Abstract
The period of the Tokugawa regime (1603-1868) corresponds to the age of the European intellectual ferment from which economics emerged as an independent discipline. Though certain parts of Western thought particularly natural science, were studied and propagated by Japanese scholars, the access to the realm of Western political and economic ideas was relatively restricted. At the same time, however, the evolution of the increasing complex Japanese economic system was creating some phenomena - the expansion of commerce, the fluctuation of prices, the intricate division of labour, etc. - which inspired the speculations of European economic thinkers. The article analyzes the particular question of how the leading intellectual figures, including merchant scholars, discussed the intricate problem of market principles.
Highlights
The period of the Tokugawa regime (1603-1868) corresponds to the age of the European intellectual ferment from which economics emerged as an independent discipline
The major part of the scholars dealing with the history of economic thought and inquiring the Japanese pre-modern economic traditions have exclusively accepted the concept of universal validity of the Western neoclassical economic model based on the notion of economics as an objective science dealing with the problem of the optimal allocation of scarce sources
As I lack both time and capacity to provide an all-inclusive account of the economic ideas in existence in Tokugawa Japan, I will focus on a very particular question of how the leading intellectual figures of the period discussed the intricate problem of the market mechanism, or more generally speaking, what forces were behind the rising conflict between Tokugawa ideology of social stability and the realities of the economic world
Summary
The period of the Tokugawa regime (1603-1868) corresponds to the age of the European intellectual ferment from which economics emerged as an independent discipline. When examining the process by which Japanese thinkers began to accept the Western economic thought we cannot ignore either the strict selection of the ideas relevant to their interests (conservatism and nationalism) or their Japanese interpretation These ideas, when combined with the traditional values, were effectively used in the years of modernization and during political and economic expansion in the pre-war period in Japan. The Tokugawa period (1603-1868) corresponded to the age of the European intellectual ferment from which economics emerged as an independent discipline During these two-and-half centuries, certain branches of Western scientific thought were assimilated and propagated by Japanese scholars, the introduction of Western philosophical, political and economic ideas into Japan was relatively restricted. As I lack both time and capacity to provide an all-inclusive account of the economic ideas in existence in Tokugawa Japan, I will focus on a very particular question of how the leading intellectual figures of the period discussed the intricate problem of the market mechanism, or more generally speaking, what forces were behind the rising conflict between Tokugawa ideology of social stability and the realities of the economic world
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