Changes

==Edo Period==

==Edo Period==

Samurai stipends in the Edo period were paid out in ''[[koku]]'', i.e. in rice. However, gold and silver coinage was used in everyday exchanges (especially among ''[[chonin|chônin]]''/commoners - peasants, merchants, artisans, etc.). In Edo, gold was more widely circulated, while in [[Kamigata]] (the Kyoto-Osaka area), silver was more commonly the mode of exchange.

Samurai stipends in the Edo period were paid out in ''[[koku]]'', i.e. in rice. However, gold and silver coinage was used in everyday exchanges (especially among ''[[chonin|chônin]]''/commoners - peasants, merchants, artisans, etc.). In Edo, gold was more widely circulated, while in [[Kamigata]] (the Kyoto-Osaka area), silver was more commonly the mode of exchange. Gold was exchanged in relatively standardized coins issued by the [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]], known as ''koban'', and worth one ''ryô'' apiece.

Gold was exchanged in relatively standardized coins issued by the [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]], including the ''ôban'' and the ''koban'', worth different denominations of ''ryô''. A ''ryô'' was considered to be roughly equal to one ''koku'', which in turn is said to have been roughly the amount of rice needed to feed a man for a year. However, rice and gold prices fluctuated dramatically over the course of the period, and the exact amount of rice that comprised a ''koku'' is, in any case, a subject of debate. Over the course of the Edo period, the cost of rice dropped dramatically relative to the value of gold, making samurai (who relied on stipends paid in ''koku'') less and less wealthy than members of the [[chonin|merchant class]] who earned their incomes in gold and silver.<ref>Screech, Timon. "Owning Edo-Period Paintings." in Lillehoj, Elizabeth (ed.) ''Acquisition: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan''. Floating World Editions, 2007. p34.</ref>

The use of the gold ''koban'', however, was most common in and around [[Edo]], and the farther one traveled from Edo, the less standard it became. At the beginning of the Edo period, there were over one hundred types of gold coins in circulation,<ref>Crawcour and Yamamura. p490.</ref> and so in many parts of the country, particularly the active commercial centers of [[Kyoto]] and [[Osaka]], and other areas at a considerable distance from Edo, currency continued to be valued by weight, and not by face value. While gold coins were particularly standard in Edo, in the rest of the country, silver and copper coins remained quite common, and were valued by their weight, in ''momme''. One hundred ''momme'' were worth roughly one ''momme'' of silver, and one thousand ''momme'' was called one ''kanme''.

 

Silver and copper also existed in the form of coins. However, these were generally counted not by number of coins, but rather by weight, in ''momme''. One hundred ''momme'' were worth roughly one ''momme'' of silver, and one thousand ''momme'' was called one ''kanme''.

===Prices===

===Prices===

==References==

==References==

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