Sangoku Nihon

Developing some ideas from this WI....

Here's the preliminary background:

1598 - William and Thomas Adams ship out as pilots with a Dutch merchant fleet on an expedition to the Far East, the ships are separated in the South Atlantic
1599 - De Liefde and De Hoop meet up at Floreana Island off the Chilean coast and set off for Japan
1600 –
Febuary - a typhoon hits the two ships which are separated
April 19 – the De Liefde arrives in Bungo. Captain Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Thomas Adams, and 19 crewmen are arrested after being accused as pirates by Jesuit priests
April 21 - De Hoop arrives with William Adams off the coast of Satsuma, Shimazu Iehisa sees an opprotunity to offset Portugese influence, and treats Adams well
May 12 - the survivors of De Hoop arrive in Osaka and imprisoned
May 15 - William Adams arrives in Osaka, seeking an audience with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and convinces him to free the survivors of De Hoop
October 23 – Battle of Sekigahara

1604 – William Adams, having become an informal counsellor to Ieyasu, is given Samurai status; Ieyasu sends Quaeckernaeck forth to encourage trade with Dutch East India Company
1606 – Dutch trade mission arrives in Hirado, Adams recieves word of the British settlement at Bantam and convinces Ieyasu to foramlly invite British trade as well as Dutch
1607 – Satsuma Invade the Ryukyu Kingdom
1608 - John Saris arrives in Japan to negotiate trade relations for the English East India Company and establishes a factory in Satsuma, Thomas Adams returns to England
1610-1618 - William Adams leads several Red Seal trading expeditions, making a tidy profit
1620 - William Adams dies peacefully in Satsuma
1640 - Sakoku Policy instituted, Chinese and Dutch only allowed contact through Dejima, British allowed contact through Satsuma
 
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One question before I continue - will England find it profitable to start importing opium, as they did in China, through the limited trade allowed?
 
Depends on at what point we're talking about them trying to import it, and how the trade situation looks.

Britain first has to solidify its control over India before it has ready access to effectively marketable opium, at least in the amounts it needs. Secondly, we have to consider whether or not Britain will develop enough of a trade deficit with the Japanese that they need to resort to aggressive opium marketing in order to shift the trade balance.
 
Depends on at what point we're talking about them trying to import it, and how the trade situation looks.

Britain first has to solidify its control over India before it has ready access to effectively marketable opium, at least in the amounts it needs. Secondly, we have to consider whether or not Britain will develop enough of a trade deficit with the Japanese that they need to resort to aggressive opium marketing in order to shift the trade balance.

Definately after the trade gets big in China, and the trade is limited.

I was thinking as an adjunct to the China opium trade. "Hey, it's a big seller in China, wonder how it sells in Japan?"

(It actually works out best in some ways if there's a small but limited trade in it, that benifits the Shimazu.)
 
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