No Silver Lining Here: Mining and Mistrust in Japanese–Spanish Correspondence, 1598–1609

This article reassesses Japan’s relationship to the Spanish Indies at the turn of seventeenth century. During a “Spanish decade” lasting from 1598 until 1609, the Tokugawa shogunate saw in the Spanish Indies the potential to bring foreign trade to eastern Japan, to extend commerce across the Pacific Ocean, and to access valuable mining technologies at a time when Japan’s production was booming. But authorities and intermediaries struggled to agree on the volume of trade, the geography of exchange, and how, if at all, to share expertise. The article assesses three paths of Japanese outreach: the “old route” of existing exchange between southwest Japan and the Philippines; the “new route” proposed between eastern Japan and Spanish America; and the “silver rut,” in reference to the precious metal’s role as both a catalyst and impediment to bridging the gap between two of the early modern world’s leading silver producers.