'Dit bedryf van onze Natie'. François Valentyn over het abjecte gedrag van de Nederlanders in Japan

Samenvatting

Abstract – In the fifth volume of his Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën (1726) François Valentyn gives a description of Japan at a time when Japan had secluded itself from the rest of the world and the Dutch East India Company was Japan's sole European trading partner. The aim of this paper is, first, to determine to what extent Valentyn attempted to advance the existing Dutch and European discourse on Japan, and, secondly, to discuss the manner in which he examined the questionable aspects of Japanese-Dutch trade relations. In so doing we will view Valentyn's text in relation to contemporary European criticism of Dutch readiness to submit to the Japanese government policy of suppressing Christianity.