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Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan Monies, Markets, and Finance in East Asia, 1600–1900

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Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan Monies, Markets, and Finance in East Asia, 1600–1900 Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan Monies, Markets, and Finance in East Asia, 1600–1900 Edited by Hans Ulrich Vogel VOLUME 1 Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan Edited by Bettina Gramlich-Oka Gregory Smits LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 Cover illustration: Middle section of the Nishikie (Brocade sheet) Kanai tanoshiku kinsen asobiseru zu 家内楽金銭遊セル図, by Utagawa Kunimaro 歌川国麿, 1868. Courtesy of the Waseda University Library. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Economic thought in early modern Japan / edited by Bettina Gramlich-Oka, Gregory Smits. p. cm. — (Monies, markets, and finance in East Asia, 1600–1900; v. 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-18383-4 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Economics—Japan—History—To 1800. 2. Economics—Japan—History—19th century. 3. Japan—Economic conditions—1600–1868. I. Gramlich-Oka, Bettina. II. Smits, Gregory, 1960– III. Title. IV. Series. HB126.J2E26 2010 330.0952’0903—dc22 2010018108 ISSN 2210-2876 ISBN 978 90 04 18383 4 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. Dedicated to John Luke Matsumoto Metzler 2003–2009 雲ゐにもかよふ心のおくれねばわかると人に見ゆばかりなり Kumoi ni mo No matter how great kayou kokoro no a distance you may travel okureneba my loving heart will wakaru to hito ni never lag behind though it miyu bakari nari may seem we have been parted (Kiyowara no Fukayabu, Kokinshū 378, trans. Laurel Rasplica Rodd) CONTENTS Foreword ............................................................................................. ix Hans Ulrich Vogel Foreword to the Volume .................................................................. xiii Ōguchi Yūjirō Acknowledgments .............................................................................. xvii List of Maps ........................................................................................ xix List of Contributors ........................................................................... xxi Introduction: The Autonomy of Market Activity and the Emergence of Keizai Thought ..................................................... 1 Mark Metzler and Gregory Smits Money and the State: Medieval Precursors of the Early Modern Economy ......................................................................... 21 Ethan Segal Economic Thought Concerning Freedom and Control .............. 47 Kawaguchi Hiroshi Guiding Horses with Rotten Reins: Economic Thought in the Eighteenth-Century Kingdom of Ryukyu ................................. 67 Gregory Smits The Shift to Domestic Sugar and the Ideology of ‘The National Interest’ .................................................................. 89 Ochiai Kō A Domain Doctor and Shogunal Policies ..................................... 111 Bettina Gramlich-Oka The Economic Thought of Shōji Kōki and the Tenpō Reforms in Saga Domain ............................................................................. 157 Jan Sýkora viii contents Confucian Banking: The Community Granary (Shasō) in Rhetoric and Practice ............................................................. 179 Mark J. Ravina From Tokugawa to Meiji: The Economic Thought of a Local Entrepreneur in the Early Meiji Era .......................................... 205 Ishii Sumiyo Policy Space, Polarities, and Regimes ............................................ 217 Mark Metzler Glossary ............................................................................................... 251 References ........................................................................................... 261 Index .................................................................................................... 287 FOREWORD caput xxii quod tyrannus non potest diu durae In istis duobus capitulis intendo probare, quod exigere pecuniam per tales mutationes monetae, est contra honorem regium, et in praejudicium tota- lis regalis posteritatis. Sciendum est igitur, quod inter principatum regium et tyrannicum, hoc inter- est quod tyrannus plus diligit et quaerit proprium bonum quam commune conferens subditorum: . Nicolaus Oresmius (before 1330–1382), De mutatione monetarum: tractatus.1 In my function as the Director of the Research Group “Monies, Mar- kets, and Finance in China and East Asia, 1600–1900: Local, Regional, National and International Dimensions”2 it is both a great pleasure as well as an honor for me to have been asked to write a brief foreword to this book. “Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan” was the title of one of the scholarly conventions of this research group. This inter- national symposium, organized by Bettina Gramlich-Oka and Robert Horres from the Department of Japanese Studies (Institute for Asian and Oriental Studies, Tübingen University), took place from May 29 to June 1, 2008, in Blaubeuren, in the eastern part of the state of Baden- Württemberg in Germany. Blaubeuren provided an ideal location for this meeting, not only because facilities of Tübingen University for such events are available there, but also because of its landmarks and archaeological importance. Participants enjoyed visiting the Blautopf (Blue Pot), the beautiful spring of the river Blau, while perhaps not being aware that in the vicinity of Blaubeuren some of mankind’s ear- liest works of art, small animal and human figures made out of mam- moth ivory, have been discovered. 1 Nicolas von Oresme, De mutatione monetarum: tractatus; Traktat über die Geldabwertungen, übersetzt von Wolfram Burckhardt, mit einem Nachwort von Mar- tin Burckhardt, Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 1999, p. 62. 2 See http://www.monieseastasia.uni-tuebingen.de/. x foreword The research group “Monies, Markets, and Finance in China and East Asia” was founded in 2004 when it first received funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of the State of Baden-Württem- berg. Later, from October 2005 onwards the project could be consider- ably expanded, due to the generous support of the German Research Foundation (DFG), which will continue to finance this undertaking until late 2011. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ger- man Research Foundation, not only for the Research Group in gen- eral, but also for such specific events as the international symposium in Blaubeuren. In this context also other institutions deserve mention due to their continuous financial contributions, especially the German– East Asian Forum of Sciences and Humanities of Tübingen University, the Association of the Friends of the University of Tübingen, and the China Society of Baden-Württemberg for the Advancement of Scien- tific and Technical Cooperation with the People’s Republic of China. The publication of this volume on economic thought in early mod- ern Japan is remarkable not only due to its content, but also because it marks the first volume of the Research Group’s new series published now with Brill.3 This series is named Monies, Markets, and Finance in East Asia, 1600–1900. As is suggested by its title, it will publish work on the history of monies, markets and finance in East Asia, mainly during the period from 1600 to 1900 and with a regional focus on China, Japan and Korea. We understand monies not only as referring to physical objects and monetary functions, but also to such related aspects as mining, smelting as well as transportation of, and trade in, monetary metals. Markets are the places where the sale and pur- chase of goods and services take place. The multiplicity and diversity of markets in a premodern East Asian context imply the existence of different currency circuits and competing currencies, with monies fulfilling the various needs of individuals, groups, associations, and institutions. The topic of finance includes case studies both on public dimensions and private institutions, such as war finance, sources for public revenue, private financial institutions, and credit and trust net- works. Contributions in this series, however, will not only deal with 3 Before shifting to Brill, the research group published one volume with the LIT Verlag. See Thomas Hirzel and Nanny Kim (eds.),Metals, Monies, and Markets in Early Modern Societies: East Asian and Global Perspectives, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2008, vol. 17 of Bunka—Wenhua: Tübinger Ostasiatische Forschungen/Tuebingen East Asian Studies. foreword xi empirical and theoretical approaches to economic, social and political aspects of monies, markets and finance, but also with their cultural characteristics and meanings. By establishing a strong foundation in the research of monies, mar- kets and finance in premodern East Asia, the series aims at serving as a starting point for solid cross-cultural comparative research. And this, in my view, is exactly the contribution of the first volume in this series edited by Bettina Gramlich-Oka and Gregory Smits. Economic Thought in Early Modern Japan deals with a impressive number of
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