Jacques Specx | |
|---|---|
._Gouverneur-generaal_(1629-32)%2c_SK-A-4530.jpg) Anonymous portrait | |
| Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies | |
| In office 22 September 1629 – 17 April 1632 | |
| Preceded by | Jan Pieterszoon Coen |
| Succeeded by | Hendrik Brouwer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Unknown date, 1588 (1588) Dordrecht,Dutch Republic |
| Died | 22 July 1652(1652-07-22) (aged 63–64) Amsterdam, Dutch Republic |
Jacques Specx (Dutch:[ʑɑkˈspɛks]; 1585 – 22 July 1652) was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609.[1][2] Jacques Specx received the support ofWilliam Adams to obtain extensive trading rights fromTokugawa Ieyasu, theshōgun emeritus, on 24 August 1609, which allowed him to establish atrading factory inHirado on 20 September 1609. He was theinterimgovernor inBatavia between 1629 and 1632. There his daughterSaartje Specx was involved in a scandal. Back home in Holland Specx became an art-collector.
The Dutch, who, rather than "Nanban" were called "Kōmō" (紅毛, "Red Hair") by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, on board theLiefde.
In 1605, two of theLiefde's crew,Jacob Quaeckernaeck andMelchior van Santvoort, were sent toPattani byTokugawa Ieyasu, to invite Dutch trade to Japan. The head of the Pattani Dutch trading post, Victor Sprinckel, refused on the ground that he was too busy dealing with Portuguese opposition in Southeast Asia.
Jacques Specx, the brother ofCornelius Specx, sailed on a fleet of eleven ships that leftTexel in 1607 under the command ofPieter Willemsz Verhoeff. After arriving inBantam two ships which were dispatched to establish the first official trade relations between theNetherlands andJapan.[3]
The two ships Specx commanded wereDe Griffioen (the "Griffin", 19 cannons) andRoode Leeuw met Pijlen (the "Red lion with arrows", 400 tons, 26 cannons). The ships arrived in Japan on 2 July 1609.[4]
Among the crews were the chief merchants Abraham van den Broeck and Nicolaas Puyck and the under-merchant Jaques Specx.
The exact composition of the delegation is uncertain; but it has been established that van den Broeck and Puyck traveled to the Shogunal Court, andMelchior van Santvoort acted as the mission's interpreter. Santevoort had arrived a few years earlier aboard the Dutch shipDe Liefde. He had established himself as a merchant in Nagasaki.
Theshōgun granted the Dutch the access to all ports in Japan, and confirmed this in an act of safe-conduct, stamped with his red seal. (Inv.nr.1a.).
In September 1609 the ship's council decided to hire a house on Hirado island (west of the southern main island Kiushu). Jacques Specx became the firstopperhoofd (chief) of the new company's factory.[5]
In 1610, Specx sent a ship to Korea.[6]
Specx owned five paintings byRembrandt.[7]
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