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A number of different modes of currency were used throughout Japanese history, including, in the pre-modern period, the heavy use of Chinese coins. By the [[Edo period]], a relatively standardized system of gold and silver coinage was in place, though it experienced dramatic inflation and devaluation, among other financial crises, at times. Systems which served as precursors for a "modern" system of banks and paper currency, along with futures markets and other such economic/financial developments, emerged in the 18th-19th centuries, and beginning in the [[Meiji period]], "modern" systems based on the Western model were established.
A number of different modes of currency were used throughout Japanese history, including, in the pre-modern period, the heavy use of Chinese coins. By the [[Edo period]], a relatively standardized system of gold and silver coinage was in place, though it experienced dramatic inflation and devaluation, among other financial crises, at times. Systems which served as precursors for a "modern" system of banks and paper currency, along with futures markets and other such economic/financial developments, emerged in the 18th-19th centuries, and beginning in the [[Meiji period]], "modern" systems based on the Western model were established.
==Early Coinage==
Currency was first minted in Japan in the Wadô era (708-715), an era named after the discovery of copper in [[Musashi province]] (Wadô 和銅 literally means "Japanese copper"). After the so-called Wadô kaihô ("Wadô coins"), other currencies continued to be produced until the mid-10th century, each named after the [[Imperial reign era]] in which they were produced. These included the Mannen tsûhô, Jinkô kaihô, Ryûhei eihô, Fûju shinpô, Shôwa shôhô, Chônen taihô, Jôeki shinpô, Jôgan eihô, Kanpyô taihô, and Engi tsûhô.<ref>Kobata. p98n1.</ref> Coinage at this time was used only by the aristocracy or religious elites, while the rest of the population functioned on a barter system in which value or buying power tended to be expressed in terms of silk, cloth, or rice.<ref>When a good was used as payment, its value was often counted in terms of ''jun-kinu'' 準絹, ''jun-nuno'' 準布, or ''jun-kome'' 準米, that is, in terms of how much silk, cloth, or rice it would have been worth. One ''hiki'' 匹 of silk was generally valued as equal to one ''[[koku]]'' of rice (1 ''koku'' = 10 ''to'' 斗 = 100 ''shô'' 升) (Kobata. p98.)</ref> The direct association of goods, especially rice, with value, would continue through the mid-19th century; in the Edo period (1600-1868), lands would be valued in terms of their agricultural production, taxes would be paid in rice (or equivalents), and samurai would be paid their stipends in rice.
By the time of the issuing of the Engi taihô (901-923), the currency had become debased, meaning that a given coin, despite officially having a certain denomination, actually contained less precious metal than its nominal value. In other words, there was severe inflation, as a given amount of currency no longer had the value (or buying power) it once did. And so, people lost confidence in the currency, and it fell out of circulation.
Several centuries later, beginning in the 12th century, [[Song dynasty]] Chinese coins began to be imported in considerable volumes, as a natural result of increased trade with China. The Northern Song, in fact, minted more copper coins than any other Chinese dynasty, and though the export of coinage from China was banned, Chinese coins nevertheless flowed throughout the East Asia region.<ref>Kobata. p98.</ref>
==Edo Period==
==Edo Period==
==References==
==References==
*Crawcour, E.S. and Kozo Yamamura. "The Tokugawa Monetary System, 1787-1868." ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'' 18:4, part 1 (1970). pp489-518.
*Crawcour, E.S. and Kozo Yamamura. "The Tokugawa Monetary System, 1787-1868." ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'' 18:4, part 1 (1970). pp489-518.
*Kobata Atsushi. "Coinage from the Kamakura Period through the Edo Period." ''[[Acta Asiatica]]'' 21 (1971). pp98-108.
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