to in the very same letter that announced the end of this commerce (Letter from Claudio Aquaviva to Alessandro Valignano of December 24th 1585). Among the complaints voiced were the personal involvement of the Fathers in this trade, accompanying the merchants to the fairs; the commercial ambience created in religious areas; and the abuse of the proper quantities of merchandise, [T]he ill repute and scandal which we understand is found not only in Macau but also in Canton within China, to where one of the Society went from Japan to do trade like the rest of the Portuguese merchants, which gives rise to rumours... about the scandal... that Your Honour left there 200 to 300 piculs of silk, various parties have written to us regarding this and the excessive tumult of the contracting, soliciting and merchandising seen in the Macau residence.49 In view of this situation, certain revenues were increased, such as that from the Apostolic Chamber in Spain, in order to raise the funds required for the development of the Christian community in Japan. Thus it was no longer necessary for the Japan Fathers to participate in the commerce of the East, tolerated up to that point by dint of the absence of other sources of income. The trading of Chinese silk in Japan, as Your Honour knows, was a wholly involuntary dispensation ad tempus on the part of the Society and the Pontiff, but ultimately necessary for the spiritual needs and health of so many souls who without that temporal help might have been lost... Our Father has provided for this necessity... For which reason it is desirable for the said commercial activity to be withdrawn altogether as something illicit.50 Two years later, Claudio Aquaviva, in a directive to Alessandro Valignano, authorized once again the participation of the Japan Fathers in local trade on the condition that "in the future ours conduct themselves with caution".51 According to a letter of the Visitor Luís da Gama of December 15th 1664, the reasons behind the former's change of heart were linked to the difficulties of channelling finances for the Japan mission. The favours of His Holiness diminished, it seems the King of Spain did not conform to expectations, and the revenues of Malacca and India were not sufficient, for which reason a Father from Japan came to Malacca, and His Lordship revoked the prohibition imposed on trading.52 The participation of priests in the China commerce was not, however, limited to the Jesuits in Japan, as is evident from a royal instruction to the viceroy of India, dated January 2nd 1596. 53 In this instruction a China voyage is granted to the Jesuits, not of Japan, but rather those administering the hospital in Goa. However, while the Japan Jesuits were intervening in Goa trade, sending silks and gold to India, as discussed above, the failure to request authorization from either the Court or the Society led the Jesuit Superior to write a letter on April 10th 1597 condemning this commerce, which had already burgeoned in the Far East area, and reinstating the limits of the initial contract. The business that the Reverend Father made of the silk, and the gold which you sent to India, has given us some cause for concern, because although the Reverend Father may think that it was done in secret, the Viceroy has learned of everything, and other persons, who perchance continue to find us irksome. We entrust the Reverend Father with maintaining the terms of the pact which is made to extend only over business between China and Japan... made of fifty piculs.54 In spite of the reprehensions on the part of the Jesuit Superior, these commercial advances of the Jesuit Fathers in Japan were nevertheless to bear upon the Portuguese crown's radical change of position, when at the turn of the seventeenth century it promulgated decrees and royal letters prohibiting the commerce. The first royal letter known to us dates from January 23rd 1608, and specifically prohibits the Fathers of the Japan Mission from trading. To this end the letter orders the captains of the Japan voyages not to accept the merchandise of the Father. Friend Viceroy, I the King send you many greetings. I deem the preservation and spread of Christianity in Japan of such importance... that those occupied in the conversion of yon kingdoms should not be connected... to any commerce or kind of merchandising; in addition to their being prohibited therein and it being against the profession of the missionaries, I am sure that in this way their doctrine will be better received... I thus command that the captains of the Japan voyages do not consent to accepting such merchandise on board their ships.55 The following year the prohibitions were renewed, both in a royal letter of March 19th, in which the viceroy was ordered to "prohibit the Japan missionaries from involvement in any commerce and recommend that the captains of the Japan voyages stay alert to ensure that this directive is carried out",56 and also in a decree of December 24th, where not only the missionaries of Japan but also the missionaries of all "regions of India" fell under the prohibition. 57 The situation must have remained unchanged almost a year later, since in a letter to the viceroy dated February 4th 1610, the participation of the Fathers in commerce was once again prohibited. Two new pieces of information must be emphasised: the revenue losses in the custom houses caused by unpaid duties, and the request to the Pope that he formulate a papal brief prohibiting commerce. Ruy Lourenço de Tavora, friend Viceroy, I send you greetings... I am informed that the Fathers and ecclesiastic persons of those regions, forgetful of their duties and contrary to what the holy canons ordain, are occupied in trade and merchandising, resulting from this in addition to the great scandal visited upon the heads of Christians and infidels, great revenue losses in my customs houses through their failure to pay duties in them... I have sent to the Holy Father requesting that he prohibit by Papal Brief the said trading and merchandising both on their own account and through intermediaries.58 In the same month and year, a royal letter was written in which the king specifically prohibited the Fathers of the Japan Mission, but granted them "half the proceeds of a China voyage"59 to cover their debts. Meanwhile, as the royal directives reached Rome, the Fathers of the Society informed the Pope of the situation and "His Holiness sent word to the Nuncio of Spain that he do his utmost to make the king revoke".60 The Nuncio accomplished his mission and in July 1611 the king promulgated a new decree revoking the prohibition. By decree of His Majesty, made in Lisbon on the first day of July 1611, His Majesty revokes the order which in this letter and instruction is given, and he concedes to the Japan Fathers the right to continue in the business of carrying Chinese silk to Japan as before was done.61 Nevertheless, in the very same year, commerce was prohibited, this time by the superiors of the Society of Jesus in Rome. At issue were the "Letters-Patent of our Very Reverend Father Superior Claudio Aquaviva forbidding in Virtue of Holy Obedience all Trading by our Brothers in the Three Provinces of India".62 These constant advances and retreats, spanning as they did the seventeenth century, indicate the difficulties experienced by both the Portuguese crown and the Society of Jesus in resolving the question of Jesuit participation in Far East trade. During his generalship (1615-1645), Father Múcio Vitelleschi found that this issue demanded his attention and in spite of the "many complaints about our merchandising",63 as he confessed in a letter written to Father Francisco Vieira on January 15th 1619, he assumed that the letters-patent of Father Claudio Aquaviva did not include the specific commerce practised in Japan, under the accord signed by Father Alessandro Valignano. Three years later, in a letter of January 1st, 64 he gave his approval for the use of new merchandise and for expansion into regions previously unexplored in Jesuit commerce. In 1633, however, Chapter 80 of Pope Urban VIII's Constitution 65 concerning the religious missions in Japan and other regions of India, banned the missionaries from any form of commerce. Given that the practice of commerce prevailed, it appears that this ban exerted minimal impact on the missions of the East. This led Pope Clement IX to promulgate on June 17th 1669 a papal brief66 once again prohibiting the missionaries from engaging in commerce. In itself, this papal brief indicated the continued existence of this phenomenon.

