View source for Pho Hien


Pho Hien (today called Hung Yen) was a major port in northern Vietnam ([[Tonkin]]) in the 16th to 17th centuries. The town is located roughly 50 km southeast of [[Hanoi]] (Thang Long), and sits on the east bank of the Red River.

Eleven [[red seal ships]] licenses were issued between [[1606]] and [[1614]] by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] for Japanese, Chinese, and European merchants based in Japan to trade with northern Vietnam, then under the control of the [[Trinh lords|lords of the Trinh family]]. By [[1634]], this number had risen to a total of 35 licenses. Like [[Hoi An]] in [[Quang Nam|central Vietnam]], and other ports in the region, the main export was [[silk]], and the main import [[silver]].

War broke out between the Trinh and the [[Nguyen lords]] of central Vietnam in [[1627]], and the Nguyen successfully petitioned the Tokugawa to sever formal ties with the Trinh, and to restrict trade with northern Vietnam. As a result, Japanese trade activity in northern Vietnam declined considerably, though by the late 1630s, only a decade later, the shogunate's policy of [[maritime restrictions]] would cause Japanese trade in Southeast Asia to decline almost entirely.

The Trinh invited the [[Dutch East India Company]] to establish a factory at Pho Hien in [[1637]]. The Dutchmen were guided through the necessary court rituals by a Japanese woman called Ura-san, who also served as their interpreter. Having established relations, however, the Dutch were still obliged to go through Japanese intermediaries both for their interactions with the Trinh authorities, and with Vietnamese silk producers; the Trinh reserved the privilege of direct contact with silk producers for the Japanese.

Portuguese copper ''[[caixa]]'' coins imported by both Dutch and Japanese merchants became a standard means of exchange in the countryside areas of the Trinh domains by the 1640s, and remained so until [[1688]].

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==References==
*Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 229-230. 

[[Category:Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]