Changes

The chief exports from Japan in this period were precious metals (chiefly [[silver]] and [[copper]]), especially in the first half of the period, and marine products, which were divided into two categories. ''Tawaramono'' (goods in rice straw bales) included dried abalone, shark fin, and sea cucumber, while another category, ''shoshiki kaisanbutsu'' ("various kinds marine products") included dried kelp and, as the term suggests, a variety of other marine products.<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 55.</ref> By the beginning of the 19th century, the flow of precious metals had reversed, with the shogunate successfully halting the outflow of [[gold]] and silver, restricting the outflow of copper, and then beginning to ''import'' silver in considerable quantities, exchanging for it, chiefly, marine products.

The chief exports from Japan in this period were precious metals (chiefly [[silver]] and [[copper]]), especially in the first half of the period, and marine products, which were divided into two categories. ''Tawaramono'' (goods in rice straw bales) included dried abalone, shark fin, and sea cucumber, while another category, ''shoshiki kaisanbutsu'' ("various kinds marine products") included dried kelp and, as the term suggests, a variety of other marine products.<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 55.</ref> By the beginning of the 19th century, the flow of precious metals had reversed, with the shogunate successfully halting the outflow of [[gold]] and silver, restricting the outflow of copper, and then beginning to ''import'' silver in considerable quantities, exchanging for it, chiefly, marine products.

Saitô Osamu identifies the 1820s as marking the key turning point in the significant shift in the Japanese economy from agriculture to proto-industrialization, in which local operations in both rural and urban areas began to focus on the more specialized production of specific goods expressly for the purpose of selling them in distant markets (i.e. in the big cities, and/or into the broader nationwide commercial networks). Trade networks had grown more and more integrated over the course of the period, reaching even into many rural provincial parts of the country, and so by the 1820s, not only did rural and provincial consumers have regular access to a wide variety of goods both imported and domestic, but they were also able to more intensively focus their own production efforts on a given product, selling it into these commercial networks, and being able to buy enough food and other goods to live on, in return.<ref>Hellyer, 117.</ref> While much proto-industrialization and by-employments occurred within communities, or even within homes, for example where women spun, wove, or dyed cloth at home in addition to agricultural activity, commercial / capitalistic developments also took place in the form of people relocating across considerable distances in the off-season. Farmers from some of the smaller, more outlying islands in the [[Inland Sea]], for example, are known to have worked in [[sake|saké]] breweries elsewhere in the archipelago, or on [[whaling]] ships in the [[Sea of Japan]], during the off-seasons. Activities such as these, as well as the more standard forms of commercial activity (e.g. port-based storage & shipping activities connecting the local into translocal commercial networks) made people more dependent on wages and prices in distant regions than upon communal inter-dependency within their own local communities, constituting, [[David Howell]] argues, a key marker of a commercialized/capitalist economy.<ref>Martin Dusinberre, ''Hard Times in the Hometown: A History of Community Survival in Modern Japan'', University of Hawaii Press (2012), 191, citing David Howell, ''Capitalism from Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery'', University of California Press (1995), 7-8.</ref>

Saitô Osamu identifies the 1820s as marking the key turning point in the significant shift in the Japanese economy from agriculture to proto-industrialization, in which local operations in both rural and urban areas began to focus on the more specialized production of specific goods expressly for the purpose of selling them in distant markets (i.e. in the big cities, and/or into the broader nationwide commercial networks). Trade networks had grown more and more integrated over the course of the period, reaching even into many rural provincial parts of the country, and so by the 1820s, not only did rural and provincial consumers have regular access to a wide variety of goods both imported and domestic, but they were also able to more intensively focus their own production efforts on a given product, selling it into these commercial networks, and being able to buy enough food and other goods to live on, in return.<ref>Hellyer, 117.</ref> While much proto-industrialization and by-employments occurred within communities, or even within homes, for example where women spun, wove, or dyed cloth at home in addition to agricultural activity, commercial / capitalistic developments also took place in the form of people relocating across considerable distances in the off-season. Farmers from some of the smaller, more outlying islands in the [[Inland Sea]], for example, are known to have worked in [[sake|saké]] breweries elsewhere in the archipelago, or on [[whaling]] ships in the [[Sea of Japan]], during the off-seasons. Activities such as these, as well as the more standard forms of commercial activity (e.g. port-based storage & shipping activities connecting the local into translocal commercial networks) made people more dependent on wages and prices in distant regions than upon communal inter-dependency within their own local communities, constituting, [[David Howell]] argues, a key marker of a commercialized/capitalist economy. Still, Howell also warns us against assuming that "economic growth" equates to improved quality of life for all involved; while many who took on by-employments may have been well-off enough to begin with, and were simply seeking to further enhance their prosperity, for many others, it is safe to assume they felt they had no choice but to take on by-employments, sometimes even at great distances from their hometowns, just in order to get by.<ref>Martin Dusinberre, ''Hard Times in the Hometown: A History of Community Survival in Modern Japan'', University of Hawaii Press (2012), 191-192, citing David Howell, ''Capitalism from Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery'', University of California Press (1995), 7-8.</ref>

Many rural areas, particularly in coastal areas, also grew over the course of the 18th and into the 19th centuries, becoming more prosperous and more interconnected, transforming from mere fishing villages or merely locally active ports into more prominent regional ports. As storage & shipping agents (''[[tonya|ton'ya]]'') in these rural areas began to compete against those located in the more major cities, merchant shippers turned away from the urban ''ton'ya'', to rely more heavily on those in smaller towns charging lower fees. In just the few decades between the 1750s and the 1780s, the number of ships putting in at [[Okayama]], for example, dropped by a third, as many of them began to instead offload their goods at smaller harbors in the area. Similarly, the town of [[Kaminoseki]] in [[Suo province|Suô province]], a fishing village and harbor of local significance which grew to more prominence over the course of the Edo period, was by the 1840s home to warehouses storing just about every major type of goods that passed through the [[Inland Sea]], from [[kombu|kelp]] to [[lacquerwares]], [[timber]], [[cotton]], [[tea]], [[salt]], and [[sugar]].<ref>Dusinberre, 32.</ref>

Many rural areas, particularly in coastal areas, also grew over the course of the 18th and into the 19th centuries, becoming more prosperous and more interconnected, transforming from mere fishing villages or merely locally active ports into more prominent regional ports. As storage & shipping agents (''[[tonya|ton'ya]]'') in these rural areas began to compete against those located in the more major cities, merchant shippers turned away from the urban ''ton'ya'', to rely more heavily on those in smaller towns charging lower fees. In just the few decades between the 1750s and the 1780s, the number of ships putting in at [[Okayama]], for example, dropped by a third, as many of them began to instead offload their goods at smaller harbors in the area. Similarly, the town of [[Kaminoseki]] in [[Suo province|Suô province]], a fishing village and harbor of local significance which grew to more prominence over the course of the Edo period, was by the 1840s home to warehouses storing just about every major type of goods that passed through the [[Inland Sea]], from [[kombu|kelp]] to [[lacquerwares]], [[timber]], [[cotton]], [[tea]], [[salt]], and [[sugar]].<ref>Dusinberre, 32.</ref>