CONCLUSION

I have aimed, in this article to show how the Jesuits in Japan participated in trading, and the implications of their activities.

One of the conclusions to be drawn is that the Jesuits and the Portuguese merchants in Japan lived in a state of symbiosis. On the one hand, the Jesuits needed the Portuguese merchants for the economic survival of the Mission. On the other hand, in the absence of other institutions, the merchants consigned to the Jesuits the task of representing the Portuguese crown and also their own interests whilst they were away (it was the Jesuits who were responsible for selling the surplus when the merchants had left port, it was also the Jesuits who went on embassies representing Portuguese interests to Japanese governors). Furthermore, the knowledge the Fathers acquired about Japanese civilization (especially the language) rendered them indispensable in trade with the Japanese.

This most convenient alliance was something not readily understood on the Iberian Peninsula, or in Rome, and hence the diversity of orders emanating from the Crown and the Society. We must also take into account the geographical location of the Far East with respect to Europe.

Merchants and Jesuits: they formed a permanent alliance which was mutually advantageous. It became apparent that this alliance was essential when, in the wake of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan, the Portuguese merchants were unable to maintain commercial contacts, eventually finding themselves expelled as well.

Despite the end to religious and commercial relations with Japan, this alliance prevailed given the inroads into a diversity of new locations made by the missionaries in their task of conversion and by the merchants in their constant quest for profits. Sailing the seas of the Far East, new destinations continued to open up for them, with new products and new peoples.

