ABSTRACT
Industrial expansion affected nearly every aspect of the Tokugawa socio-economy at nearly every level of society. The effects of industrial expansion and capitalism appeared in national and local government policies and in regional demographic changes. The training workers gained from contract labor contributed to the spread of literacy, and the seasonal migration of casual labor led to the diffusion of education, manufacturing skills and general information. The Tokugawa economy can be seen as an economic continuum. The organization of production depended upon the interaction of several factors: the nature of the product, the need for skilled labor, the possibilities for casual labor, and the need to train and control skilled labor. Contract labor provided a way for the stem family to rotate collateral members out of the birth household.
