Samurai debt.
In a recent thread it was stated that during the Edo periodandthe Samurai class gradually lost power and influence to the merchant classesThere seems to be some confusion about debt, its cause and its effect on the Edo period samurai. I thought I would try to add some information on the subject and references that anyone could read for themselvesthe samurai had become a group of indolent, decadent bureaucrats who were more talented at getting into debt than they were with their weapons.
In most modern economies debt that can not be repaid is dealt with through a system of bankruptcy courts which determines the debtors ability to repay. In feudal Japan a system that allowed various groups the ability to refuse to repay debt was a method commonly used in for hundreds of years to defuse economic problems.
Edo period samurai debt was not any more unusual then samurai debt from any other period, and Edo period debt did not seem to bring about the downfall of the samurai era any more then debt from other eras caused the end of those eras. Edo period debt did make it much harder for the shogunate to defend its self from the anti shogunate forces towards the end of the Edo period but it was not just debt, extravagant living or decadency that brought down the shogunate.
Debt was present in Japan way before the Edo period. In 1240 impoverished retainers were forbidden from selling their land to commoners or to warriors who were not vassels of the shogun, and they were forbidden from letting monks administer their property, samurai debt forgiveness or tokuseirei meaning "virtuous government" was instituted in 1297, allowed for property that was sold or mortgaged in the preceeding 20 years to be returned to the previous owner, this was a retroactive edict and there was no compensation to whoever had purchased the land or lent on the value of the land.(#15) Between 1435 and 1490 alone there were 13 edicts of tokuseirei or debt forgiveness.(#16)
All societies have debt, thats nothing new, and just having debt is by no means a sign of decadency, and just like any other country debt in Japan is as old as trade between people. There are many reasons for being in debt and not all debt comes from living a self indulgent lifestyle, or from a lack of self control.
Although merchants were on the low end of the status system (#2) they were essential to the Japanese economy, and they were tolerated by the samurai as a necessary evil but they had no enforcement powers and owed their ability to do business to what ever clan or shogun they were allied with. Merchants who were not repaid for debts owed by samurai could not sue in court, they could not form any sort of political party(#11), there are many instances recorded of refusal to pay debts.
Merchants could and did have their property confiscated for many reasons including flaunting their wealth. See reference (#5) for a list of items confiscated from just one wealthy rice merchant in the 1700s, this property confiscation is called "kessho",(#3)(#4)(#5) merchants were also forced to "loan" money to clans or the shogunate this is called "Goyokin.(#1) Merchants payed fees and or taxes to various feudal authorities for the right to run businesses, and for monopolies on certain enterprises(#3).
Clan debt: Noted author Clive Sinclaire relates this story about samurai clan debt
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewt...f+Osaka#p78816
Here is another reference to the debt of the Satauma clanMany of you will know that in the early 1800’s, many samurai clans had become greatly in debt to the merchant class, especially the merchants of Osaka. This included the powerful and influential Shimazu clan of Satsuma. In charge of the finances of this clan was a certain Zusho Hirosato who, in 1827, gathered together all the symbols of their huge debt (invoices, agreements, contracts etc.) and proceeded to Osaka where he confronted the merchants and burned the evidence in front of them! An offer was made to settle outstanding debts by a small annual payment over the next 250 years and this was to be interest free! Amazingly, most of the merchants agreed to this and some even offered further credit.
This story is an example of how powerless the merchants were when it came to actually collecting a debt from samurai who refused to pay"When (Lord) Shimazu ran up debts so huge thet could never be repaid, he simply defaulted. His creditors were powerless,"(#7)
INDIVIDUAL SAMURAI DEBT came about from a number of sources, and while gambling, drinking and other excessive behavior did cause debt the majority of individual samurai debt had nothing to due with "decadent" behavior.