NOTES

1 Francine Hérail, Histoire du Japon-Des Origines à la fin de Meiji, Paris, Publications Orientalistes de France, 1986, p. 13.

2 Kiichi Matsuda, The Relations between Portugal and Japan, Lisbon, Junta de Investigações do Ultramar/Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1965, p. 15.

3 Charles Ralph Boxer, Fidalgos no Extremo Oriente 1550- 1770 Factos e Lendas de Macau Antigo, Macau, Fundação do Oriente/Museu e Centro de Estudos Marítimos de Macau, 1990, p.30.

4 Diogo do Couto, O Soldado Prático, Lisbon, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 1980, p. 211.

5 For more information about the conditions of the voyages see Charles Ralph Boxer's major work The Great Ship of Amacon, Fundação do Oriente/Museu e Centro de Estudos Marítimos de Macau, 1988.

6 Idem, p. 212.

7 Figures concerning the conversion of this currency were taken from Monsignor Sebastião Rodolfo Delgado's Glossário Luso Asiático, which deals with silver money minted in Goa. According to this specialist on India one xerafin equals 300 reis.

8 Livro das Cidades, e Fortalezas, que a Coroa de Portugal tem nas partes da India, e das Capitanias, e mais Cargos que nelas ha, e da Importância delles, annotated edition by Francisco Paulo Mendes da Luz, Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1960. p. 95.

9 The conversion of cruzados into reis was based on an evaluative study undertaken by Vitorino Magalhães Godinho who sets one cruzado at 420 reis during the 1580s, thus increasing its value by 30 reis in comparison with the beginning of the 16th century. See Os descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, Vitorino Magalhães Godinho, 2nd edition, Lisbon, Editorial Presença, 1982, vol. II, pp. 70-78.

10 Livro das Cidades, e Fortalezas, que a Coroa de Portugal tem nas partes da India, e das Capitanias, e mais Cargos que nelas ha, e da Importância delles, annotated edition by Francisco Paulo Mendes da Luz, Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1960. p. 95.

11 Luiz de Figueiredo Falcão, Livro em que se contém toda a Fazenda e Real Patrimonio dos Reinos de Portugal, India e Ilhas Adjacentes e outras particularidades, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1859, p. 125.

12 Regarding the conversion of this currency, Charles Ralph Boxer's opinion was followed here, "As a rule, however, the ducat was mainly employed by Italian and other European travellers in Asia to designate loosely the Portuguese cruzado", C. R. Boxer, op. cit., p. 336.

13 Jean Hugues Linschoten, Histoire de la Navigation. Amsterdam, Imprimerie de Theodore Pierre, 1610, p. 60.

14 Les Finances de L'Etat Portugais des Indes Orientales (1517-1635) (Matériaux pour une étude structurale et conjoncturelle), Vitorino Magalhães Godinho, Paris, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/Centro Cultural Português, 1982, p. 346.

15 O Estado da Índia nos anos de 1581-1588 - Estrutura Administrativa e Económica - Alguns elementos para o seu estudo, Artur Teodoro de Matos, Ponta Delgada, Universidade dos Açores, 182, p. 148.

16 C. R. Boxer, op. cit., p. 2.

17 Diogo do Couto, op. cit., p. 203.

18 Monumenta Historica Japoniae II-Documentos del Japón 1547-1557, ed. Juan Ruiz-de-Medina SJ, Rome, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1990, p. 26.

19 Sebastiam Gonçalves, Primeira Parte da Historia dos Religiosos da Companhia de Jesus e do que fizeram com a divina graça na conversão dos infieis a nossa sancta fee catholica nos reynos e provincias da India Oriental, published by Joseph Wicki, Coimbra, Atlântida, 1957-62, vol. 1, p.313.

