Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:53:25.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Diffusion of Cotton Processing and Trade in the Kinai Region in Tokugawa Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

William B. Hauser
Get access

Abstract

The diffusion of cotton processing and trade were major features of the expansion of rural commerce and handicraft production in the Kinai region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Both were responses to demands for sources of non-agricultural employment in Japanese villages. They made available off-season by-employment for small farmers and offered new types of employment to those under-employed in agriculture. The expansion of rural participation in cotton processing and trade brought the villagers into conflict with urban merchants and artisans. This initially led to reinforcement of urban commercial prerogatives by the government and subsequently to legal confrontations between rural and urban merchant groups which in 1823 were decided in favor of the rural merchants. The role of the government shifted from protection of urban merchant interests to denial of their monopoly and monopoly rights and tacit support for the expansion of rural processing and trade.

Overall, the expansion of rural commerce and handicraft industry illustrate the economic and social changes which characterized the Kinai region during the Tokugawa period and the commercialization of the village economy. It also illustrates the inability of the Tokugawa bakuju to limit or direct the process of societal change.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , August 1974 , pp. 633 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a more complete discussion of this process see Hauser, William B., Economic Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Osaka and the Kinat Cotton Trade, (Cambridge University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

2 Smith, Thomas C., The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan, (Stanford, 1959), pp. 76–7.Google Scholar

3 Seishin, Okamoto, ed., Amagasaki shishi, II, (Amagasaki, 1968), pp. 655–6.Google Scholar

4 Amagasaki shishi, II, p. 656; Akihiro, Yagi, Kinsei no shōhin ryūtsū, (Tokyo, 1962), pp. 22–30;Google ScholarReiko, Hayashi, “Kinsei chŭkōki no shōgyō,” in Toyota Takeshi and Kodama Kōta, eds., Ryŭtsŭ-shi, ,Google ScholarTaikei Nihonshi sōsho, Vol. 13, (Tokyo, 1969), p. 220.Google Scholar

5 Fuse Shishi Hensan Iinkai, cd., Fuse shishi, II, (Fuse, 1967), pp.Google Scholar 543–5; Tsujiai Zenyotarō, Ka-wachi momenju, (Tokyo, 1965), pp. 19–29;Google ScholarYoshito, Ta-kebe, “Sekkasen no mengyo,” Nihon sangyōshi taikei, VI, (Tokyo, 1960), pp. 136–7.Google Scholar

6 Yagi, , Kinsei no shōhin ryŭtsŭ, pp. 89–93.Google Scholar

7 Smith, , Agrarian Origins, p. 80.Google Scholar

8 Kazuhiko, Takao, ed., Hikisho chōshi, (Hikisho, 1954) PP.Google Scholar 167, 437, 460; Hiraoka Shishi Hensan linkai, ed., Hiraoka shishi, IV, (Hiraoka, 1966), p.Google Scholar 514; Izumi Shishi Hensan linkai, ed., Izumi shishi, II, (Izumi, 1968), pp.Google Scholar 250–1; Minoru, Shibata, ed., Izumi-sano shishi, (Izumi-sano, 1958), pp.Google Scholar 265–6; Kashihara Chōshi Kankōkai, ed., Kashi-hara chōshi, (Kashihara, 1955), pp.Google Scholar 670–81; Moriguchi Shiihi Hensan linkai, ed., Moriguchi shishi, IV, (Moriguchi, 1962), pp.Google Scholar 45, 53, 59; Jun, Obata, ed., Sakai shishi zokuhen, I, (Sakai, 1971), p.Google Scholar 947; Sayama Choshi Hensan linkai, ed., Sayama chōshi, I, (Sayama-cho, 1967), p.Google Scholar 960; Yao Shishi Hensan linkai, cd., Yao shishi, I, (Yao, 1958), p. 282; II, (Yao, 1960), pp. 284, 306.Google Scholar

9 Smith, , Agrarian Origins, pp. 78–9.Google Scholar

10 Sakai shishi zokuhen, I, Table 108, p. 941.

11 Smith, Sec, Agrarian Origins, pp. 108–23 for further discussion.Google Scholar

12 Sakai shishi zokuhen, I, p. 947, 960.

13 Izumi-sano shishi, pp. 266–7.

14 For further discussion of this point see Hanlcy, Susan B. and Yamamura, Kozo, “Population trends and economic growth in pre-industrial Japan,” in lass, D. V. and Revellc, Roge, eds., Population and Social Change, (London, 1972), pp.Google Scholar 479–80; and Smith, Thomas C., “Farm Family By-Employments In Prc-lndustrial Japan,” The Journal of Economic History, XXIX, (December, 1969), no. 4, pp. 709–10.Google Scholar

15 Amagasaki shishi, II, pp. 679–80; Kōekikai, Hirano-gō, ed., Hirano-gō chōshi, (Hirano-go, 1931), p.Google Scholar 301; linkai, Kanan Chōshi Hensan, ed., Kanan chōshi, (Kanan-cho, 1968), p.Google Scholar 201; Shisan-jikai, Osaka, ed., Osaka shishi, I, (Osaka, 1965), pp. 350–1, 409–10; Sakai shishi zokuhen, I, p. 690.Google Scholar

16 Hirano-gō chōshi, p. 301.

17 Yao shishi, J, p. 286; II, p. 662–5; Hiraoka shishi, IV, pp. 512–14; Takebc Yoshito, Kawachi momen no kenkyŭ, (Yao, 1957), pp. 14–16.Google Scholar

18 Takebe, Kawachi momcn no kenkyŭ, pp. 17–22; “Sckkascn no mengyo,” p. 143; I Kan equals 8.72 lbs., I tan of cloth is a roll 12 yds. in length.

