New Article - John Henry Duus, Anglo-Danish Merchant at Treaty Port Hakodate in the Meiji Period

New article just published in Vol. 10 of Shashi: The Journal Of Japanese Business And Company History:

Western Merchants and the Meiji Transition: John Henry Duus at Treaty Port Hakodate (Part Two 1868-89)

This is the abstract:

In the second of this two-part article I examine the business activities of John Henry Duus in the years after the Meiji Restoration. Duus was already an experienced treaty port trader by the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and from his base in Hakodate, where he also served as Danish consul, he played a role in facilitating trade between Hakodate and Chinese treaty ports. Duus’ career in Japan spanned almost three decades including the transition from Tokugawa (Edo) to Meiji—Duus died in 1889, the year the Meiji constitution was promulgated. An examination of his activities utilizing fragments of his correspondence shows the opportunities and difficulties that Western merchants had to overcome as they sought to prosper in a turbulent era. Duus should have been well-placed to take advantage of the new opportunities that Meiji modernization presented, however, as this paper shows, Meiji reform efforts often disrupted Western commercial interests.

The link to the article is here: http://shashi.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/shashi/article/view/60 

John Henry Duus' Signature and Consular Seal

The article is the second of a two part article on Duus. The first examined his background before coming to Hakodate and his activities in the late Tokugawa period. Duus is an interesting character in that he grew up in the treaty port environment in China and had a mixed Anglo-Danish background which should have placed him well to benefit from the expansion of the treaty port system to Japan. Yet, despite his continued efforts to foster a trade between Japan and western countries in the end Duus made little impact. Instead he played a role as a local agent for Chinese and China-based western firms his activities were essentially limited to intra-Asian trade. Duus served as the Danish consul, a position which should have given him increased power to pursue his interests, from 1868 until his death in 1889, but struggled to expand his business in the Meiji period. I argue that his struggles show how Meiji reforms proved initially disruptive to western business in ports such as Hakodate.

John Henry Duus' grave in the Foreign Cemetery at Hakodate