著者

岩橋 勝

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.48, no.6, pp.585-605,726, 1983-03-25 (Released:2017-11-24)

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It has been understood that in the Edo period quotation and payment in gold was predominant in the eastern Japan and that in silver in the western Japan, with zeni used as auxiliary coin all over Japan. However, we can find momme-sen-satsu (匁銭札), if only in the south-western part of Japan. Which were issued, in fact, on zeni basis in spite of its guise of quotation in silver. Also remarkable were large denomination notes with face value over one kan mon (貫文), called sen-mon-satsu (銭文札), which were issued by Satsuma-Han, Izumo-Han, Kaga-Han, Nambu-Han, etc., not as auxiliary but as means of payment in large amount on zeni basis. On the ground of these findings I have suggested that there were areas of payment in zeni side by side with areas of payment in gold and those in silver in Tokugawa period. This paper intends to demonstrate that payment in zeni was predominant in Nambu-Han, by investigating circulation of money there. First, in Tempo age income in zeni over 100,000 kan mon amounted to half of Nambu-Han's annual revenue in money which was about 30,000 ryo. Especially in the case of business taxes called on-yaku-kin, rei-sen, and unjo, items of payment in zeni were twice as much as those in gold, the amount of payment in zeni being three times as much as that in gold. Moreover, such large amount sales of farmlands and homesteads which would reasonably be expected to have been transacted on gold basis, were in fact made on zeni basis. Especially in the inland district centering Morioka it was usual that such large amount transactions as exceeded 100 kan mon were performed on zeni basis. It must be noted that while quotation in zeni was more customary even in the account books of money-lenders and traesmen in the inland district, payment in gold was more usual than that in zeni in the Sanriku coastal district. Compared with similar transactions elsewhere in the eastern Japan, however, transactions quoted in zeni were conspicuous in the Sanriku district. Thus comparison of Nambu-Han as a whole with a typically gold basis district such as Kanto will prove that Nambu-Han can be characterized as the area where payment in zeni was predominant.