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Three Men in a Boat? How the Suminokura, Caron, and the Zheng Experienced the Regime Changes in East Asia (1600–1670): An Essay in Global Microhistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2021

Leonard Blussé
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Abstract

This article, originally presented as a public lecture at the occasion of the Fukuoka Prize Ceremony in September 2019, approaches from biographical and microhistorical perspectives the careers of three early-modern protagonists, Suminokura Ryōi, François Caron, and Zheng Zhilong, who were all involved in the maritime trade of the Eastern Seas. It shows how these Japanese, Dutch, and Chinese entrepreneurs became entangled with the epochal changes of regime in China and Japan in the first half of the seventeenth century, and concludes with remarks on their agency, loyalty, and legacy.

Keywords

microhistoryconnected historyentrepreneurshipregime changeEast Asia

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Article
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Itinerario , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , August 2021 , pp. 208 - 227
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Research Institute for History, Leiden University

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