20 Luís Fróis was born in 1532 in the city of Lisbon. He joined the Society in 1548 and in the same year went to India. He studied in Goa and it was there that he wrote what Joseph Wicki classified as the first annual letter: "In November 1552 Father Barzeu who after the departure of Xavier for China became the principal of the College of St. Paul in Goa and Vice-Provincial asked him to write 'the local news' (Goa), which he did admirably, finishing on December 1st the first part that may well deserve to be called the first annual letter of the missions, very extensive, rich in vocabulary and composed with vigour" ("Introduction" written by Joseph Wicki to the Historia de Japam by Luís Fróis, p. 4.) He arrived in Japan in 1563, dying in Nagasaki on July 8th 1597). He is the author of the famous Historia de Japam, in which he describes his mission from its beginning to 1593.

21 Cited by Armando Martins Janeira in his book O impacto português sobre a civilização japonesa, Lisbon, Publicações D. Quixote, 1970, p. 157.

22 Alessandro Valignano, the Italian Jesuit, was born in Chieti in 1539. He became a doctor of law at the University of Padua and joined the Society in 1566. He left for India in 1573. He went three times to Japan as Visitor and produced several written accounts of the country. His two sumarios are noteworthy: Sumario de las cosas que pertenecen a la Provincia de la India Oriental (1580) and the Sumario de las cosas que pertenecen a la Provincia de Japón (1583). Likewise the Advertimentos e avisos acerca dos costumes e catangues dos Japão (1581), written as early as his first visit to Japan. During his second visit he added some further accounts to the Sumario ao Japão under the title of Adiciones del Sumario (1592). Finally, during his last stay in Japan he wrote the Apologia de la Compania de Jesús de Japón y de la China (1598) and the Principio y progreso de la religión cristiana en Japón (1601-1603). He died in Macau in 1606. For further information, see Josef Schütte's work Valignano's Mission Principles for Japan, St. Louis, The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1980.

23 Sumario de las cosas que pertenecen a la Provincia de la India Oriental, y al Govierno della... dirigido a nuestro Padre Generale Everardo Mercuriano en el año de 1579, Alessandro Valignano in Documentação para a História das Missões do Padroado Português do Oriente/India (1572-1582), ed. A. da Silva Rego, Lisbon, Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1958, vol. 12, p. 537.

24 Idem, ibid., p. 537.

25 Historian Joseph Jennes explains the various agreements and requirements of the port masters in his History of the Catholic Church in Japan - From the beginnings to the early Meiji Period (1549-1873), Joseph Jennes, Tokyo, The Committee of the Apostolate, 1959, pp. 21 to 24.

26 According to Joseph Jennes, nearly five hundred people were baptized with the local lord in Shiki.

27 A Sobrevivência do Império: Os portugueses na China (1630-1754), George Bryan Souza, Lisbon, Publicações Dom Quixote, 1991, p. 55.

28 Luís de Almeida was born in Lisbon in 1525. He left for India in 1548 becoming a successful merchant, and it was with this status that he arrived for the first time in Japan in 1552. He was involved in the commercial activities between Malacca, Lampacao and Japan until 1555, at which point he opted for the religious life. The following year he joined the Society of Jesus and dedicated himself to medicine having acted as one of the principal organizers of Bungo Hospital. Conversant in Japanese, he travelled across various regions of Japan. He died in October 1583. For further information, see Father Diego Pacheco's study in the STUDIA review, N-° 26, April 1969, pp. 57-114.

29 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-58, Apologia en la qual se responde a diversas calumnias que se escrivieron contra los PP. de la Compañia de Japón y de la China, Alessandro Valignano, fols. 87 and 87V.

30 Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583), Alessandro Valignano, critical edition by J. L. Alvarez-Taladriz in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, N-° 9, Tokyo, Sophia University, 1954, pp. 42-43.

31 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-58, Apologia en la qual se responde a diversas calumnias que se escrivieron contra los PP. de la Compañia de Japón y de la China, Alessandro Valignano, fols. 87 and 87V.

32 The picul, according to Monsignor Sebastião Rodolfo Delgado, is "a measurement of weight from the Far East, equal to one hundred catties or sixty kilos. From pikul [Malay], which properly means 'the weight of one man'" in Glossário Luso Asiático, Monsignor Sebastião Rodolfo Delgado, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade/Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 1921, vol. II, p. 208.

33 Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583), Alessandro Valignano, critical edition by J. L Alvarez-Taladriz in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Nº 9, Tokyo, Sophia University, 1954, p. 338.

