ВАГОВІ СИСТЕМИ ДАВНІХ ЦИВІЛІЗАЦІЙ КОРЕЇ ТА ЯПОНІЇ

Abstract

Ancient civilizations in Central Asia and the Far East have appeared after a long period of developing social relations, material and spiritual culture of the population of this vast region of the Earth. In Central Asia, economic development was based on animal husbandry, and in the Far East, on land cultivation. Continuous growth of production and trade took place simultaneously with state formation that continued over millenniums. First proto – state formations of this region have created unified length, weight and volume measures that were indispensable for a successful economic development. The needs of trade necessitated the advent of monetary units that long have been closely related to weight measures. Gradually, every state saw the adoption of unified monetary – weight systems. It has long been known that the development of production and trade, social processes, state building takes place in those regions where several types of economy coexist. The type of farm is determined by natural conditions. There are several natural areas in the Far East. The first is the forest zone of Siberia and Primorie, where the population was engaged in hunting and forestry. The second – the area of steppes and deserts of Manchuria, Mongolia, the plateaus of Tibet, suitable for livestock. The third is the area of the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys, where irrigated agriculture developed and the Chinese began cultivating rice for the first time in the world. Fourth – the area of the Yellow Sea coast, the coast of Korea, the Japanese islands, where the population was engaged in sea fishing and trade. In the interaction and complementarity of all these forms of economy arose the civilizations of the Far East. In the Far East, the geographical location of the Korean Peninsula is compared with Italy, the Japanese Islands – with England and Ireland. It is on the shores of navigable rivers, the Yellow Sea coast, the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese islands for thousands of years the most intensive development of production, domestic and foreign trade, and in modern times there was an industrial revolution. This work describes the development and mutual influence of weight systems used by ancient civilizations in Central Asia and the Far East in the course of international trade. Weight norms and their correlation with each other and with monetary denominations in every separate country have been determined.