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Nagasaki is a port city in [[Kyushu]], the capital of [[Nagasaki prefecture]]. It is perhaps most famous today for the atomic bombing of the city on August 9, 1945, but was in the [[Edo period]] one of the most major ports in the archipelago for international trade, home to communities of [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese]] and [[VOC|Dutch]] merchants.
Nagasaki is a port city in [[Kyushu]], the capital of [[Nagasaki prefecture]]. It is perhaps most famous today for the atomic bombing of the city on August 9, 1945, but was in the [[Edo period]] one of the most major ports in the archipelago for international trade, home to communities of [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese]] and [[VOC|Dutch]] merchants.
==History & Administration==
The city was established as a trading post c. 1570-1572, and quickly became a major port for Portuguese and Spanish trade. Converted [[Christianity|Christian]] warlord [[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]] ceded the port town to the [[Society of Jesus]] (Jesuits) in [[1580]], including judicial authority within the town. They quickly established a church and ''seminario'' (a Jesuit school for Japanese youths), which included within it a painting academy. The Christian community in Nagasaki enjoyed some considerable early successes, but soon came under persecution; in a particularly (in)famous incident in [[1597]], [[Twenty-six Martyrs of Nagasaki|26 Christians]] in the city, a combination of Europeans and Japanese converts, were executed at the orders of [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]].
The city was established as a trading post c. 1570-1572, and quickly became a major port for Portuguese and Spanish trade. Converted [[Christianity|Christian]] warlord [[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]] ceded the port town to the [[Society of Jesus]] (Jesuits) in [[1580]], including judicial authority within the town. They quickly established a church and ''seminario'' (a Jesuit school for Japanese youths), which included within it a painting academy. The Christian community in Nagasaki enjoyed some considerable early successes, but soon came under persecution; in a particularly (in)famous incident in [[1597]], [[Twenty-six Martyrs of Nagasaki|26 Christians]] in the city, a combination of Europeans and Japanese converts, were executed at the orders of [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]].
After the port was opened to Western merchant activity in the [[Bakumatsu period]], for a brief time Western merchants attempted to insert themselves into the existing trade networks in marine products, etc. and in Chinese goods. However, around the same time, the [[Taiping Rebellion]] caused the number of Chinese ships calling at the port to plummet, and the traditional patterns of trade between the Chinese residents in Nagasaki and the ''Nagasaki kaisho'' collapsed. The character of activity at the port transformed rapidly, as direct trade with Westerners came to dominate; Chinese merchants in the port city turned to insert themselves into this new pattern, abandoning the old one. The port also quickly became the site of a lively trade in modern steamships and sailing vessels, with as many as 106 ships being sold at Nagasaki between [[1860]] and [[1867]]. Satsuma, among others, began collecting goods from various domains to sell at Nagasaki, as the port was thrown open to freer involvement of outside parties.<ref>Hellyer, 197.</ref>
After the port was opened to Western merchant activity in the [[Bakumatsu period]], for a brief time Western merchants attempted to insert themselves into the existing trade networks in marine products, etc. and in Chinese goods. However, around the same time, the [[Taiping Rebellion]] caused the number of Chinese ships calling at the port to plummet, and the traditional patterns of trade between the Chinese residents in Nagasaki and the ''Nagasaki kaisho'' collapsed. The character of activity at the port transformed rapidly, as direct trade with Westerners came to dominate; Chinese merchants in the port city turned to insert themselves into this new pattern, abandoning the old one. The port also quickly became the site of a lively trade in modern steamships and sailing vessels, with as many as 106 ships being sold at Nagasaki between [[1860]] and [[1867]]. Satsuma, among others, began collecting goods from various domains to sell at Nagasaki, as the port was thrown open to freer involvement of outside parties.<ref>Hellyer, 197.</ref>
==Geography==
The old Jesuit city was comprised of six wards, or ''machi'', which formed the core of the city and which were later re-divided into twenty-three ''machi''. Each of these was self-governing under the authority of ''machi toshiyori'' (town elders), and was exempt from land taxes. The outer city, meanwhile, consisted of three villages which were absorbed by the growing city as 43 new ''machi''; taxes paid by the residents of these areas helped pay the salaries of the ''daikan'' and ''machi toshiyori'' throughout the city. Despite the huge volume of trade passing through the city, the tax base was fairly small, amounting to just under 3,500 ''[[koku]]'' at the end of the 17th century.<ref>Jansen, 10-11.</ref>
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