Abstract
This paper compares the taxation system of the Ryukyus with that of Japan proper in their respective early-modern era. The taxation system called kokudaka-system, which has its levy basis on productivity of cultivated land, was common in the early modern Japan proper. Meanwhile, the taxation system in the Ryukyu Islands that former the Ryukyuan Kingdom, was different from kokudaka-system. Satsuma-han, one of Japanese political powers, conquered the Ryukyus in 1609 and conducted a thorough survey of the islands. Satsuma-han decided kokudaka of the Ryukyus, and tried to force the local people to pay tax based on kokudaka. Despite the invader's vision, the kingdom did not apply kokudaka as its levy system; the kingdom ordered its people to pay tax by products such as rice and beans. Upon the order of the kingdom administration, leaders of the local areas (magiri and mura) commanded their farmers to produce rice and beans, or substitutive products such as brown sugar and textile goods. Focusing on these "substitutes", the paper argues that what farmers in the early-modern Ryukyus paid as tax was rather "labor" than "product".