19 shishi, Hiraoka, IV, p. 513; Nakai Nobuhiko, Tenkanki hakuhansei no kenkyŭ—Hōreki-Tem-meiki no keizai seisaku to shōhin ryŭtsŭ, (Tokyo, 1971), p. 118.Google Scholar

20 Hiraoka shishi, IV, p. 514; Sŭgorŭ, Uozumi, ed., Nishtnomiya shishi, IV, (Nishinomiya, 1962), pp. 823–4.Google Scholar

21 Nakai, , Tenkanki bakiihansei no kenkyŭ, pp. 120–3; Smith, Agrarian Origins, p. 78.Google Scholar

22 Nakai, , Tenkanki bakuhansei no kenyŭ, pp. 123–4.Google Scholar

23 Yao shishi, I, p. 285; II, p. 632.

24 Furushima Toshio and Nagahara Kciji, Shōhin seisan to kisei jinushisei—Kinai Kinai nōgyō ni okeru (Tokyo, 1954), pp. 94—5; Sec also Reiko, Hayashi, “Kaseiki ni okeru shohin ryutsu,” Rekishi kyōiku, Vol. 12, No. 12 (1964), p. 12.Google Scholar

25 Furushima and Nagahara, Table 20, p. 8r.

26 Izumi-sano shishi, pp. 305–6; Takebe, “Sek-kasen no mengyō,” p. 146.

27 Shiyakusho, Sakai, ed., Sakai shishi, III, (Sakai, 1930) pp. 439–40; Izumi-sano shishi, p. 306; Sakai shishi zokuhen, I, 962, 987.Google Scholar

28 Hobsbawm, Eric, Bandits, (New York, 1969), p. 25 notes how rural unrest often led to more serious problems of social disruption often including banditry.Google Scholar

29 For the new focus on Edo see Takeuchi Makoto, “Edo jidai toshi shonin no dōkō,” Rekishi kyoiku,. Vol. 7, No. 11 (1959).Google Scholar PP. 25–6. For a more general discussion of the growth of the Edo market region see Hayashi Reiko, “Edo jimawari kcizaiken no seiritsu katci—kuriwata-abura o chŭshin toshitc,” in Ōtsuka Hisao, Andō Yoshio, Matsuda Tomoo, and Sekiguchi Hisashi, eds., Shihonshugi no keisei to hatten, (Tokyo, 1968), pp. 255–71.Google Scholar

30 Nishinomiya shishi, IV, p. 830.

31 Hayashi Reiko, “Kinsci chŭkōki no shōgyō,” p. 226; “Kasciki ni okeru shōhin ryŭtsō,” pp. 11–12.

32 Nakai, Tenkanki baktthansei no kenkytŭ, pp. 283–5.

33 Hayashi, “Kinsei chŭkōki no shōgyō” pp. 231–2; Smith, Agrarian Origins, pp. 69–72.

34 Fuse shishi, 11, p. 830.

35 Ryŭzō, Yamazaki, “Kinsei kōki Settsu nōson ni okeru shōhin ryŭtsŭ,” Ōsaka Shiritsu Daigaku keizaigaku nenpō, No. 8, (1956), pp. 78–82.Google Scholar

36 Yamazaki, “Kinsei kōki Settsu nōson,” pp. 90–3.

37 Fuse shishi, II, Table 23, p. 832.

38 Furushima and Nagahara, p. 84.

30 Increased competition for reduced output seems to have been characteristic of the Kinai cotton trade in the last decades of the Tokugawa era, but further inquiry is necessary for a more detailed analysis of this process.

40 Nishinomiya shishi, IV, pp. 829–30.

41 Nishinomiya shishi, IV, p. 830.

42 Fuse shishi, II, p. 834.

43 Fuse shishi, II, pp. 835–8.

44 Sakai shishi, III, pp. 440–1; Sakai shishi zoktihen, I, pp. 962–4; Yao shishi, I, p. 285.

45 Smith, Agrarian Origins, pp. 164–6 and p. 164, note j.

46 Smith, Agrarian Origins, p. 105.

47 Hiroshi, Shimbō, “Kinai mensaku ni okeru shōhin seisan no hatten ni kansuru ikkōsatsu,” Kobe Keizai Daigafyt sōritsit gojŭ shŭnen kinen rombunshŭ, (Kobe, 1953), p. 493; Sakai shisht, III, pp.Google Scholar 224–9; Atsushi, Fujimoto, Ōsaka-fu no rekishi, (Tokyo, 1969), pp.Google Scholar 179–81; Yagi Akihiro and Ishida Yoshihito, Hyōgo-ken no rekishi, (Tokyo, 1971), p. 197.Google Scholar