Abstract
During the 1630s, the Tokugawa bakufu of Japan issued a series of edicts known as the maritime prohibitions. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Japanese subjects were banned, on pain of death, from going abroad or returning, and diplomatic and commercial contacts were strictly restricted to a limited set of partners. By the late sixteenth century, China had emerged as the lucrative global “sink” for silver on account of the commercialization and monetization of its domestic economy and the desirability of its luxuries. The new ruler enacted various measures intended to centralize power and place the regional daimyo under more effective supervision. The monopolization of foreign trade formed a core part of these efforts. A more thorough examination of Tokugawa-era publications and, especially, unpublished archives would be necessary to definitively modify the scholarly consensus on the Ming loyalist requests for samurai assistance.