The Impact of Japanese Monetary Metals on the Seventeenth-Century Vietnamese Economy and Society

Abstract

The seventeenth century has long been considered a watershed in Vietnamese history. It witnessed not only social transformation born of the protracted series of political crises, it also saw the penetration of regional and international trading powers into the country. A combination of internal and external factors led to a remarkable metamorphosis of Vietnamese society and its economy during this eventful century.

Recent research on the import and export volumes of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) with the northern Vietnamese Kingdom of Tonkin reveals a motivating fact: the feudal economy of Tonkin was heavily affected and stimulated by the great amounts of Japanese silver, copper, and copper coins imported into the country by the Dutch and the other foreigners in the seventeenth century. Based on a wealth of so far unused primary sources from the Dutch and English archives, this paper examines the flow of Japanese monetary metals into Tonkin and its impact on the northern Vietnamese economy and society in the most part of the seventeenth century.

Having recapitulated the major issues relating to the monetary system of Tonkin prior to the seventeenth century, the first part of this paper examines the quantity of Japanese silver and copper coins (zeni) imported into Tonkin by the VOC. Like the situation at the other trading places in Asia, silver held the major part of the VOC's annual investment for the Tonkin trade. Thus, the quantity of silver the Dutch Company shipped to Tonkin increased remarkably along with the development of its Tonkin trade during the period 1641-1654. As reflected from the VOC records, during the "golden age" of its silk trade with Tonkin (1644-1652), the VOC imported into Tonkin on average 130,000 taels silver per annum. During the relatively successful period of the VOC-Tonkin trade (1637-1668), the VOC imported into Tonkin, besides the other monetary metals and commodities, approximately 2,527,000 taels of silver.

From the early 1650s, Tonkin suffered a severe shortage of copper coins which lasted until the early 1660s, when the Dutch (also the Chinese) began to import every year a great quantity of Japanese zeni into Tonkin. This not only made the Dutch procurement of local goods less dependent on local coins but also helped Tonkin stabilize its monetary system. As a direct consequence from the Dutch import of Japanese zeni, the protracted shortage of copper coins which had seriously devastated the economy of Tonkin until that time was basically solved.

(First part)