The Tokugawa monetary policy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

With the reestablishment of diplomatic and trade relations with the Western Powers in the late 185Os, which terminated more than two centuries of seclusion, the Japanese economy changed from a closed system to an open system. This entry into the world economy had varied and wide-ranging effects on the Tokugawa economy. One result of the opening of Japanese ports was a drastic reform of the Tokugawa monetary system in the recoinages of Ansei-Man’en (18591860). In this paper we shall attempt to examine the causes and results of the Ansei-Man’en monetary reforms and to discuss the historical significance of these reforms as an important turning point in the monetary history of Tokugawa Japan. Before we analyze the monetary reforms of 1859 and 1860, it will be necessary to review briefly the Tokugawa monetary system. The traditional system is generally called “sanka se&” (three-monies system), for it consisted of three kinds of money, that is, gold coin, silver currency by weight, and copper coin. Each money circulated on the basis of its own unit and had its own sphere of circulation.’ All three kinds of