Charles Comte de Montblanc

Charles Comte de Montblanc was a French nobleman and merchant who forged a set of trade agreements with Satsuma han in the 1860s. He also worked closely with Satsuma officials to organize a Satsuma pavilion (separate from that of the Tokugawa shogunate) at the 1867 Paris World's Fair.

Montblanc met a number of Satsuma representatives in Belgium in 1865, during their study trip across Europe. Godai Tomoatsu and Niiro Hisanobu led the way in signing an agreement with Montblanc which arranged for the creation of a joint company which would open mining operations in Satsuma, along with factories to produce steel, weapons, textiles, and tea. The agreement also arranged for the opening of three ports - Naha and Unten on Okinawa Island, and Naze on Amami Ôshima - for trade.

References

• Marco Tinello, "The termination of the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo : an investigation of the bakumatsu period through the lens of a tripartite power relationship and its world," PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (2014), 380-381.