Basic Building Statistics
- +2 trade routes possible (sea)
- +10 per turn to town growth from ports within this province
- Converts the populace to Christianity
- Improves export capacity (increases trade values) by +120
- Recruitment capacity (ship under construction): 1
Description
Foreign visitors bring strange and unsettling ideas with them, and rarely wash, but they also have interesting cargoes and a hunger for Japanese goods. A nanban trade port opens up a province for trade with these foreign fellows, and allows the recruitment of matchlock-armed troops. The trade growth is, of course, a welcome extra benefit.
Nanban means “southern barbarian” and was the term used for European traders who came to Japan in the 1540s: they approached from the south, after all, and were barbarous by local standards. They certainly had few manners, precious little understanding of the proper way of doing things, and brought a strange religion with them. They were, however, welcomed because of the new matchlock firearms that they brought with them from Europe. The Japanese soon realised that ashigaru could be trained cheaply and quickly to use these new weapons, and it was not long before local makers were producing guns every bit as good as, and in some cases superior to, the European arquebuses.