Evilprodigy
Donor
Reading this update gave me fond memories of teaching Samurai William: The Englishman who Opened Japan which took place around the same time period, in the early 17th century. Dutchmen Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn and Melchior van Santvoort, who were both survivors of the wreck of the Liefde in Japan, lived and worked in Japan where they visited Ayutthaya in 1613 while serving on two Japanese junks. They meet another Dutchman there who was trying to deliver a letter to the titular William Adams on behalf of King James I.
I had vaguely recalled that the Chao Phraya river is not navigable to Ayutthaya, but I now see that I recalled incorrectly as I checked my copy of the book. Turns out the Dutch traders were just using a different native-built ship from Pattani while their main vessel, an English-built one named the Globe captained by Peter Floris, was docked there dealing with the local Dutch trader community to gather trade goods that would be welcome in Japan. When the Globe came to meet up with them they docked at the river mouth and were hit by a storm, it seems like they just chose not to advance inland rather than being unable, as it was monsoon season and the native ship had enough difficulty going inland as it took four weeks to get from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.
The Dutch who worked for the Japanese had become quite rich trading between Southeast Asia and Japan where they engaged in the Sappanwood trade. I recalled quite well, and double checked to be sure I remembered the quote right, that "the Japanese had an insatiable appetite for sappanwood." This, for anyone who cares, is similar to Brazilwood and is used to make red dyes.
This highlights what ITTL I think is a pretty important development of western presence in Island Asia. Western trade vessels are just middlemen, sometimes trading between Europe and Asia but mostly just sticking to the waters of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific to accrue profits in local trade. Western trade outposts helped facilitate this, as Taprobane, Pyrgos, and Pahang do for the Rhomans. Cross-continent trade is a niche for only a few vessels, while native trade is where large profits can be gathered with relatively short sailing times. The return home would occur after several years of this sort of local trade engagement, maybe more if the ships decided to settle in the trade factories permanently. European advancements in naval architecture and ship defense gave them a competitive edge against local merchants, as they could carry more trade goods, travel more quickly, and were harder targets for pirates due to their size and number of canons and so they were safer from that threat in the region. Trading Western goods for spices was only a part of the trade, informing the first and last stages of a European trade mission to the east. European goods would be traded where they were most profitable, then those goods would be traded about the local market slowly traveling up the value-added chain until European ships could stock themselves with trade goods that would be highly valued in Europe. For example, the Dutch previously mentioned brought Western trade goods they exchanged in the Bay of Bengal before arriving in Pattani and Ayutthaya where they traded for Sappanwood, then brought that wood to Japan where they exchanged it for Japanese lacquerware and silk, then after several more exchanges which included a visit to Java they made their way back to England. But there is nothing stopping them from just trading the last leg of their trip to new European arrivals in European trade factories and staying in the east on a permanent basis.
This, is the nexus of the Shiplords of Taprobane and most long-term Rhoman settlement in the east. They fill a niche by engaging in local trade so that new Rhoman arrivals don't have to, and can just trade at Rhoman colonies which saves a great deal of time on the trade mission, as an Alexandrian merchant can finance a trade ship to the east and reasonably expect it back next year, and thus its profits, rather than in the four or five that it took the Globe and Peter Floris (who didn't even make it back as he died in 1615 in the east). This is the value of a permanent trade infrastructure presented by European colonies in the east and why European nations fought to keep them around for so long. So when the Spanish show up and start to dismantle the Rhoman presence with their armada, it will be seriously impactful to the merchant class in a way that is difficult to illustrate, as no borders may change whatsoever.
I had vaguely recalled that the Chao Phraya river is not navigable to Ayutthaya, but I now see that I recalled incorrectly as I checked my copy of the book. Turns out the Dutch traders were just using a different native-built ship from Pattani while their main vessel, an English-built one named the Globe captained by Peter Floris, was docked there dealing with the local Dutch trader community to gather trade goods that would be welcome in Japan. When the Globe came to meet up with them they docked at the river mouth and were hit by a storm, it seems like they just chose not to advance inland rather than being unable, as it was monsoon season and the native ship had enough difficulty going inland as it took four weeks to get from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.
The Dutch who worked for the Japanese had become quite rich trading between Southeast Asia and Japan where they engaged in the Sappanwood trade. I recalled quite well, and double checked to be sure I remembered the quote right, that "the Japanese had an insatiable appetite for sappanwood." This, for anyone who cares, is similar to Brazilwood and is used to make red dyes.
This highlights what ITTL I think is a pretty important development of western presence in Island Asia. Western trade vessels are just middlemen, sometimes trading between Europe and Asia but mostly just sticking to the waters of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific to accrue profits in local trade. Western trade outposts helped facilitate this, as Taprobane, Pyrgos, and Pahang do for the Rhomans. Cross-continent trade is a niche for only a few vessels, while native trade is where large profits can be gathered with relatively short sailing times. The return home would occur after several years of this sort of local trade engagement, maybe more if the ships decided to settle in the trade factories permanently. European advancements in naval architecture and ship defense gave them a competitive edge against local merchants, as they could carry more trade goods, travel more quickly, and were harder targets for pirates due to their size and number of canons and so they were safer from that threat in the region. Trading Western goods for spices was only a part of the trade, informing the first and last stages of a European trade mission to the east. European goods would be traded where they were most profitable, then those goods would be traded about the local market slowly traveling up the value-added chain until European ships could stock themselves with trade goods that would be highly valued in Europe. For example, the Dutch previously mentioned brought Western trade goods they exchanged in the Bay of Bengal before arriving in Pattani and Ayutthaya where they traded for Sappanwood, then brought that wood to Japan where they exchanged it for Japanese lacquerware and silk, then after several more exchanges which included a visit to Java they made their way back to England. But there is nothing stopping them from just trading the last leg of their trip to new European arrivals in European trade factories and staying in the east on a permanent basis.
This, is the nexus of the Shiplords of Taprobane and most long-term Rhoman settlement in the east. They fill a niche by engaging in local trade so that new Rhoman arrivals don't have to, and can just trade at Rhoman colonies which saves a great deal of time on the trade mission, as an Alexandrian merchant can finance a trade ship to the east and reasonably expect it back next year, and thus its profits, rather than in the four or five that it took the Globe and Peter Floris (who didn't even make it back as he died in 1615 in the east). This is the value of a permanent trade infrastructure presented by European colonies in the east and why European nations fought to keep them around for so long. So when the Spanish show up and start to dismantle the Rhoman presence with their armada, it will be seriously impactful to the merchant class in a way that is difficult to illustrate, as no borders may change whatsoever.
