ABSTRACT
DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL ECONOMY FOLLOWING THE UNIFICATION OF THE CURRENCY SYSTEM.-In any country, at any age, and for any enterprise, no single man has sown the seeds, nurtured them, and reaped the fruits thereof by himself alone. It invariably has been the caRe that one man sowed the seeds and another reaped the fruits. It was so with the achievements of the Tokugawa Shoguns. Nobunaga commenced, Hideyoshi followed up, and Iyeyasu perfected. No one denies the fact. For instance, in the case of the unification of gold and silver currencies, and of establishing a system of currency on the basis of numerical calculation throughout the country in order to facilitate the commercial transactions, the historians retained by the Tokugawa Shoguns made every effort to credit the enterprise to their master, Iyeyasu. The fact was that the enterprise was commenced by Nobunaga, followed up by Hideyoshi, and only perfected by Iyeyasu, as was already explained in the chapter on the currency system of the Oda period. Certainly, to commence an undertaking does not necessarily mean to perfect it. Nobunaga, in the hope of establishing the system of legal tender, had the Oban coined. But he left many details to be worked out. Iyeyasu first divided the Oban into ten fractions, each valued at I ryo, and the ryo was proclaimed as the unit of value, thereby establishing the system of currency on purely numerical calculation. Secondly, he determined the quality of silver currency, so as to facilitate buying and selling. Thirdly, he unified copper coins, and also minted them abundantly for circulation. Fourthly, he established gold and silver mints and prohibited private coinage. Indeed, the unification of the currency system throughout Japan was for the first time perfected by the Tokugawa Shogun, and a consistent currency policy was carried out throughout the country. The work of currency unification, which Nobunaga and Hideyoshi could not accomplish, was completed by the Tokugawa Shogun, to his credit. Following the currency unification, the local economic system in different provinces, where each province supplied its own needs, was revolutionized, and a tendency towards national economy was brought about.
