{"id":1280,"date":"2019-03-08T13:15:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T13:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2019-03-08T13:15:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T13:15:56","slug":"project-proposal-the-english-factory-at-hirado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/2019\/03\/08\/project-proposal-the-english-factory-at-hirado\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Proposal: The English Factory at Hirado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The English Factory at Hirado, Japan. A Microhistory of English Merchants in the early 17<\/em>th<\/em><\/sup> century.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often talk about the practicality of transnational history; why do we study it? What can we truly learn? It seems that transnational ideas are being challenged across the world, from Brexit to Trump and his protectionist trade policies, the interconnectedness of the world seems to be unravelling at its seams. Politicians too often use nationalistic histories and interpretations to create political rhetoric which attempts to warp our understanding of the past. Transnational history offers us the chance to re-correct this misinterpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Wenceslaus Hollar\u2019s painting \u201cRoyal Exchange\u201d, which depicts London\u2019s Royal Exchange in 1644, it can be seen that merchants, English and foreign, were already co-operating together discussing business and international news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Royal
“Royal Exchange”, Wenceslaus Hollar, 1644.
https:\/\/www.rct.uk\/collection\/802887\/royal-exchange<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, it highlights how English Imperial aspirations, particularly in Asia concerning the East India company, were built on ideas of transnational co-operation<\/strong> and not English isolationism. Alison Games, in her book Web of Empires<\/em>, describes this best, stating that the English merchants were forced to become diplomats and ambassadors as they were numerically and diplomatically weak across the world in the 17th century, as demonstrated by travel literature of time such as The Merchant Avizo<\/em>.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The English\nmerchants were often the first of their nation to establish new markets, like\nthose at Hirado, Japan in 1613. Previously, traditional grand narratives have\nignored Hirado as a supposedly insignificant factory which struggled to achieve\neconomic viability, closing down after ten years of operation in 1623. This, however,\nreflects a modern misconception<\/strong> of\ntrade as an inanimate force, rather it seems that trade and commerce in the 17th<\/sup>\ncentury was based on \u201cpersonal commercial connection\u201d.[2]<\/a>\nThis project, therefore, aims<\/strong> to\nexamine Hirado from a transnational\nperspective<\/strong>, focusing on the lives of the actors associated with the\nfactory and how they are comparable to other English merchants across Asia at\nthe time. In effect, this study will be a microhistory<\/strong>\ndemonstrating the similarity of English transnational actors across Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study of\nthis factory will be anchored around four research\nquestions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. How does the career of these English\nmerchants support the idea of them being transnational actors? <\/li>
  2. What is the relationship between\nstate and trade (internationalism) and, does one override the other? <\/li>
  3. To what extent was there cultural assimilation\nbetween the English and the Japanese?<\/li>
  4. How do these questions compare to the\nsituation of English merchants across Asia?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The first\nquestion presents a potential pitfall<\/strong>\nof the project as it runs the risk of becoming overtly narrative. However, it\nalso acts as the perfect building block for the following questions, allowing\nfor them to be interwoven in to the lives of these transnational actors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One possible hypothesis<\/strong> is that English\nmerchants as seen at Hirado struggled to balance the demands of an\ninternationalist outlook, desired for trade, with the needs of the nation, a conflict\nof interests which would have defined their actions as transnational actors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This\nhypothesis is aided by the limited\ntimescale<\/strong> under investigation as the factory at Hirado was only operational\nfor ten years. Research can, therefore, be easily focused allowing for a more\nthorough analysis of each of the aforementioned research questions. Furthermore,\nit avoids the often problematic view<\/strong>\nin transnational history of interpreting events as part of a wider teleological\nprogression. Instead, emphasis falls on human agency, important if the actions\nof these transnational actors are to be fully explored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It can be\nseen that a transnational lens<\/strong>\nbrings with it problems. It\u2019s lack of clarity in definition creates ambiguity,\nwhich is worth investigating. A tentative\nconclusion<\/strong> could explore the difficulties of comparison in transnational\nhistory. For example, the extent to which these transnational actors were part\nof a larger English network in Asia. Although a shared experience of being\nnumerically, diplomatically\nweak is suggestive of this, an argument can be made for the English factories\nbeing disjointed nucleated units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is made\npossible by the large quantities of surviving source material<\/strong> available including large quantities of letters, diaries\nand East India Company reports. These materials help provide a personal insight\ninto the inner machinations of the English factory at Hirado. A comprehensive picture\nof Hirado can, therefore, be achieved making it an ideal microhistory.  
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    [1]<\/a> Alison Games, The Web of Empire <\/em>(Oxford, 2008), p. 87.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [2]<\/a> Ibid<\/em>, p. 83.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The English Factory at Hirado, Japan. A Microhistory of English Merchants in the early 17th century. We often talk about the practicality of transnational history; why do we study it? What can we truly learn? It seems that transnational ideas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5wNtZ-kE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}