THE CHANGE OF VLLAGE ECONOMY IN THE VICINITY OF HACHIOJI AND THE ROLE OF VILLAGE MERCHANTS IN THE LATE TOKUGAWA ERA

Abstract

The village economy of the late Tokugawa Era in the vicinity of Hachioji, a local city of western part of Tokyo with the population of 140, 000 was strongly influenced by the development of village merchants who were originally farmers or from rural families. The writer shows in this paper the special characteristics developed in the two villages : Yarimizu and Kobiki, as a result of the influence of village merchants and silk manufacturing of Hachioji, a local economic center.
From earl Shogunate home manufacturing of silk was popular in the adjacent villages to the north of Hachioji and sericulture was popular in the village to the south. Farmers in these areas depended upon either silk manufacturing or sericulture, because they had not sufficient paddy fields, The development of Hachioji as a silk manufacturing center promoted the growth of village silk merchants. They they depended partly upon farming, either as part time farmers or as landowners. From this view-point they had different characteristics from the merchants in the town area of Hachioji. However, they became more dependent upon silk trading than farming. Therefore, some of them abondoned all or part of their direct connection with farming. As a result village pawn shops grew.
Silk and cocoon merchants of Kobiki village adjacent to Hachioji grew under the direct influence of the commercial growth of Hachioji. On the other hand, merchants of Yarimizu were less dependent on Hachioji, They sold raw silk and cocoon not only to Hachioji but also to Yokohama, As Yarimizu was located farther from Hachioji than Kobiki was the influence from Hachioji was not so strong. The opening of Yokohama Harbour in 1859 attracted the merchants of Yarimizu. The population growth of these two villages was based on sericulture and its trade. This phenomenon was a conspicuous change among feudal villages which had depended mainly upon paddy farming, and it meant the dissolution of feudal economy.