ABSTRACT
T he silk trade conducted by the Portuguese between M acao and N agasaki in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had more than m erely com m ercial signifi-
cance, for to a considerable extent this trade constituted, from the Japanese
point o f view, the raison d ’ etre o f the Europeans living in Jap an during this period.
H ad there been no silk trade, the early contact between Jap an and the W est would
have been far shorter and w ould not have lasted a hundred years. This is true not
