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About The Book : The history of the English trading settlement in Japan in the first quarter of the seventeenth century is the history of a failure; and the causes of the failure are not far to seek. Choosing for their depot an insignificant island in the extreme west of the kingdom, without even good anchorage to recommend it, and at a far distance from the capital cities of Miako and Yedo, with the Dutch for their neighbours and, as it proved, their rivals, the English may be said to have courted disaster. It is true that firando was a ready port for shipping coming from Europe; its ruler was friendly ; and it lay in a convenient position from whence to open the much- desired trade with China. And the policy of making common cause with the Protestant Hollanders against the Spaniards and Portuguese, who had first secured a footing in Japan and were powerful in the neighbouring town of Nagasaki, would have been a sound one, had the latter remained supreme. But, when the English landed, the Dutch had already obtained privileges and had established their trade in the country; and what ought to have been foreseen inevitably came to pass. About The Author : Sir Edward Maunde Thompson GCB FBA (1840–1929) was a British palaeographer and Principal Librarian and first Director of the British Museum. He is noted for his handbook of Greek and Latin palaeography and for his study of William Shakespeare's handwriting in the manuscript of the play Sir Thomas More. Richard Cocks (1566–1624) was the head of the British East India Company trading post in Hirado, Japan, between 1613 and 1623, from its creation, and lasting to its closure due to bankruptcy.