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"Red Money" – Copper and the Sino-Japanese Trade of the Tokugawa-period – Sponsored by the Early Modern Japan Network
Organizer and Chair: Anke Scherer, Ruhr University Bochum
Discussant: Luke S. Roberts, University of California, Santa Barbara
After bakufu policy discouraged silver as payment for imports in 1685, refined copper became increasingly important as a currency for Chinese goods such as silk and medicine. After a short boom in this copper trade at the turn of the eighteenth century, however, the bakufu also restricted the outflow of copper. Export quotas for copper led to frictions with the officially recognized Chinese copper merchants and forced the Chinese court to reorganize its copper supply. This panel will address aspects of the bakufu-controlled Sino-Japanese trade, with focus on the role of “red money” (akagane, refined copper). Gregory Smits will analyze the trade conducted via the Ryukyu kingdom as a second route for Chinese imports. Anke Scherer will scrutinize the production process of export copper and its impact on the Sino-Japanese trade. Bettina Gramlich-Oka will examine the economic thought behind shogunal regulations that sought to manage the allocation of this scarce resource in the domestic market as well as in foreign trade. Thomas Hirzel will analyze the Chinese quest for export copper and introduce the spectacular case of a Chinese spy sent to Nagasaki to ascertain the veracity of allegations that Japanese officials were defrauding Chinese copper merchants. Taken together, these presentations will deepen the understanding of the Sino-Japanese trade during the Tokugawa period and the role of red money in both countries. This panel will contribute to the growing sub-field of Tokugawa-era foreign relations and the general trend of analyzing early-modern Japan within the broader context of East Asia.
Ryukyu and Sino-Japanese Trade
Gregory J. Smits, Pennsylvania State University
When the shogunate sought to reduce the outflow of copper in foreign trade at Nagasaki in the early eighteenth century, the demand for certain imported goods increased. One result of this situation was to elevate the importance of Ryukyu as a conduit for Chinese goods. The upsurge in demand for copper in both China and Japan had an impact on Ryukyu’s monetary policy. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, the kingdom began to mint thin copper cash for domestic use called hatomesen (literally, “pigeon eye cash”). The Ryukyu Islands contain no significant metal deposits, so the copper for the hatomesen came from melting down kajikisen, coins minted by the Satsuma domain for use in its territories. By the eighteenth century, Ryukyuan hatomesen had become the basis for government financial records and other official economic calculations. Ryukyu’s de facto role as a conduit between China and Japan is also reflected in the realm of silver and gold coins. Because Japanese coins minted by the shogunate had gone through several debasements, Satsuma received shogunate permission to mint coins of higher gold and silver content for Ryukyuan use in tributary relations with China. In other words, despite restrictions on Chinese trade designed to stem the outflow of specie from Nagasaki, Japanese gold and silver also made its way to China via Ryukyu from the late seventeenth century through the end of the Tokugawa period. This paper examines aspects of Ryukyuan monetary policy and trade as a component of broader Sino-Japanese trade.
The Production of Export Copper
Anke Scherer, Ruhr University Bochum
At the end of the 17th century copper, which had been a scarce commodity throughout the century, became the most important mode of payment for goods imported into Japan via Nagasaki. The discovery of one of the biggest Japanese copper mines in Besshi at the end of the 17th century as well as the rich copper deposits in Osarizawa and Ani in Northern Japan at first seemed to guarantee an unlimited supply of this metal. But after a short boom in the supply of export copper, production output could no longer meet the demand at Nagasaki. Despite the efforts of the bakufu to secure export copper throughout the 18th century, production figures at the big copper mines did not rise and no significant technical innovation in the production process took place until the start of Japan's industrialization in the 19th century. A sudden increase in copper production in all big copper mines after the Meiji restoration, however, proves that the stagnating production of the Tokugawa period cannot be attributed to a lack of resources. This paper will scrutinize the production process in copper mines and in refineries to find out how it was influenced by the demand from the Sino-Japanese trade. The production of copper thus serves as an example to show how foreign trade relations of the Tokugawa bakufu as well as the resulting efforts to administer the procurement of copper significantly shaped the development of this important industry in pre-modern Japan.
Tanuma Okitsugu’s Copper Policies
Bettina Gramlich-Oka, Tubingen University
Tanuma Okitsugu’s (1719-88) reign as senior councilor to the tenth shogun Ieharu (1737-86) is known for its disparities: political corruption, drastic economic reforms, natural catastrophes -- including the Tenmei famine -- and a thriving intellectual culture. The paper will be an investigation of the economic thought behind the shogunal regulations of the 1760s through the 1780s that have formed our mainly negative image of Tanuma’s reign. My main focus will be on copper, which as a commodity in foreign trade and as cash coin in domestic transactions played an important role in the overall economy; hence shogunal policies sought to manage its allocation. Literature today refers often to bullionism as the reasoning behind shogunal decisions concerning foreign trade in the eighteenth century. The shogunate’s direct involvement over the amount and/or type of outflow of bullion in Nagasaki goes back to the beginning of the Tokugawa period, when the export of refined silver was officially banned in 1607. Arai Hakuseki’s proposal to discontinue bullion export entirely a century later became the point of reference to explain the fundamental economic thought behind foreign trade policies. Through the analysis of Tanuma’s political and economic endeavors based on the arguments of thinkers, such as Kudô Heisuke, Hayashi Shihei, and Honda Toshiaki, whose conceptions were influential for regulations and policies, I argue that bullionism as a concept needs further examination for the eighteenth century as a whole. In doing so, I will also contribute to a better understanding of the Sino-Japanese trade in the late Tokugawa period.
On Secret Mission: Glimpses of the Sino-Japanese Copper Trade from a Secret Agent's Report of 1737
Thomas Hirzel, University of Tuebingen
Due to its purity and superior quality, Japanese copper was in great demand for the minting of Qing China's currency. Therefore, Chinese merchants were allowed to carry out trade with Japan on an unofficial basis. In effect, Qing China treated Japan as an equal trading partner. However, in the early Qianlong period, in 1736, the Sino-Japanese copper trade encountered severe problems. Having failed to deliver the set copper quotas, Chinese government-funded copper merchants accumulated enormous debts. Putting the blame on the Japanese officials, the merchants charged them with creating copper shortages. Whereas normally 20 to 30 ships arrived annually at the ports of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, only two copper ships sailed back from Nagasaki in the spring of 1737, and ships that had set out in 1734 and 1735 had still not returned. Under these circumstances the Grand Secretary and General-governor of Zhejiang, Ji Cengyun, issued a secret order to send an undercover agent to Nagasaki to investigate the copper merchants' allegations against Japanese officials. Subsequently, a certain Zhu Laiwei, disguised as a copper merchant, went to Nagasaki. On completing a successful mission, Zhu reported to the Grand Secretary, who submitted a secret palace memorandum to the Qianlong emperor. On the basis of Zhu Laiwei's report, the paper inquires into the Sino-Japanese copper trade carried out via Nagasaki.