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In the Joseon Dynasty, there was no government-to-government exchange and direct trade through envoys between Joseon and Southeast Asian countries. “The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty” has records showing that envoys from Thailand’s Ayutthaya Kingdom and the Majapahit Kingdom in eastern Java Island visited Joseon in the early years of the Joseon Dynasty. Given that Southeast Asian countries had sent envoys to Joseon first, it’s likely that there were some forces interested in trade with Joseon among Chinese merchants related to some Southeast Asian states or regional powers. But envoys’ visits were halted as safe voyage was threatened owing to the activities of Japanese pirates. Nevertheless, Southeast Asian products were imported to Joseon continuously in the late Joseon Dynasty. How was this possible?

Travel path of Southeast Asian products in East Asian waters revisited

Southeast Asian goods were able to flow into Joseon via Japanese trading ships making voyages to Joseon. As Tsushima took full charge of trade with Joseon after the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, Southeast Asian products were introduced into the Waegwan (Japan house) in Busan by Tsushima. Chinese products (silk fabrics) and Indian and Southeast Asian goods were imported to Japan after the 16th century by Chinese merchants who breached the Ming Dynasty’s ban on sea trade and through intermediary trade by European forces including Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands that had advanced to the East Asian seas. In the early 17th century when the Edo Bakufu was formed to let shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu adopt aggressive policies toward external trade, Japanese were also active in making forays into Southeast Asia. The “red-seal ships” system under which the Edo Bakufu ensured the safety of voyage for passers was the grounds for such activities. The shogunate issued official documents called “red-seal letters” to merchants going abroad to prove that the pertinent vessel was not a pirate ship and force the ruling powers in areas the red-seal ships passed through to protect their trade activities.

The red-seal ships loaded silver mined in Japan before sailing to Southeast Asia and the South Sea Islands and bought goods in tropical regions or Chinese raw silk and silk fabrics from Chinese ships there. Around 100,000 Japanese went to Southeast Asia aboard red-seal ships or foreign vessels in the early 17th century, and Japanese communities (nihonmachi) were created in regions like the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. where red-seal ships made port.

Kyoto’s business magnate Suminokura Ryoi was known as a figure who mainly sent red-seal ships to Annam (northern Vietnam), and his red-seal ships sailed to Nghe An Province (northern Vietnam). Suminokura’s red-seal ships reported to the governor of Nghe An Province and traded goods there; they were able to enter Nghe An only after obtaining permission from the Hanoi royal court in Thang Long.

As the Edo Bakufu began to carry out a closed-door policy in earnest in the 1630s, the red-seal ships system was repealed and direct trade between Japan and Southeast Asian countries disappeared without a trace. The shogunate not only prohibited Japanese people’s overseas voyages but also the return of Japanese who had lived abroad, and also banned the visits to Japan of Portuguese and Spanish vessels which had previously engaged in Japanese trade. The Edo Bakufu allowed only Chinese and Dutch ships that did not betray its Christianity persecution policy, among foreign vessels, to visit Nagasaki. Therefore, Southeast Asian goods were able to be introduced into Japan by Chinese and Dutch ships entering Nagasaki by way of Southeast Asia. Japan in the Edo period classified entering Chinese and Duch vessels into “kuchibune,” “nakaokubune,” and “okubune.” Kuchibune refer to ships having bases in Ningbo, Nanjing, Xiamen, and Taiwan close to Nagasaki, whereas vessels entering Nagasaki from Canton, Siam, and other remote locations in Southeast Asia were called okubune. Southeast Asian products were shipped to Japan mainly via okubune. In the meantime, the Netherlands concentrated on intermediary trade between Japan and China in the early 17th century when it was occupying Taiwan, but later it moved to trade carried out against the background of Southeast Asia and India. The Dutch East India Company headquartered in Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesia, administered Japanese trade.

Southeast Asia's 4 staple products imported by Joseon

Tsushima, which was exclusively in charge of exchanges with Joseon in the late Joseon Dynasty, purchased Southeast Asian products these Chinese and Dutch ships had transported from Nagasaki and took them to the Waegwan in Joseon. Trade between Joseon and Tsushima can be classified into three types. They are “jinsang and hoesa (offering)” undertaken by the Joseon royal court and Tsushima; “public trade;” and “gaeshi (open) trade” undertaken by Joseon merchants and Tsushima. Joseon imported Southeast Asian goods through these three types of trade.

