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{{Short description|French explorer (1600–1673)}}
{{About|the 17th century merchant-trader in Asia|the Canadian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada|François Caron (politician)}}
{{other people|François Caron}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = François Caron
|image = CaronMap.jpg
|image_size = 300px
|caption = A map of Japan in François Caron's "A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam".
|order = 1st
|office = Director-General of the French East India Company
|term_start = 1667
|term_end = 1673
|predecessor =
|successor =
|order2 = 8th
|office2 = Governor of Formosa
|term_start2 = 1644
|term_end2 = 1646
|predecessor2 = [[Maximiliaan le Maire]]
|successor2 = [[Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater]]
|order3 = 12th
|office3 = Opperhoofd in Japan
|term_start3 = 2 February 1639
|term_end3 = 13 February 1641
|predecessor3 = [[Nicolaes Couckebacker]]
|successor3 = [[Maximiliaan le Maire]]
|birth_date = 1600
|birth_place = [[Brussels]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1673|4|5|1600|df=yes}}
|death_place = at sea, near [[Portugal]]
|spouse = Constantia Boudaen
}}

'''François Caron''' ({{IPA|fr|fʁɑ̃swa kaʁɔ̃}}; 1600 – 5 April 1673) was a French [[Huguenot]] refugee to the [[Netherlands]] who served the [[Dutch East India Company]] (''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC) for 30 years, rising from cook's mate to the director-general at [[Jakarta|Batavia]] (Jakarta), only one grade below governor-general.<ref>Asia Society. (1874). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ez0OAAAAIAAJ&q=francois+caron ''Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,'' p. 29.]</ref> He retired from the VOC in 1651, and was later recruited to become director-general of the newly formed [[Louis XIV's East India Company|French East Indies Company]] in 1665 until his death in 1673.<ref name="f42">Frazer, Robert Watson. (1896). [https://books.google.com/books?id=axg3AAAAMAAJ&dq=francois+caron&pg=PA42 ''British India,'' p. 42.]</ref>

Caron is sometimes considered the first Frenchman to set foot in Japan,<ref>References [https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=Fran%C3%A7ois+Caron+premier+Fran%C3%A7ais+Japon]: - "Si on peut dire de lui qu'il était français, il est probablement le seul français qui ait visité le Japon sous l'ancien régime." Diderot; le XVIIIe siecle en europe et au Japon, Colloque franco-japonais ... - Page 222 by Hisayasu Nakagawa - 1988 
- "En 1635 ce fut le tour de François Caron, sur lequel nous voudrions nous arrêter un moment, ... comme le premier Français venu au Japon et à Edo." Histoire de Tokyo - Page 67 by Noël Nouët - Tokyo (Japan) - 1961 - 261 pages 
- "A titre de premier représentant de notre langue au Japon, cet homme méritait ici une petite place" (Bulletin de la Maison franco-japonaise by Maison franco-japonaise (Tokyo, Japan) - Japan - 1927 Page 127)</ref> although he was actually born in [[Brussels]] to a family of Huguenot refugees.<ref>"Colbert avait alors sous la main François Caron, qui, né en Hollande de parents français, avait été embarqué pour le Japon dès l'âge le plus tendre". Societe de la Revue des Mondes, François Buloz, Page 140 [https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=Fran%C3%A7ois+Caron+premier+Fran%C3%A7ais+Japon&sa=N&start=10] "Francois Caron was born in 1600 of Huguenot parents, who were then settled in Brussels, but who shortly after his birth moved to the United Provinces." A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam (1986)[https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=Fran%C3%A7ois+Caron+Huguenot]</ref> He only became a naturalized citizen of France when he was persuaded by [[Jean Baptiste Colbert|Colbert]] to become head of the French East Indies Company, in his 60s.<ref>Yavari, Neguin ''et al.'' (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=98s_RXcO2c4C&q=francois+caron&pg=PA15 ''Views From The Edge: Essays In Honor Of Richard W. Bulliet,'' p. 15.]</ref> Thus the native-born French [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] missionary [[Guillaume Courtet]] may have the stronger claim. Regardless, the first known instance of any [[Franco-Japanese relations]] precedes them both, being the visit of [[Hasekura Tsunenaga]] to France in 1615.