34 Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583), Alessandro Valignano, critical edition by J. L Alvarez-Taladriz in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Nº 9, Tokyo, Sophia University, 1954, pp. 331-339.

35 Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583), Alessandro Valignano, critical edition by J. L Alvarez-Taladriz in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Nº 9, Tokyo, Sophia University, 1954, pp. 334-335.

36 Sumario de las Cosas de Japón (1583), Alessandro Valignano, critical edition by J. L Alvarez-Taladriz in Monumenta Nipponica Monographs, Nº 9, Tokyo, Sophia University, 1954, p. 335.

37 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 199.

38 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 199.

39 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 200 v.

40 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 204.

41 Officially they began in 1587 with the first missionary expulsion decree and the loss of control over Nagasaki, and continued with constant persecutions until the ensuing prohibition of Christianity in Japan in 1613.

42 It was from 1604 onwards that the first measures were taken to control the Portuguese trade with trading authorization granted to other foreigners (the Dutch in 1609 and the English in 1613), putting an end to the silk monopoly of the Portuguese in Japan.

43 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 204.

44 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 198.

45 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 198.

46 Charles Ralph Boxer, The Great Ship of Amacon, Fundação do Oriente/Museu e Centro de Estudos Marítimos de Macau, 1988. pp.175-179.

47 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-58, Apologia en la qual se responde a diversas calumnias que se escrivieron contra los PP. de la Compañia de Japón y de la China, Alessandro Valignano, fols. 88 and 88 v.

48 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 198 v.

49 Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu - Documenta Indica 1585-1588, eds. Joseph Wicki SJ and John Gomes SJ, Rome, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1979, vol. XIV, p.151.

50 Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu - Documenta Indica 1585-1588, eds. Joseph Wicki SJ and John Gomes SJ, Rome, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1979, vol. XIV, p.151.

51 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 198 v.

52 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 198 v.

53 Historical Archives of the Estado da Índia, "Livro das Monções" Nº 4. Summarised in Boletim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, Nº 3, 1955, pp. 431-435.

54 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 199.

55 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livro das Monções, ed. Raymundo António de Bulhão Pato, Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciências, 1880, vol. 1, pp. 185-186.

56 Historical Archives of the Estado da India, "Livro das Monções" Nº s 9, 10 and 11. Summarised in Boletim da Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa,, Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, No. 3, 1955, p. 597.

57 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livro das Monções, ed. Raymundo António de Bulhão Pato, Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciências, 1880, vol. 1, pp. 281-283.

58 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livro das Monções, ed. Raymundo António de Bulhão Pato, Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciências, 1880, vol. 1, pp. 308-311.

59 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livro das Monções, ed. Raymundo António de Bulhão Pato, Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciências, 1880, vol. 1, pp. 343-345.

60 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 199 v.

61 Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livro das Monções, ed. Raymundo António de Bulhão Pato, Lisbon, Academia Real das Sciências, 1880, 1st volume, pp. 185-186.

62 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Patente de Nosso Reverendo Padre Geral Claudio Aquaviva porque prohibe in Virtute Sanctae Obedienciae aos nossos das três Provincias da India, toda a mercancia, fol. 195.

63 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 200.

64 Biblioteca da Ajuda, codex 49-IV-56, Treslado de huma Carta que o Padre Visitador de Japão Luís da Gama escreveu a Nosso Muito Reverendo Padre, fol. 200.

65 Constituzione delle Missioni in Giappone di 22 febbraio 1633 - Urbanus Papa VIII in Pontificia Nipponica- Le relazioni tra la Santa Sede e il Giappone attraverso i documenti pontifici, Leo Magnino, Rome, Officium Libri Catholici, 1947, pp. 159-164.

66 Breve che Proibisce il Commercio ai Missionario di 17 Giugno 1669 - Clemente IX in Pontificia Nipponica- Le relazioni tra la Santa Sede e il Giappone attraverso i documenti pontifici, Leo Magnino, Rome, Officium Libri Catholici, 1947, pp. 169-172.

*Ana Maria Ramalho Prosérpio Leitão graduated in History from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lisbon. She is currently completing her MA in the History of Portuguese Discoveries and Expansion and holds a scholarship from the Fundação Oriente.