The History of the Distribution Economy and the Sh ô en System

1. The History of the Distribution Economy and the Shôen System Sakurai Eiji University of Tokyo

2. Introduction • My research specialty: history of the distribution economy • Distribution economy closely connected to the shôen rent collection system • Recent breakthroughs in the history of the distribution economy have occurred within the field of currency history

3. Currency History in Japan • Late 7th-late 10th C: coins minted in Japan • 11th-early 12th C: rice, silk, hemp etc. used as media of exchange • Late 12th-16th C: coins imported from China • From 17th C: coins again minted in Japan --> PERIOD WHEN COINS WERE USED: JAPAN’S MEDIEVAL AGE

4. Chinese Coins • First used regularly: mid-12th C. • But not used for payment until 13th C • Replaced silk & hemp, 1220s • Replaced rice, 1270s (Matsunobu Yasutaka, 1989)

5. Chinese Copper Coins • Dynastic change in China: Song-->Yuan • Yuan, victorious in 1276, banned coins in favor of paper money the next year • Copper coins then circulated overseas, including to Japan • Result: money used to pay estate rents (Ôta Yukio 1994)

6. Cash Payment, Shôen Rents • Medieval rents paid not only in rice but in other products: sea & forest products, ores, textiles, crafts products (Amino Yoshihiko 1980, 1988) • Conversion to cash payments began with those that paid them in other products (Ôyama Kyôhei, 1978) • Estate officials, cultivators probably bought such products from non-agriculturalist producers & submitted them as rent • Estate system included regular exchange of goods

7. Effects of Cash Rent Payment • Transformed the economic structure: • Generated large-scale production of goods • More products sold locally • Products circulated • Fixed term markets arose • Goods circulated commercially exceeded those paid in taxes • Step towards market economy (Sakurai & Nakanishi 2002)

8. Credit Economy • People sought lighter-weight means of payment (to cut costs) • Drafts called saifu were used • 1 saifu usually = 10 kanmon in cash (about 1 million yen today) • Fixed value as they passed from hand to hand • Functioned as paper money • Economy required high-denomination currency

9. Commercial Goods • Cash payment system promoted production of commercial goods • Estates no longer had to produce rice to pay rents • They could produce goods suitable for the climate or with high cash value • Previously unknown products mentioned in 14th-15th C texts

10. End of Cash Payment System • End of 16th C: return to tax payments in rice--why? • China ceased to supply Japan with coins--> ended Japanese cash economy (Kuroda Akinobu 1994, 2003) • Cash payment of taxes, rents hard to maintain • More goods paid as taxes than were circulated commercially • Ôsaka emerged as central market but permanent markets elsewhere began to disappear: end of medieval market economy

11. Research on History of Distribution Economy • Research is rapidly being revised within context of all Asia • Research on estates is closely bound to the history of the distribution economy