Jacques Specx

Jacques Specx
Jacques Specx in 1650
7th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
In office 25 September 1629 – 27 September 1632
Preceded by	Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Succeeded by	Hendrik Brouwer
Personal details
Born	1588 Dordrecht, Dutch Republic
Died	22 July 1652 Amsterdam, Dutch Republic
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Colonial governor

Jacques Specx (Dutch: [ˈʒɑk ˈspɛks]; 1585 – 22 July 1652) was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609. Jacques Specx received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Shogun emeritus, on August 24, 1609, which allowed him to establish a trading factory in Hirado on September 20, 1609. He was the interim governor in Batavia between 1629 - 1632. There his daughter Saartje Specx was involved in a scandal. Back home in Holland Specx became an art-collector.

The Dutch, who, rather than "Nanban" were called "Kōmō" (Jp:紅毛, lit. "Red Hair") by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, on board the Liefde.

In 1605, two of the Liefde's crew, Jacob Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort, were sent to Pattani by Tokugawa 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 sailed on a fleet of eleven ships that left Texel in 1607 under the command of Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff. After arriving in Bantam two ships which were dispatched to establish the first official trade relations between the Netherlands and Japan.