The article analyzes the events that took place in Japan at the beginning of the 17th century, when the first English EICo mission arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun and founded a trading post in Hirado. It shows rivalry with other European traders, who, for various reasons, were ahead of the British in establishing trade relations with Japan. It was in the person of the Dutch that English merchants encountered not only serious competitors, but sometimes open enemies. The main directions of activity of the management of the trading post for the organization of trade expeditions to the markets of countries neighboring with Japan, such as Korea and China, as well as to Southeast Asia (Cochinhina, Siam) are highlighted. Shown is the work of Richard Cocks as the head of the EICo trading post in Hirado, who paid great attention to establishing relations with the Japanese authorities at all levels, primarily with the shogun government in Edo. Based on the versatile activities of R. Cocks as head of the trading post in Hirado, it is concluded that he sought to be useful not only to the EICo and the country as a whole, and the failure of the English trade enterprise in Japan was due to many objective and subjective reasons.

Oltarzhevskii Vladimir Pavlovich, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Irkutsk State University, 1, K. Marx st., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation, e-mail: voltarj@mail.ru

Puzynya Nikolai Nikolaevich, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Department of History and Methodology, Irkutsk State University, 1, K. Marx st., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation, e-mail: stazirovka@mail.ru

Oltarzhevskii V.P., Puzynya N.N. Factory of the English East India Company in Hirado (Japan) . The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series History, 2021, vol. 36, pp. 83-94. https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2021.36.83 (in Russian)

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