Nagasaki trade coins

[1][2] As the export of gold and silver was banned by the Qing dynasty Japanese merchants were most likely to go to Hanoi and Hội An to gain access to Chinese products causing these coins to start circulating en masse on the Vietnamese market.

Japanese trade with China started in the eight century with the Tang dynasty when Chinese merchants entered Japan, from the thirteenth century onwards Japanese merchants began to enter China and under the Yongle Emperor the Ming dynasty started issuing the Eiraku Tsūhō (永樂通寳) for export to other countries which included Japan, and these coins would circulate in Japan in lieu of Japanese coins until they started to mass produce the Kan’ei Tsūhō (寛永通寳) in 1626 for internal usage.

This demand for Japanese coins would continue despite the Sakoku isolationist policies of the Tokugawa shogunate and even during the height of these export restrictions foreign trade still increased until the eighteenth century.

[4][5] Ever since the early 17th century a large influx of Japanese merchants entered southern Vietnam through Hội An as the demand for silver and copper imported by the Nguyễn lords was high due to the lack of resources present in that region.

In Northern Vietnam smaller Nagasaki trade coins were often melted down to make utensils with and circulated mostly only in Hanoi and the provinces surrounding it immediately, while the larger Nagasaki trade coins circulated throughout the entire country.