著者

桜井 信哉

出版者

社会経済史学会

雑誌

社会経済史学 (ISSN:00380113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.62, no.4, pp.486-511,568, 1996-11-25 (Released:2017-09-28)

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In the early modern period, debasement of the coinage was a significant way of re-establishing national finances, and one important way of doing so was to give the units used to weigh coins a face value. Both the ryo and the pound, for example, started out as weight units but turned into units of currency. This article shows how Daikoku Saku'uemon, a Bakufu-authorized coin maker, proposed to make the monme, a weight unit for silver, into a monetary unit in the Bunsei period (1818-30). The silver coins which Daikoku proposeed during the Bunsei period were the 43monme silver coin, for use in gift-giving, and the 50-me silver coin, for commercial use. Despite their nominal values, both were to weigh only 16 monme. This scheme is thought to have originated in the Bunka period (1804-18), but has also been detected in the Tempo period (1830-44). It would therefore seem that Daikoku had been making prorosals to the kanjosho (Ministry of Finance) for more than twenty years. The scheme proposed in the Tempo period was to involve not only a silver coin of high denomination, like the 43 monme or the 50-me, but also one of low denomination, such as a 2.5-monme or a 5-monme unit. In other words, Daikoku planned further debasement of the coinage even after the Bunsei debasement, through a radical nominalisation of the monme. Daikoku's proposals were made in an attempt to win back the recoinage responsibilities which he had lost after taking a negative attitude towards the recoinage plans of the Meiwa period (1764-72). However, the proposals were rejected by the kanjosho, probably because it was feared that usage of silver coins would grow even more complex.

著者

桜井 信哉

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.39, no.1, pp.28-49, 2004-06-24 (Released:2010-02-19)

被引用文献数

1

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The fluctuation of the rate between gold and silver has been considered as favorable for merchants in the Edo period because they could take advantage of the fluctuation, speculate, and make much money. But actually, the official parity rate between gold and silver was declared in 1700 because dealers who purchased kimono in Kyoto and sold them in Edo pleaded with the Tokugawa Bakufu to establish an official rate.Using materials written by Mitsui Echigoya or Mitsui Hondana from 1818 to 1820, this article explains why the official parity rate was in favor of the dealers. In this period, the value of silver, which was used mainly in western Japan, rose, causing the price of products bought in Kyoto to rise in Edo. But the competition between dealers in kimono was so harsh that they could not raise the price of kimono high enough to make up for the rise of silver. And the sale of kimono bought in Kyoto decreased in comparison to those of kimono bought in the Kanto area.To hedge these risks in 1720, dealers in kimono in Edo asked their counterparts in Osaka to conclude an agreement to fix the value of gold privately, because the official parity rate was not followed by most people.And also dealers in kimono could not make much money by speculating in gold and silver, because they could not speculate as they wished, though they obtained much accurate information on the fluctuation before ordinary people did. They instead purchased a lot of kimono by paying in gold instead of buying silver.

著者

桜井 信哉

出版者

大阪経済大学日本経済史研究所

雑誌

経済史研究 (ISSN:1344803X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, pp.41-53, 2004-03-31 (Released:2018-12-01)