The Use of Copper Coins and Rice as Means of Payment in Nara in the Latter Half of the Sixteenth Century : The Case of the Tamon-in Nikki (多聞院日記)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the actual condition of the use of copper coins and rice as means of payment in Nara in the latter half of the sixteenth century. In order to research this matter, we used the part of the Tamon-in Nikki (多聞院日記) which was the diary written by priests at the medieval temple and was one of the most important historical documents of the political and economic history of the sixteenth century. Our finding is that the frequency of using copper coins and rice as means of payment in the purchase of commodities changed as time went on, as follows: (1) In the first period (1565-1568), copper coins are used for almost all of the payments. (2) In the second period (15698-1586), the cases of payment by rice account for about 80% of all payments, but the ratio of payments by copper coins is only about 20%. (3) In the third period (1587-1592), in contrast with the second period, the ratio of payments by rice isabout 20% of all payments, but the ratio of payment by copper coins is about 80%. (4) In the fourth period (1593-1596), the frequency with which rice is used as a means of payment increases again, and is much more than the frequency of the use of copper coins. This trend is the purchase commodities is almost same as the trend in the case of wages and loans. These changes, especially the increase in che use of rice as a means of payment, caused other changes. The first is the appearance of Kake-uri (sale on credit) in which payments are regularly made twice a year. The second is the establishment of the fixed exchange rate between copper coins and rice. These two changes encouraged the use of rice as a means of payment. Finally, we must point out that we can observe some differences in the way copper coins and rice were used as means of payment. The first is that copper coins are used whenever the people of Nara go to Kyoto or Sakai and buy some goods. The second is that rice as a means of payment tends to be used in the case of large payments, while copper coins tend to be used in the case of small payments.