Tokugawa Economy

Interpretation of Tokugawa Economy

Old view

Stagnant economy and society

Secluded and repressive feudal government

Western influence explains modern economic development

Newer view

Groundwork for modern economic development originated in Tokugawa

What is Gordon's view of the Tokugawa economy?

Increased Agricultural Production

Arable land almost doubled

Reclamation

Irrigation

Productivity increases

Tools

Hoe, sickle,

Commercial fertilizer

Oil cakes, dried fish, night soil

Herring meal industry in Hokkaidō, 18th c.

Farming activities

Plowing

Transplanting Rice Seedlings

Removing Insects

Rice Harvest

Threshing rice

Going to market

Population growth

12 million, 1600

32 million, 1730-1860

Debate on leveling of population

Limitations on resources

Arable land at maximum

Foreign trade limited

Epidemics, famines

Infanticide

Desire for improved living standard

Late marriage

Infanticide

Growing urbanism

10% urban population, 1700

15-20% urban population, 1800

Castle vs. market towns

Market economy

Changes in handicraft industry

Move to countryside, 18th c.

Lower wages, less govt regulation

Early capitalism or proto-industrialization?

Farming-weaving households

Weaving specialists

Putting-out system

20% of agri production for market, mid-19th c.

Cotton

Silk

Benefits

Growing incomes

Drawbacks

Market price fluctuations

Concentration of land in villages

Social dislocation as a result of economic growth

Peasant protest

2809 peasant disturbances

1590 to 1867 (10/year)

Petitions to government

Early Tokugawa/Periphery

Natural disasters

Intra-village solidarity

Violence against merchants and rich villagers

Late Tokugawa/Core

Market fluctuations and dislocations

Intra-village conflict

Samurai hurt economically

Fixed stipends of rice

Market fluctuations

Discussion

Musui’s Story, pp. pp. 43-108

1. In Chapter 3, “Youth,” Katsu Kokichi is about the age of students at Shippensburg University. How does he live his life as a young samurai?

2. At the end of the “Youth” chapter, he boasts, “I was now ordering the swordsmen in the area as though they were my underlings…Everybody obeyed me. I feared absolutely no one.” (p. 60), If this was the case, why does Katsu run away as a married man with a child at age twenty-one?

• What does it tell you about society in Tokugawa Japan if a twenty-one year old samurai has to run away if he is dissatisfied with his life?
• What was his punishment? What does it teach us about the role of extended family in Tokugawa samurai society?

3. In his “Youth and “Adult Years,” chapters, how did Katsu make a living without an official position in government?

• How did he use social networking to make friends and support himself?
• Nevertheless, why was he perpetually in debt?

4. What can we learn about religious practices, based on Musui’s association with various Shinto and Buddhist priests (pp. 74-80)?