2024 Volume 41 Pages 37-52
The purpose of this article is to introduce research on the histories of currency and finance in Japan during the final years of shogunate (i.e., the Bakumatsu years) and the dawn of the Meiji period that followed (1858–1871). The article focuses on three areas: (1) the structure of ledgers, (2) currency units of calculation and values, and (3) the realities of merchant family management. It introduces those texts that should be read when doing research on three processes: (1) that of how the “local” set of bookkeeping rules referred to as the washiki chōai method that had become entrenched in early modern Japan switched over to the Western-style double-entry bookkeeping method in the early Meiji period; (2) that of how the diversity of the issuers of currency and units of calculation in the early modern period came see a consolidation of issuers and units of calculation in the early Meiji period; and (3) that of how the major financiers such as those who would issue loans to feudal lords advanced into the banking business or fell into run in the early Meiji period. At the same time, it also explains the historical significance of joint venture called Yamahiroya-Chōbei (山廣屋長平) having been established before corporations based on the joint-stock company form had emerged in Japan.