Samurai retainers had expenses and most samurai were paid a stipend which was usually rice or some other commodity. A samurai would get needed items on credit with the promise to repay when their stipend came in. Crop problems could reduce the yield of crops thus reducing the ability to repay debt. Domains in financial trouble would borrow against stipends owed, sometimes for years at a time. Lower level retainers would sometimes turn to forms of self employment, a usually frowned practice. In the Sasuma domain due to a high ratio of samurai to civilians compared to other domains samurai were granted permission to work land directly.(#20)(#21). The same reasons we have debt today existed in Edo period Japan.
EDO PERIOD CLAN DEBT did not come about from gambling or wasteful practices, most clan debt seems to have come from the "Sankin_kōtai" requirements and the obligations of the more than 250 hans to contribute a share of the costs of various public projects and other shogunate required shared clan expenses.
The Sankin_kōtai was the requirement of all Daimyo to have a residence in Edo and the keeping of the wife and children of each Daimyo in Edo. All Daimyo were required to travel back and forth to Edo on a regular basis. This requirement consumed huge amounts of the finances of each clan, according to some sources as much as 50 to 80 percent of a clans income could have been used for maintaining the expenses associated with the Sankin kōtai. (#14) (#18) Expenses in the form of a share of public works requirements could unexpectedly come up(#18) In 1708 the shogunate required for the first time a nation wide tax on all han due to depleted finances (#12) these shogunate expenditures could not be put off and unless a petition for financial leniency was accepted (#8) money needed to be borrowed to satisfy the shogunate obligations.
SHOGUNATE DEBT during the Edo period came from many sources including a variety of devastating natural disasters such as fires, earthquakes, tsunami's and volcanos, (#19) bad crop yields, and the shogunates responsibility for ever increasing numbers of dependents over the years while the sources of revenue declined.
Income came from the vast lands owned by the shogunate which has been called the worlds largest estate and was said to hold one fourth of the agricutural output of Japan yet due to huge amounts of the income from the shogunate lands going to stipends for thousands of senior samurai, while maintaining the castles, court, adminstration and thousands of lessor retainers, vast amounts of the yearly income were drained.(#10) Income from the land included wood from forests and precious metals from mines, income also came from selling various monopolies to merchants.
#1:Goyokin (forced loans from merchants, inferiority of merchants)
http://books.google.com/books?id=4N0...0police&f=true
Japan's emergence as a modern state: political and economic problems of the Meiji period, E. Herbert Norman, Lawrence Timothy Woods, UBC Press, 2000 page 107
#2:kessho-confiscation of assets
http://books.google.com/books?id=hE1...epage&q&f=true
Crafting selves: power, gender, and discourses of identity in a Japanese workplace, Dorinne K. Kondo, University of Chicago Press, 1990 page 66
#3:Yodoya family of Osaka merchants, subject to kessho in 1705
http://books.google.com/books?id=p6k...scation&f=true
Max Weber in Asian studies, Andreas E. Buss, Brill Archive, 1985 - History page 95
#4:kessho-confiscation of assets
*http://books.google.com/books?id=Dko...ed=0CDQQ6AEwAA
Kyoto Teikoku Daigaku. Keizai Gakubu, Kyoto University, 1958 page 12
#5:Kesso yodoya family confiscation 1705, list of items confiscated
http://books.google.com/books?id=4N0...0police&f=true
Japan's emergence as a modern state: political and economic problems of the Meiji period, E. Herbert Norman, Lawrence Timothy Woods, UBC Press, 2000 page 107
#6:Kessho-confiscation of property
http://books.google.com/books?id=Se8...epage&q&f=true
The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family, Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave
Random House Digital, Inc., 2001 PAGE 28
#7efault of debt by lord Shimazu
http://books.google.com/books?id=Se8...epage&q&f=true
The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family, Sterling Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave
