Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers (7)

     Previously, in 1540’s, some of the silver mined and refined in Iwami Silver Mine flew out into Korea.  It didn’t take so long for Japanese silver to drain off into China.  Those days in China, more taxes were supposed to be paid with silver than before, while the production of silver in China was sluggish.  The thirst for foreign silver was burning.  Direct non-stop marine transportation routes across the East China Sea were opened up.  The Chinese junk ships on those direct routes arrived in Japan at Hirado, for example, in the northwestern tip of Kyushu Island, which used to be ruled by the Matsura Clan.

     In 1550’s, Chinese smugglers from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces flocked to Japan with an eye to its silver.  Although they were heading for Hirado, some of them, unluckily, got astray and got washed ashore either in the north on the Korean beaches or in the south on small islands around the southern part of Kyushu, on Tanega-shima Island, for example.  In Korea, those ships were reported and recorded as wrecked Tang ships.