Tsushima’s offerings consisted of Southeast Asian commodities like pepper, alum, and redwood as well as articles produced in Japan like inkstone cases, trays, and pearls. In response, Joseon offered domestically produced goods like ginseng, leopard and tiger skin, hawks, silk oil, ramie cloth, hemp cloth, brushes, ink sticks, mats, oilpaper, chestnuts, pinenuts, and walnuts. Public trade was conducted in a way where, if Tsushima brought copper, lead, Southeast Asian redwood, and water buffalo horns not produced in Joseon, the Joseon court would buy them in exchange for cotton cloth. Because Japan began to fully cultivate raw cotton during the Age of Warring States in the 16th century, much later than Joseon, Joseon’s cotton cloth in its early period was welcomed by Japanese traders, and so cotton cloth was exported to Japan via Tsushima until the early 17th century. However, as Japan’s cotton production expanded and commercialization made progress after the 16th century, sales of Joseon cotton were in trouble. That’s because Joseon cotton was not welcomed in the Japanese market because it was of a lesser quality than Japanese cotton. Accordingly, Joseon replaced a portion of the cotton with rice after 1651 at the request of Tsushima. At any rate, as every Tsushima vessel coming to Joseon had its kinds and quantities of commodities under public trade fixed, Joseon provided cotton by determining the certain exchange rate for every commodity. Jinsang and public trade were carried out with the kinds, quantities, and exchange values of trade goods fixed and the quantities of Southeast Asian goods Joseon imported through jinsang and public trade are as follows.

Lastly, gaeshi trade refers to a trade format in which Joseon merchants enter the Waegwan with goods and trade them with people from Tsushima in the Office of Open Trade. There were no restrictions on the kinds and quantities of commodities transacted through gaeshi trade except for articles banned by the Joseon court. While Joseon’s main goods exported through the gaeshi trade from the 17th century to the mid-18th century included Joseon ginseng, Chinese silk fabrics, and white fiber, Tsushima sold to Joseon minerals produced in Japan like silver, copper, sulfur, and lead along with such Southeast Asian products as water buffalo horns, pepper, redwood, and alum. After all, the key Southeast Asian articles Tsushima exported to Joseon through their bilateral trade were water buffalo horns, pepper, redwood and alum, which were generally called “Southeast Asia’s four commodities.” These products were introduced into Japan via Chinese and Dutch ships visiting Nagasaki and the shogunate called this “Nagasaki nojokimono.”

Dutch Commercial Building - kept by the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture

How were Southeast Asian goods used in Joseon society?

So, for what purposes were these Southeast Asian products used in Joseon? The most prominent Southeast Asian product delivered to Joseon through the international distribution network via Japan was “redwood (also called Sapponwood).” Redwood is currently a specialty of Malaysia. Redwood is a multipurpose item but among other things, it was used best as a raw material for red dyes. Red dyes are extracted by dipping redwood chips into water and heating them after adding alum. The Joseon royal court needed red fabrics for the sake of rituals and redwood and alum were imported for these purposes.

Southeast Asian products were imported via trade with Japan in the early Joseon period also, but imports of Sapponwood were overwhelming. For example, the sum of Sapponwood Japan exported to Joseon in 1422 amounted to 4,300 geun, about 1,600 tons. This is a figure on record and therefore, it is presumed that in reality more than 4,300 geun was imported to Joseon. The main forces that took charge of redwood exports in Japan back then were Mr. Sibukawa based in Hakata, Kyushu, and his subject Itakura. Large quantities of redwood used to be piled up in Hakata, and in reality it is estimated that merchants in Hakata may have borrowed names such as Sibukawa to perform trade with Joseon.

Alum (“myeongban,” also called “baekban”) was used to make color for redwood and dye silk fabrics. Water buffalo horns were used mainly to make weapons and handicrafts with such names as “suugak” and “heukgak (black horns).” Water buffalo horns were a material used to produce “gakgung,” the most widely used Korean bow, along with cow tendon, bamboo, and mulberry, and pepper was used for various kinds of seasoning and for medication.

Having already been known to Korea in the middle of the Goryeo Dynasty, pepper is presumed to have been introduced via trade with the Song Dynasty. The “History of Goryeo” has a record stating that envoys from Ryukyu brought 300 geun of pepper in 1389 (the first year of King Gongyang). The pepper tree is a creeping evergreen plant belonging to the pepper family and its place of origin is southern India. Pepper, which is known to warm the body, strengthen the stomach, stem stroke, and make the body perspire in oriental medicine, was used as a medicinal ingredient for indigestion, infirm stomachs, nausea, and dysentery. Pepper was used by some privileged classes because it was mostly imported and therefore treated very dearly; most ordinary people used Indian madder, mustard, garlic, etc. as spices instead.

With the dawn of the 18th century, the prices of Southeast Asia’s four staple products rose whenever Tsushima bought them in Nagasaki. Water buffalo horns imported to Nagasaki, in particular, declined or were cut off so frequently that the amount was not enough for the Joseon court to buy via public trade as well as gaeshi trade. Failing to secure water buffalo horns, Tsushima offered to sell copper to Joseon instead. In the end, Tsushima exported 3,000 geun of copper to Joseon instead of water buffalo horns in 1836.