Random House Digital, Inc., 2001 PAGE 29
#8
http://books.google.com/books?id=ycY...epage&q&f=true
A history of Japan 1582-1941: internal and external worlds, Louis M. Cullen, Cambridge University Press, 2003 page 52
#9:Number of han, and the make up of the various clans and their status in the shogunate, the size of shogunate lands and tax value
http://books.google.com/books?id=ycY...epage&q&f=true
A history of Japan 1582-1941: internal and external worlds, Louis M. Cullen, Cambridge University Press, 2003 page 52-55
#10:Shogunate land holdings were the worlds largest estate, the shogunate lands accounted for one quarter of the notional value of Japanese agricultural output, 40 percent of the rice harvested went to shogunate obligations, the remaning 60 percent went to pay for the expenses of the shoguns court and adminstration, including 17,000 lesser samurai, castles, court,administration.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ycY...epage&q&f=true
A history of Japan 1582-1941: internal and external worlds, Louis M. Cullen, Cambridge University Press, 2003 page 58
#11:Rich merchants could not live in mansions and had to bow to poor samurai
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoV...%20debt&f=true
The economic aspects of the history of the civilization of Japan, Volume 2, Yosaburō Takekoshi, Taylor & Francis, 2005 page 219
#12:First nation wide one time tax due to depletion of finances. 1708
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoV...%20debt&f=true
The economic aspects of the history of the civilization of Japan, Volume 2, Yosaburō Takekoshi, Taylor & Francis, 2005 page 234
#13:Refusal to pay debts in kyoto
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoV...%20debt&f=true
The economic aspects of the history of the civilization of Japan, Volume 2, Yosaburō Takekoshi, Taylor & Francis, 2005 page 260
#14:Up to 80 percent of income spent on the sankin kotai requirements
http://books.google.com/books?id=0Tm...edition&f=true
The samurai of Japan: a chronology from their origin in the Heian era (794-1185) to the modern era (Google eBook) Dorothy Perkins, DIANE Publishing, 1998 page 66
#15:In 1240 impoverished retainers were forbidden from selling their land to commoners or to warriors who were not vassels of the shogun, and they were forbidden from letting monks administer their property, samurai debt forgiveness or tokuseirei meaning "virtuous government" was instituted in 1297, allowed for property that was sold or mortgaged in the preceeding 20 years was to be returned to the previous owner, this was a retroactive edict and there was no compensation to whoever had purchased the land or lent on the value of the land
http://books.google.com/books?id=7-Q...useirei&f=true
The World Turned Upside Down, Pierre François Souyri, Käthe Roth, Columbia University Press, 2003 page 105
#16: Between 1435 and 1490 there were 13 edicts of tokuseirei or debt forgiveness
http://books.google.com/books?id=mou...epage&q&f=true
Daily Life in Japan: At the Time of the Samurai, 1185-1603 (Google eBook), Louis Frederic, Taylor & Francis US, 2010 page 75
#17:Samurai population at the meiji period the number of Samurai families was 426,458, and their individual members 1,944,442, of whom at least 600,000 were male adults, that being the strength of the standing army which Japan had at that time, with an entire population of little over 33,000,000
http://books.google.com/books?id=nwM...bt&output=text
Japan of the Japanese, Joseph Henry Longford, C. Scribner's sons, 1913 Page 75-77
#18:Expenses for the clans from public works.
http://books.google.com/books?id=p6k...scation&f=true
Max Weber in Asian studies, Andreas E. Buss, Brill Archive, 1985 page 95
#19:The burden that natural calamities created on the shogunate's finances.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoV...%20debt&f=true
The economic aspects of the history of the civilization of Japan, Volume 2, Yosaburō Takekoshi, Taylor & Francis, 2005 page 214-220
#20
http://books.google.com/books?id=nqd...tipend&f=false
Land and lordship in early modern Japan, Mark Ravina, Stanford University Press, 1999 Page 75
#21
http://books.google.com/books?id=k2F...%20debt&f=true
The Meiji restoration, William G. Beasley, Stanford University Press, 1972 Page 45
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