| Sumario: | The article discusses the use of force and violence among Japanese merchants in Southeast Asia in the early seventeenth century. It particularly examines as evidence the letters of Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to Southeastern Asian states, noting that he renounced responsibility for merchants and allowed foreign states to prosecute them according to local law. The author reflects on correspondence with rulers of states including Cambodia, Cochinchina, and Patani. He draws comparisons to early modern English and Dutch trade and expansion in Asia, particularly considering the English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch equivalent, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC).
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