Richard Cocks

Richard Cocks (*  1566 in Stalbrook, Staffordshire, † 1624 ) of the ladder was a trading post of the British East India Company in Hirado ( Japan ) from the time of its founding in 1613 until its closure in the year 1623rd

Hirado ("Firando") in 1621. The red, white and blue flag flies over the Dutch trading post on the bank. A little further inland is the branch of the English East India Company, recognizable by the white flag with the red St. George's Cross ( Nationaal Archief , The Hague)

Cocks, the third of four sons of a bailiff , had a wealth of experience in the cloth trade and was actually well prepared for his job in Japan. He could also hope for the help of his compatriot William Adams , who had lived in Japan since 1600 and served as a samurai for the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu . In June 1613 he arrived at the Clove in Hirado. Captain John Saris made contact with Adams, who arranged an audience at court with whom u. a. a letter from King James I of England was presented. Ieyasu granted permission to trade in Japan. Because of its proximity to the politically and economically important centers of Edo and Kyoto , Adams recommended Uraga as the headquarters of the trading post to be founded, but Saris insisted on Hirado, which later turned out to be a fatal mistake - not only because the Dutch East India Company already had a trading post there entertained. Forty-seven-year-old Cocks was left behind in Hirado with six subordinates, £ 5,000 worth of goods and lengthy instructions on saris. He actually wanted to build a triangular trade between China, Japan and England, but the Chinese problem proved to be insoluble. Early on there were also difficulties with idiosyncratic subordinates who did private business on their own. The relationship between Cocks and his companions and Adams was not easy either.

In his extensive service diaries, Cocks describes the history of the English trading post, the activities of his subordinates and the situation in Japan. After Ieyasu's death in 1616, he moved to Edo to have his trading license renewed by the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, Hidetada . A letter from the English king handed over in 1617 remained unanswered. During these years the attacks by the Dutch on English ships increased, about which he repeatedly complained at court, but without any notable success. At the same time, the aggressive trading activities of the Dutch competition hit him hard economically. The so-called “Ambon Massacre”, in which the Dutch played along badly with the English on the Southeast Asian island of Ambon, was the last reason to give up the project in Japan, which in fact had already collapsed. Cocks left the country in 1623. He died of illness the following year while returning to Europe.

Cocks is said to have discussed plans for an invasion of the Philippines by Japanese forces in 1616 with the admiral of the Japanese fleet Mukai Shogen Tadakatsu and William Adams, but these were not implemented.

Diaries

• The Historiographical Institute / University of Tokyo (ed.): Diary of Richard Cocks, 1615-1622: Diary kept by the head of the English factory in Japan. Tokyo, 1978-1980.

See also

• Epoch of the Namban trade

literature

• Ludwig Riess : History of the English factory at Hirado (1613-1622). With an introductory chapter on the origin of English enterprise in the Far East. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Tokyo, 1898.
• M. Paske-Smith: A glympse of the "English House" and English life at Hirado, 1613-1623. Kobe: JL Thompson, 1927.
• Derek Massarella: A World Elsewhere. Europe's Encounter with Japan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Yale UP: New Haven / London, 1990.
• Derek Massarella, Anthony Farrington: William Adams and early English enterprise in Japan. London: Suntory Center / Suntory-Toyota International Centers for Economics and Related Disciplines / London School of Economics and Political Science, 2000. ( digitized ; PDF; 332 kB)
• Papinot, Edmond: Cocks (Capt. Richard) In: Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan. Reprinted by Tuttle, 1972 edition of 1910 edition. ISBN 0-8048-0996-8 .

Remarks

1. ↑ In the Japanese pronunciation of the time, the 'h' in the syllable 'hi' was pronounced as a bilabial fricative [ɸ], which sounded like a labiodental [f] in European ears. The 'n' in turn indicates the nasalization of the preceding vowel, which has now disappeared. More at W. Michel: For reading Japanese names in old western maps. In: Lutz Walter (ed.): Japan - seen through the eyes of the West. Prestel: Munich / New York 1994, pp. 48-50.