==Japan==
[[File:HiradoVOCfactory(montanus-1669).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The Dutch [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] trading factory in Hirado. 17th-century engraving.]]
Caron began as a cook's mate<ref name="o355">Otterspeer, Willem. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=dUv3dF7aDycC&dq=francois+caron&pg=PA355 ''Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850–1940'', p. 355.]</ref> on board the Dutch ship ''Schiedam'' bound for Japan, where he arrived at [[Hirado]] in 1619. He transferred off the ship (either legitimately or via desertion) and began working in Hirado, becoming a full factory assistant in 1626. He quickly developed an aptitude for the Japanese language, and became involved with a local woman (the daughter of Eguchi Jūzaemon) with whom he had six children.<ref name="o355"/> In 1627 he served as interpreter on a VOC mission to the [[Shōgun|shogunal]] capital of [[Edo]], the first of many diplomatic trips he would make.<ref name="o355"/>

On 9 April 1633, Caron was promoted to senior merchant, making him the second ranking Company official in Japan. In 1636, the new VOC Director-General [[Philip Lucasz]], wishing to learn about the territories he was charged with overseeing, sent a list of 31 questions about Japan which Caron was charged with answering. Caron's answers formed the outline for his work ''Beschrijvinghe van het machtigh coninckrijcke Jappan'' ("Description of the Mighty Kingdom of Japan"), published as an appendix to a corporate history in 1645 and as an independent book in 1661. This was one of the first reports to introduce Japan in any detail to a European audience and was widely read, receiving translations into German, French, and English.<ref name="Maes">{{Cite journal|title=François Caron and his Beschryvinghe van Iappan – His Perception of the Japanese|journal=MaRBLe Research Papers|url=https://openjournals.maastrichtuniversity.nl/index.php/Marble/article/view/221|last=Maes|first=Ben|date=2014|volume=6|pages=117–132|doi=10.26481/marble.2014.v6.221|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Caron was a gifted diplomat and was important to Dutch efforts to ingratiate themselves with the Shogunate at whose mercy their trade operated. In 1636, on another mission to Edo, Caron presented a magnificent copper lantern (which was installed and still stands at [[Nikkō Tōshō-gū]] shrine) as a gift to secure the release of the hostage [[Pieter Nuyts]], who as VOC ambassador to Japan had instigated a diplomatic incident so severe it forced the shutdown of Hirado for several years.<ref name="Maes"/><ref>{{Citation|chapter=Deciphering The Dutch In Deshima|last=Mochizuki|first=Mia M.|title=Boundaries and their Meanings in the History of the Netherlands|pages=63–94|date=2009|publisher=Brill|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004176379.i-258.23|isbn=9789047429814}}</ref>

On 3 February 1639, Caron succeeded [[Nicolaes Couckebacker]] as the VOC ''[[VOC Opperhoofden in Japan|opperhoofd]]'' (chief ''[[factor (agent)|factor]]'' or merchant) in Japan. At this time, the shogunate was implementing severe [[Sakoku|isolationist policies]], including the expulsion of nearly all foreigners and the criminalization of Christian proselytizing. The Portuguese trading out of [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] were completely expelled, and the VOC warehouses at Hirado were destroyed, ostensibly because one was engraved with the Christian date of its erection ("AD 1638"). The Dutch, now the only Europeans allowed to trade on Japanese soil, were forced to relocate to the small artificial island of [[Dejima]], although Caron ended his term as ''opperhoofd'' shortly before the move took place in the summer of 1641.<ref>[http://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tokushu/kaigai/Diaries/Volumes/4947AA1F-1DCD-456E-9A82-7FD8BA719D77.html Summary of Francois Caron's diary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104205458/http://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tokushu/kaigai/Diaries/Volumes/4947AA1F-1DCD-456E-9A82-7FD8BA719D77.html |date=4 January 2014 }}, Historiographical Institute at the University of Tokyo. Retrieved 8 March 2021.</ref>

==Return to the Netherlands==
[[File:Kingdoms Japan Siam - Caron - title page.jpg|thumb|300px|"A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam" by François Caron, German Edition, 1663.]]
[[File:Caron1663.jpg|thumb|300px|Illustration of the [[Siege of Osaka]], from Caron's book: "The Burning of Osaka Castle"]]

In 1641, Caron's Japan contract with the company expired, and he went to [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] awaiting a transfer to Europe, accompanied by his family.<ref name="Leup">Leup, Gary P. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-I6owJcCOdwC&q=francois+caron&pg=PA8 ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543–1900)''. p. 8], [https://books.google.com/books?id=-I6owJcCOdwC&q=Caron pp. 62-63]</ref> At that time, he was nominated member of the [[Council of the East Indies]], the governing body of the VOC in Asia, next to the governor-general. On 13 December 1641 Caron sailed back to Europe as commander of the merchant fleet.

