Tokugawa coinage was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established by ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...
''
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...
in 1601 in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
, and which lasted throughout the
Tokugawa period until its end in 1867.
History
The establishment of Tokugawa coinage followed a period in which Japan was dependent on
Chinese bronze coins for its currency.
[Metzler p. 15] Tokugawa coinage lasted for more than two centuries, and ended with the events of the
Boshin war
The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...
and the establishment of the
Meiji restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
. However, there is an ongoing discussion of the entity of the precious metal coins. It was not a part of Tokugawa bakuhu which issued gold and silver coins, but private organizations owned by merchants.
The first attempt at a new currency were made by Hideyoshi, who developed the large
Ōban plate, also called the
Tensho Ōban (天正大判), in 1588.
From 1601, Tokugawa coinage was minted in gold, silver, and bronze denominations.
The denominations were fixed, but the rates actually fluctuated on the exchange market.
The material for the coinage came from gold and silver mines across Japan. To this effect, gold mines were newly opened and exploited, such as the
Sado gold mine or the
Toi gold mine in
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The penins ...
.
Devaluations and re-evaluations
Initially, the coinage was used essentially for export purposes in order to pay for imports of luxury goods from China, such as
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...
.
As gold and silver were in short supply, and also because the government was running a deficit, the content of gold in coins was decreased on two occasions, in 1695 and 1706–11, in order to generate more revenues from
seigneurage, but with the effect of generating inflation.
With the beginning of the 18th century, Japan started to restrict the export of bullion currency, which came to be seen as a loss for the country. An export ban on monetary specie was imposed by
Arai Hakuseki in 1715.
Trade substitution was encouraged, but remained limited anyway due to the policy of closure, or
Sakoku
was the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, for a period of 265 years during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and nearly a ...
. Upon Arai Hakuseki's suggestion the government increased again the gold and silver content of coinage in 1714-1715, but this led to crippling deflation this time.
In 1736, Japan abandoned this policy and again increased the money supply, with a resulting price stability for the next 80 years.
In the early 19th century, budgetary problems resulting from natural disasters and large Tokugawa governmental expenditures led the government to increase the money supply and the seigneurage associated to it. From 1818 to 1829 the money supply increased by 60%, and from 1832 to 1837 by 20%. Severe inflation again followed as prices nearly doubled.
Structure
Tokugawa coinage worked according to a triple monetary standard, using gold, silver and bronze coins, each with their own denominations.
The systems worked by multiples of 4, and coins were valued according to the
Ryō. One Ryō was worth 4
Bu, 16
Shu, or 4,000
Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* A ...
(a cheap bronze coin).
Ōban
The
Ōban (大判) was a very large gold coin plate, equivalent to ten
Ryōs, or ten
Koban (小判) plates.
Koban
The
Koban (小判) was a regular ovoid gold coin, equivalent to one Ryō. The initial
Keichō Koban (minted from 1601) had a weight of 18.20g. The 1714 Sado Koban (佐渡小判金, 4th year of
Shōtoku) also had a weight of 18.20g and was made with an
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductili ...
of typically 85.69% of gold and 14.25% of silver.
[Toi Museum]
Nibuban and Ichibuban
The
Nibuban (二分判) was worth half a Koban and was rectangular gold coin.
The
Ichibuban (一分判) could be either made of silver or gold, in which case it was a quarter of a Koban. The gold Ichibuban of 1714 (佐渡一分判金) had a weight of 4.5 g, with 85.6% of gold and 14.2% of silver. The silver Ichibuban from 1837 to 1854 (
Tenpō Ichibugin
The was a monetary unit of Japan. The Ichibugin was worth a Quarter Ryo, and later, it was deemed that 3 could be exchanged for either a USA or Mexican Silver Dollar.''The Japanese Economy in the Tokugawa Era, 1600–1868'' edited by Michael Smi ...
, 天保一分銀, "Old Ichibuban") weighed 8.66 g, with an alloy of 0.21% gold and 98.86% silver.
[
]
Nishuban and Isshuban
There were then Nishuban (二朱判) and Isshuban (一朱判) small denominations of silver or gold, before getting to the Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* A ...
or Sen bronze coins.
From 1853 to 1865, the silver Isshuban ( Kaei Isshugin, 嘉永一朱銀) weighed 1.88 g, with an alloy of 1.7% gold, 98.7% silver and 1.12% copper.[
File:Genroku gold coinage 1695-1710 Nishuban.jpg, Genroku gold Nishuban (1695-1710).
File:Bunsei gold coinage 1819 1828 Isshuban.jpg, Bunsei gold Isshuban (1819-1828).
File:Tokugawa coinage silver Isshuban.jpg, Kaei silver Isshuban (1853-1865).
