Changes

The system was begun by [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], but was further systematized under [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]], who appointed a [[Nagasaki bugyo|bugyô (magistrate) to Nagasaki]], and planned a system of governing foreign trade. He sought to guarantee (maintain) revenue from foreign trade while enforcing the ban on Christianity, and granted red seal licenses to ''daimyô'' and merchants who sought to engage in overseas trade. ''Daimyô'' were no longer permitted to hold red seal licenses, however, after [[1612]], as part of efforts to strengthen the security of Tokugawa rule by restricting ''daimyô'' power. Further, while red seal licenses continued to be issued to non-Japanese ship captains, patrons, or merchants, ship crews were required to include at least a certain proportion of Japanese crew members.<ref>William Wray, “The Seventeenth-century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy,” in Ina Baghdiantz McCabe et al (eds.), ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks'', Oxford: Berg (2005), 82.</ref>  

The system was begun by [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], but was further systematized under [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]], who appointed a [[Nagasaki bugyo|bugyô (magistrate) to Nagasaki]], and planned a system of governing foreign trade. He sought to guarantee (maintain) revenue from foreign trade while enforcing the ban on Christianity, and granted red seal licenses to ''daimyô'' and merchants who sought to engage in overseas trade. ''Daimyô'' were no longer permitted to hold red seal licenses, however, after [[1612]], as part of efforts to strengthen the security of Tokugawa rule by restricting ''daimyô'' power. Further, while red seal licenses continued to be issued to non-Japanese ship captains, patrons, or merchants, ship crews were required to include at least a certain proportion of Japanese crew members.<ref>William Wray, “The Seventeenth-century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy,” in Ina Baghdiantz McCabe et al (eds.), ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks'', Oxford: Berg (2005), 82.</ref>  

Many of the ships were constructed according to a fusion of European and East Asian forms, e.g. combining European rigging with an East Asian junk's hull. Portuguese piloted many of these ships, and there are numerous records of European sailors coming across red seal ships and describing them as possessing a decidedly strange appearance, because of their mixed crews and mixed construction. Most were built in [[Nagasaki]], though some red seal merchants commissioned ships from Chinese shipwrights in Ayutthaya. These East Asian or hybrid ships generally carried about 200-250 people, and 500-750 tons of cargo, in contrast to Iberian ships of the time, which were larger, carrying about 1000 tons.<ref>Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 18-19.</ref>

Many of the ships were constructed according to a fusion of European and East Asian forms, e.g. combining European rigging with an East Asian junk's hull. Portuguese piloted many of these ships, and there are numerous records of European sailors coming across red seal ships and describing them as possessing a decidedly strange appearance, because of their mixed crews and mixed construction. Most were built in [[Nagasaki]], though some red seal merchants commissioned ships from Chinese shipwrights in Ayutthaya. These East Asian or hybrid ships generally carried about 200-250 people, and 500-750 tons of cargo, in contrast to Iberian ships of the time, which were larger, carrying about 1000 tons.<ref>Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 18-19.</ref> Though the ''shuinjô'' system was devised precisely in order to license trusted merchants and leave all others out, in practice, it quickly became common for unlicensed merchants to pay for passage, and for the shipment of their own cargoes, aboard licensed ''shuinsen''.<ref>Adam Clulow, “Like Lambs in Japan and Devils outside Their Land: Diplomacy, Violence, and Japanese Merchants in Southeast Asia,” ''Journal of World History'' 24:2 (2013), 342.</ref>

Red seal ships traveled to a number of ports in Southeast Asia; in [[1624]], for example, 35 ships traveled to Siam, 26 to Vietnam, two to Brunei, 30 to the Philippines, 23 to Cambodia, and one to Melaka.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 215-216.</ref> Due to the patterns of seasonal winds, ships generally left Japan for Southeast Asia in mid-winter, and returned in early summer. The journey took on average about 47 days.<ref>Polenghi, 19.</ref>

Red seal ships traveled to a number of ports in Southeast Asia; in [[1624]], for example, 35 ships traveled to Siam, 26 to Vietnam, two to Brunei, 30 to the Philippines, 23 to Cambodia, and one to Melaka.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 215-216.</ref> Due to the patterns of seasonal winds, ships generally left Japan for Southeast Asia in mid-winter, and returned in early summer. The journey took on average about 47 days.<ref>Polenghi, 19.</ref>