==New assignments in Asia==
Although he was rewarded handsomely for his services with a capital of 1,500 guilders, he again left for Asia in 1643 aboard the ''Olifant''. He arrived in Batavia to find that his Japanese consort had died. As they were never legally married, Caron submitted a formal petition to legitimize his children by her, which was accepted. Meanwhile, during his brief return to Europe, he had become engaged to Constantia Boudaen, who arrived in 1645 and bore him a further seven children.<ref name="Leup"/>

In September 1643, he headed an army of 1,700 men against the Portuguese in [[Ceylon]]. In 1644, Caron was then named governor of [[Taiwan|Formosa]] ([[Taiwan]]); and was the chief VOC official on the island until 1646.<ref>Campbell, William. (1903). [https://books.google.com/books?id=OpdMq-YJoeoC&dq=francois+caron&pg=PA213 ''Formosa Under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records,'' p. 75.]</ref> During this period, Caron's achievements included restructuring the production of rice, sulfur, sugar and indigo, and moderating the trade with Chinese pirates.

He had to return to Batavia in 1646. In 1647, he was appointed director-general, second in command after the governor-general. In 1651, Caron was recalled to the Netherlands, together with [[Cornelis van der Lijn]], due to allegations of private trade, but he successfully defended his case, and was able to resign with honor from the company.

==Appointment with the French East Indies Company==
The arenas of French rivalry with England and Holland expanded to Asia in 1664 when the French Finance Minister [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] persuaded [[Louis XIV]] to grant a patent to a newly contrived French East Indies Company. Somehow Colbert managed to entice Caron into accepting a leadership role in this nascent enterprise. He became the company's Director General in 1665.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ames, Glenn J.|year=1996|title=Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade|publisher=Northern Illinois University Press|page=30}}</ref> This action was perceived as treason by the Dutch, and Caron was banned eternally from the Provinces.

===Japan and China===
Caron advocated for establishing trade with both Japan and China, laying out a system of purchasing silks and other trade good from China, then selling them in Japan for silver at "60 or 70 percent profit". This silver could then be immediately used to purchase more goods from China to sell in a "wheel of commerce," self-sustaining after only an initial outlay of silver from France itself. In Caron's view, "this is the only trade that can enrich the French Company".<ref>{{cite book|title=Travels In Persia|last=Chardin|first=John|orig-year=1st pub. 1720|year=1927|publisher=Argonaut Press|publication-place=London|page=19|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.169543/page/n51/mode/2up}}</ref> An official letter from Louis XIV to the Emperor of Japan was drawn up and instructions prepared for its delivery and subsequent trade negotiations, but it seems that this plan was not carried to fruition and the letter was never conveyed to Japan.<ref>{{cite book|title=Japan As It Was and Is|last=Hildreth|first=Richard|year=1905|edition=2nd|publisher=Phillip, Sampson and Company|publication-place=Boston|page=204|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4MCAAAAMAAJ&q=%22French%20trade%20with%20Japan%22}}</ref> It is unlikely that this effort would have succeeded, as Japan was deeply committed to its ''[[Sakoku]]'' policy of isolation at that time.

===Madagascar===
In 1665, François Caron sailed to [[Madagascar]]. The Company failed to found a [[colony]] on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon (now [[Réunion]]) and [[Isle de France (Mauritius)|Isle de France]] (now [[Mauritius]]). In the late 17th century, the [[France|French]] established trading posts along the east coast.

===India===
{{Further|French India}}
Caron succeeded in founding French outposts at [[Surat]] (1668) and at [[Masulipatam]] (1669) in [[India]];<ref name="p266">Pope, George Uglow. (1880). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xpABAAAAQAAJ&dq=francois+caron&pg=PA266 ''A Text-book of Indian History,'' p. 266.]</ref> and Louis XIV acknowledged those successes by awarding him the [[Order of St. Michael]].<ref name="f42"/> He was "Commissaire" at [[Surat]] between 1668 and 1672. The French East India Company formally set up a trading centre at Pondicherry in 1673. This outpost eventually became the chief French settlement in India.

