Page 286 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 286
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Introduction
The leaders of the Tokugawa shogunate (the shogun1– daimyo2 ruling
system, 1603–1868) had established and idealised a communal village
system. Conrad Totman summarised this concept in relief measures and
regulations, which were implemented in the age of harvest failures and
food price crisis around 1640. According to Totman, those administrative
decisions “delineated the essential characteristics of the village system they
wished to perpetuate” (Totman 1993, 112).
Each village was to constitute a self-sustaining collectivity of small-
holders clearly separated from merchants. They were to eschew lux-
uries and work diligently to produce essential goods on their own
lands, while collectively paying taxes and caring for their village.
They were to be responsible for one another’s good behaviour, an
obligation exercised through gonin-gumi, or ‘five household units,’
neighbourhood groups modelled on classical Chinese precedents.
Overseeing these collectivities was the hierarchy of village officials,
intendants, and daimyo or Edo officials, all attentive to their du-
ties, dedicated to preserving the productivity vitality and well-be-
ing of the villagers, and effectively controlled by regulations that de-
rived ultimately from Edo.
The peasant family farm and the expansion of new arable lands in-
creased the productivity of rice from the 16th to the 17th century, especially
in the first phase of Early Modern Tokugawa Japan. By the Genroku3 peri-
od (1688–1704) (Totman 1993, 184–222), in the early years of the Tokugawa
shogunate, most of Japan had been naturally or artificially reclaimed and
cultivated in order to grow various types of rice, crops and other agricul-
tural products to sustain the population. According to an estimate, “paddy
acreage increased by more than 70% between 1450 and 1600, and by anoth-
er 140% by 1720” (Totman 1993, 149).4
However, over-concentration on a single crop increased the risk of
famine. The first serious famine in Early Modern Japan broke out in 1732
1 Hegemonial military leader: a hereditary head of the Tokugawa family.
2 Literally “great name:” regional baron.
3 A nengō (a period of years as designated in the Japanese calendric system) when origi-
nal Japanese recreation and aesthetic productions and cultures flourished as ukiyo, the
“floating world.”
4 Citation from K. Yamamura, “Returns on Unification: Economic Growth in Japan,
1550–1650,” in Hall 1968, 334.
284
Introduction
The leaders of the Tokugawa shogunate (the shogun1– daimyo2 ruling
system, 1603–1868) had established and idealised a communal village
system. Conrad Totman summarised this concept in relief measures and
regulations, which were implemented in the age of harvest failures and
food price crisis around 1640. According to Totman, those administrative
decisions “delineated the essential characteristics of the village system they
wished to perpetuate” (Totman 1993, 112).
Each village was to constitute a self-sustaining collectivity of small-
holders clearly separated from merchants. They were to eschew lux-
uries and work diligently to produce essential goods on their own
lands, while collectively paying taxes and caring for their village.
They were to be responsible for one another’s good behaviour, an
obligation exercised through gonin-gumi, or ‘five household units,’
neighbourhood groups modelled on classical Chinese precedents.
Overseeing these collectivities was the hierarchy of village officials,
intendants, and daimyo or Edo officials, all attentive to their du-
ties, dedicated to preserving the productivity vitality and well-be-
ing of the villagers, and effectively controlled by regulations that de-
rived ultimately from Edo.
The peasant family farm and the expansion of new arable lands in-
creased the productivity of rice from the 16th to the 17th century, especially
in the first phase of Early Modern Tokugawa Japan. By the Genroku3 peri-
od (1688–1704) (Totman 1993, 184–222), in the early years of the Tokugawa
shogunate, most of Japan had been naturally or artificially reclaimed and
cultivated in order to grow various types of rice, crops and other agricul-
tural products to sustain the population. According to an estimate, “paddy
acreage increased by more than 70% between 1450 and 1600, and by anoth-
er 140% by 1720” (Totman 1993, 149).4
However, over-concentration on a single crop increased the risk of
famine. The first serious famine in Early Modern Japan broke out in 1732
1 Hegemonial military leader: a hereditary head of the Tokugawa family.
2 Literally “great name:” regional baron.
3 A nengō (a period of years as designated in the Japanese calendric system) when origi-
nal Japanese recreation and aesthetic productions and cultures flourished as ukiyo, the
“floating world.”
4 Citation from K. Yamamura, “Returns on Unification: Economic Growth in Japan,
1550–1650,” in Hall 1968, 334.
284