]
Kan'ei Tsūhō
Regarding copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
coins, the ''Kan'ei Tsūhō'' coin (Kyūjitai
''Kyūjitai'' ( ja, 舊字體 / 旧字体, lit=old character forms) are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are ''shinjitai'' ( ja, 新字体, lit=new character forms, la ...
: 寛永通寶 ; Shinjitai
are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in ''shinjitai'' are also found in Simplified Chinese characters, but ''shinjitai'' is generally not as extensi ...
: 寛永通宝) came to replace the Chinese coins that had been in circulation in Japan, as well as those that were minted privately, and became the legal tender.[ Japan Currency Museum permanent exhibit.] This put an end to more than four centuries during which Chinese copper coins, obtained through trade or Wakō piracy, had been the main currency of Japan.
Tenpō Tsūhō
In 1835 the Tokugawa government started minting copper 100 mon named ''Tenpō Tsūhō'' (Kyūjitai
''Kyūjitai'' ( ja, 舊字體 / 旧字体, lit=old character forms) are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are ''shinjitai'' ( ja, 新字体, lit=new character forms, la ...
: 天保通寶 ; Shinjitai
are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in ''shinjitai'' are also found in Simplified Chinese characters, but ''shinjitai'' is generally not as extensi ...
: 天保通宝) as a way to solve its budgetary deficit, as the coin contained only 5½ as much copper as a 1 mon ''Kan'ei tsūhō'' this eventually lead to inflation. This was later followed by the Satsuma Domain issuing a 100 mon coin of their own in 1862 to supposedly produce currency for the Ryukyu Kingdom, while in reality doing it to boost their own economy. These '' Ryūkyū Tsūhō'' (琉球通寳) coins eventually started circulating in other provinces as well.[Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, ]Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
(2009), 192.
Demise
From 1772, the silver coins had a denomination in function of their value in gold, and had significantly less silver than their face value (rather than being just silver-by-weight) so as to cover coinage expenses, a practice known as token
Token may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Token, a game piece or counter, used in some games
* The Tokens, a vocal music group
* Tolkien Black, a recurring character on the animated television series ''South Park,'' formerly known a ...
or fiduciary coinage, and a characteristic of modern coinage.[Metzler, p.16] This technique was introduced later in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, in 1816, with its adoption of the full gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from th ...
.[ At the market rates of 1858 10 silver units could be exchanged for 1 gold unit by weight, whereas the face value of silver units was only convertible at 5 to 1. This permitted an increase of monetary circulation without actual production of more bullion, and provided great profit ( seigniorage) for the Bakufu.][
World ratios for silver and gold were significantly different, gold being generally valued much higher than silver, at about 15 to 16 weights of silver for 1 weight of gold. This difference motivated foreigners to bring silver to Japan, to exchange it for gold at a very profitable rate.][Metzler, p.17]
In 1858, Western countries, especially the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
imposed through " unequal treaties" ( Treaty of Amity and Commerce") free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
, free monetary flow, and very low tariffs, effectively taking away Japanese control of its foreign exchange:[ The 1715 export embargo on bullion was thus lifted:
This created a massive outflow of gold from Japan, as foreigners rushed to exchange their silver for "token" silver Japanese coinage and again exchange these against gold, giving a 200% profit to the transaction. In 1860, about 4 million ryōs thus left Japan,][ that is about 70 tons of gold. This effectively destroyed Japan's gold standard system, and forced it to return to weight-based system with international rates. The Bakufu instead responded to the crises by debasing the gold content of its coins by two thirds, so as to match foreign gold-silver exchange ratios.][
As a consequence, the Bakufu lost the major profit source of recoinage ( seigniorage), and was forced to issue unbacked paper money, leading to major inflation. This was one of the major causes of discontent during the Bakumatsu period, and one of the causes of the demise of the shogunate.][
]
Other coins
Despite Tokugawa Ieyasu's strong will to unify the currency, there were still some local exceptions, with locally made currency.
File:Sagami_Province_Odawarabishi_Koban_Gin.jpg, Silver koban of Sagami Province, called ''Odawara Hishi'' (小田原菱).
File:Nanryoo Gin Ooban.jpg, Silver Nanryō Ōban (南鐐大判).
File:Genbun_Inari_Koban_Kin.jpg, Gold Genbun
was a after '' Kyōhō'' and before ''Kanpō.'' This period spanned the years from April 1736 through February 1741. The reigning emperor was .
Change of era
* 1736 : To mark the enthronement of Sakuramachi, the era was changed to ''Genbun'' ...
Inari Koban (元文稲荷小判).
Notes
Bibliography
*
{{Japanese currency and coinage
Economic history of Japan
Edo period
Modern obsolete currencies
de:Japanische Währungsgeschichte#Edo-Zeit