In 1672, he helped lead French forces in [[Ceylon]], where the strategic bay at Trincomalee was captured and St. Thomé (also known as Meilâpûr) on the Coromandel coast was also taken;<ref name="p266" /> however, the consequences of his military success was short-lived. The French were driven out these modest conquests while Caron was en route to Europe in 1673.<ref name="f42"/>

He died as his ship sank off Lisbon on 5 April 1673, while he was returning to Europe.

===Honors===
* [[Order of St. Michael]], 1672

==See also==
*[[Nanban trade period]]
*[[Franco-Japanese relations]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Ames|first=Glenn J. |title=Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade|year=1996|publisher=Northern Illinois University Press|location=DeKalb, IL|isbn=0-87580-207-9 }}
* Campbell, William. (1903). [https://books.google.com/books?id=OpdMq-YJoeoC&q=francois+caron ''Formosa Under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records.''] London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.
* [[Frederic Charles Danvers|Danvers, Frederick Charles]]. (1888). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cak9AAAAIAAJ&q=francois+caron ''Report to the Secretary of State for India in Council on the Records of the Records of the India Office: Records Relating to Agencies, Factories and Settlements not Now Under the Administration of the Government of India.''] London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), by Eyre and Spottiswoode.
* Frazer, Robert Watson. (1896). [https://books.google.com/books?id=axg3AAAAMAAJ&q=francois+caron ''British India.''] London: G.P. Putnam & Sons.
* Leup, Gary P. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-I6owJcCOdwC&q=francois+caron ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900).''] London: [[Continuum International Publishing Group]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8264-6074-5}}
* Otterspeer, Willem. (1989). [https://books.google.com/books?id=dUv3dF7aDycC&q=francois+caron ''Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850-1940.''] Leiden: [[Brill Publishers]]. {{ISBN|978-90-04-09022-4}} (paper)
* Pope, George Uglow. (1880). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xpABAAAAQAAJ&q=francois+caron ''A Text-book of Indian History.''] London: W. H. Allen.
*{{Cite journal|url=https://www.ac-sciences-lettres-montpellier.fr/academie_edition/fichiers_conf/Proust2003.pdf|first=Jacques|last=Proust|year=2003
|journal=Académie des Sciences et Lettres de Montpellier|title=Un déscendant de huguenots français au japon au debut XVIIe siècle}}
* Jozef Rogala. (2001). [https://books.google.com/books?id=29cty-eprmgC&q=francois+caron ''A Collector's Guide to Books on Japan in English: A Select List of Over 2500 Titles with Subject Index.''] London: [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-1-873410-91-2}} (paper)
* Yavari, Neguin, Lawrence G. Potter and Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=98s_RXcO2c4C&q=francois+caron ''Views From The Edge: Essays In Honor Of Richard W. Bulliet.''] New York: [[Columbia University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-231-13472-9}} (cloth)
* ''Mémoires de François Martin, Fondateur de Pondichéry (1665-1694)'', publiées par Alfred Martineau, ''Bibliothèque d'Histoire Coloniale'', Paris, 1934

{{S-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{Succession box| before= [[Nicolaes Couckebacker]] |title=[[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] [[Opperhoofd]] of [[Hirado, Nagasaki|Hirado]] | after= VOC relocated to [[Dejima]] | years=1639–1641}}
{{Succession box
|before=[[Maximilian le Maire]]
|title=[[List of governors of Formosa|VOC Governor of Formosa]]
|after=[[Pieter Anthoniszoon Overtwater]]
|years=1644–1646}}
{{Succession box| before= - |title= ([[Louis XIV's East India Company]]) Commissioner of [[Surat]] | after=François Baron | years=1668–1672}}
{{S-end}}

{{Dutch Formosa}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caron, Francois}}
[[Category:1600 births]]
[[Category:1673 deaths]]
[[Category:French explorers]]
[[Category:Colonial governors of Dutch Formosa]]
[[Category:Governors of French India]]
[[Category:Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Brussels]]
[[Category:Dutch East India Company people]]

François Caron - Revision history

LibbyAlba221 at 21:40, 5 April 2026