ABSTRACT
Trade was brisk for all that Holland alone among Western countries possessed a supply network in Japan. Trade with Japan began to be less appetising to the Western side. The Japanese abbreviation of Holland, Ran, is retained to mean that local reading of the West which was built up from imported ideas and materials. The popularisation of Ran extended across every social level, comprising the unschooled as well as daimyos. The location of the Vereenigde Oost Indische Compannie (VOC) Factory in Nagasaki was convenient for sailing to China and Jakarta, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch Factory dealt with many mundane items — sugar, copper, cloth — and by these it earned its keep. But such were not the affairs that propelled Edo culture into new domains. The VOC was lodged on the artificial island of Dejima, a stone’s throw into the bay, a displacement that sheltered their costly merchandise from the ever-present danger of fire.
