‘After the Manner of This Land’

Vialle reframes the famed Dutch prostrations at the Tokugawa court, arguing they were not humiliating performances of submission but routine, codified courtesies—no different from protocols the VOC followed at other Asian courts. Situating the annual Edo court visits within the Company&s;s wider diplomatic network (Beijing, Siam, Tonkin, Kandy, Ternate), she shows that kneeling, kowtowing, and gift presentation were standard conditions of trade and toll remissions, adjusted as power shifted. Drawing on factory diaries and VOC archives, she contrasts modern readings of Dutch abasement with contemporary voices (e.g., Doeff) who framed such acts as respectful conformity to local custom—‘after the manner of that land’—rather than subordination.