Price Fluctuations in the Late Medieval Japan

Abstract

The problem of price fluctuations in medieval Japan is the fundamental one to elucidate the economic conditions in this age. But this problem seems not to have been exhaustively inquired because of the limited conditions of materials for it, in other words, because of scarcity of data for it. In this article, we try to trace the price fluctuations from the middle of the fifteenth century to the early seventeenth century by using available data in the present situation. In this sense, we must confess that this article is only a sketch of price fluctuations and of some problems in connection with them therefore, in the future when the data will be more abundant and preciser, we probably need to reconsider them. For surveying the price fluctuations, we adopt two different methods: (1) prices indicated in terms of coin (=mon 文); (2) relative prices in comparision with price of rice, by which we can take off the monetary factor. Consequently we can observe in evidence the following trend. The prices as a whole show an downward trend during from 1450's to 1550's, and upward gradually after 1550's. In other words, the turning point from the aspect of prices is set up in 1550's. And behind such fluctuations, changing conditions of economic structure, we can consider, had probably existed in this period. Next, in relation to price fluctuations, we emphasize that erizeni 撰銭, or erizeni kinsei 撰銭禁制, the legal prohibition of the pnblic selection of coins in the sixteenth century should be also reconsidered. According to the previous studies for erizeni, erizeni kinsei was actually seldom effective through the whole period from the first issue of this act to the last. But from the point of price fluctuations in this period, we must recognize that the two different aspects were there for the effect of erizeni kinsei. In the first stage before 1550's the effect of erizeni kinsei was not sufficient, but the second stage after this period, more effective. In any case we should reconsider the effect of it without restriction of the previous interpretation.