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Seeing poverty and desperation, and not immorality, as the root cause of the practice of infanticide, Nozoki also had the domain begin to grant rice, cotton, building materials, or other supplies to individuals or families in certain circumstances (e.g. to newlyweds, or to families with small children, in order to encourage or incentivize population growth, and to discourage a feeling of a need to commit infanticide). Nozoki also had the domain begin to subsidize the cultivation of silk, by giving farmers mulberry seedlings for free, along with the possibility of loans, and a certain degree of exemption from ''[[nengu]]'' payments. These policies were quite successful, bringing upticks in population growth almost immediately. From 1796 until the famines of the 1840s, Yonezawa saw continual growth, and not decline, of the population.
Seeing poverty and desperation, and not immorality, as the root cause of the practice of infanticide, Nozoki also had the domain begin to grant rice, cotton, building materials, or other supplies to individuals or families in certain circumstances (e.g. to newlyweds, or to families with small children, in order to encourage or incentivize population growth, and to discourage a feeling of a need to commit infanticide). Nozoki also had the domain begin to subsidize the cultivation of silk, by giving farmers mulberry seedlings for free, along with the possibility of loans, and a certain degree of exemption from ''[[nengu]]'' payments. These policies were quite successful, bringing upticks in population growth almost immediately. From 1796 until the famines of the 1840s, Yonezawa saw continual growth, and not decline, of the population.
Nozoki also took steps to reverse Takenomata's policy positions on samurai by-employments. Seeing commercial or manufacturing activities as counter to the samurai ethos, and corrupting of it, Takenomata had sought to expand agricultural and other production by commoners/peasants to the point that the domain could afford to pay retainer stipends at a sufficient level such that the samurai would not need to engage in by-employments, such as weaving cloth. By contrast, Nozoki encouraged samurai to take up farming, weaving, and other activities in order to support themselves, thus alleviating the domain's financial burdens. The domain assured these samurai, however, that they would retain all the perks of samurai status, and that contributing to the domain's economy (''[[kokueki]]'') in this way was not dishonorable but rather quite the opposite, it being simply an alternate way of doing one's duty to the lord. Citing that even ladies-in-waiting at the castle were engaging in activities related to silk cultivation, and that ''daimyô'' Harunori was wearing garments made by those ladies within his court, Nozoki also managed to encourage sericulture.
Further, Nozoki began to see the imposition of education or enlightenment, and the kind of mandates and coercive policies advocated by Hosoi and Takenomata, as tyrannical. He thus advocated employing economic incentives instead; in short, he suggested playing on people's greed and envy, rather than decrying such emotions, to motivate production. He also reversed policies Takenomata had put in place which sought to encourage economic activity by mandating it. As Takenomata saw when he mandated the growing of [[lacquer]] trees, Nozoki suggested that mandates only lead to peasants seeking ways to fulfill their obligations in the least way possible, producing low-quality goods, so that they can devote more time and energy to more profitable pursuits. Thus, Nozoki asserted, the domain should work to make certain pursuits actually profitable and thus desirable for the peasantry, by not taxing those activities too heavily, and by not mandating them to engage in other, less profitable, activities. He further sought to abandon the monopsony system, arguing that a freer market in which peasants are free to produce whatever is most profitable would result in the most profits, through market forces which would allow prices to rise and fall freely, creating the proper incentives.
Further, Nozoki began to see the imposition of education or enlightenment, and the kind of mandates and coercive policies advocated by Hosoi and Takenomata, as tyrannical. He thus advocated employing economic incentives instead; in short, he suggested playing on people's greed and envy, rather than decrying such emotions, to motivate production. He also reversed policies Takenomata had put in place which sought to encourage economic activity by mandating it. As Takenomata saw when he mandated the growing of [[lacquer]] trees, Nozoki suggested that mandates only lead to peasants seeking ways to fulfill their obligations in the least way possible, producing low-quality goods, so that they can devote more time and energy to more profitable pursuits. Thus, Nozoki asserted, the domain should work to make certain pursuits actually profitable and thus desirable for the peasantry, by not taxing those activities too heavily, and by not mandating them to engage in other, less profitable, activities. He further sought to abandon the monopsony system, arguing that a freer market in which peasants are free to produce whatever is most profitable would result in the most profits, through market forces which would allow prices to rise and fall freely, creating the proper incentives.
==References==
==References==
*[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 97-103.
*[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 97-105.
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