"Western Merchants and the Meiji Restoration: The Case of John H. Duus and Anglo-Danish Merchant at Treaty Port Hakodate, 1868-1889"

In this article I seek to examine the business activities of John Henry Duus, a long-standing foreign resident of the Treaty Port of Hakodate. Duus first came to the port in 1861 as the agent of Lindsay & Co, one of the largest Western mercantile firms in China. Throughout his time in Hakodate, Duus would continue to serve as a commission agent for several China-based Western firms, provided protection and services for Chinese firms and also engaged in his own trading activities. Though he first came to the port as a British merchant, from August 1867 onwards he served as the Danish consul at Hakodate. Duus’ long continuous residence in Hakodate provides a valuable lens through which to view the mercantile environment of Treaty Port Japan.
Duus’ career in Japan spanned almost three decades including an era that saw Japan pass through several major changes, most notably the transition from the Tokugawa (Edo) to the Meiji era—Duus died in 1889, the year the Meiji constitution was promulgated, completing the major Meiji reform. An examination of his activities utilizing fragments of his correspondence with the Japanese authorities shows the opportunities and difficulties that more marginal Western merchants had to overcome as they sought to prosper in a turbulent era. Though historians have understood the Meiji Restoration of 1868 as the major watershed moment that saw Japan move firmly on a path towards modernization, this paper shows how the Meiji government’s modern reform efforts disrupted Western commercial interests and saddled them with bad debts.