State Formation, Property Relations, the Development of the Tokugawa Economy (1600-1868) by Grace Kwon
Author:Grace Kwon [Kwon, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138982895
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-01-20T00:00:00+00:00
THE KYOHO REFORMS: A CRISIS OF FEUDAL REVENUES
The inability to increase rice revenues was devastating for bakufu finances especially given that according to 1730 tax proceeds, the rice-tax comprised 90 percent of the shogunateâs ordinary revenues (Oguchi 1989, 130â134). While the shogun was to live off his own territorial holdings, the shogunateâs financial resources also included monies from limited foreign trade, control of minting, and the right to levy extraordinary taxes on daimyo and merchants. It also included the very valuable and useful power to devalue coinage. Its more inclusive or diverse revenue capacity, however, came with the additional burden of playing the role of the central state. This included upkeep of national road and transport infrastructure, and in addition to stipends to Tokugawa retainers, the costs associated with maintaining the rudimentary central administration necessary to manage its fiefs.
The Kyoho reforms refer to a set of measures beginning in 1722 under Yoshimune which were designed to restructure and revitalize shogunal finances. Although it ultimately failed to solve the problem of endemic fiscal crisis on part of feudal elites, understanding the failure of reform helps provide a picture of the socio-economic forces at work in the early 18th century Tokugawa village. This is especially the case in regards to the scale of transformation which the rural community was undergoing as a result of land transfers.
The Kyoho reforms followed in the wake of a series of natural disasters which exacerbated extant long-term fiscal shortages. Extraordinary expenses for riparian works and repairs and relief to villagers put excess strain on shogunal finances. The Kyoho reforms were, in general, a set of conservative measures infused with Confucian precepts of frugality and economic retrenchment. Its corner-piece, however, was the initiation of the fixed tax system. Prior to the implementation of the fixed system, tax rates fluctuated based on an inspection of the annual harvest which allowed peasants to negotiate a margin of exemption in cases of poor harvests. Under the new fixed system, however, peasants no longer enjoyed this exemption although in cases where a majority of the crop was destroyed, exemptions would be allowed.
The new fixed tax rate was a short-lived success. Bakufu revenues peaked during the 1732-1755 period with the effective tax rate going from an estimated 29.2 percent to 36.6 percent (Furushima 1965, 22â29). Thereafter, revenues began to drop. The causes behind the failure of the Kyoho reforms and the fixed-tax system were many. Its collapse, however, was foreseeable. The structural changes in the socio-economic foundations of the village which had occurred during the course of the prior century and a tribute system based on rice production in an economy which was becoming increasingly commercial were fundamentally incompatible.
The kokudaka tax system based on rice was unable to access the new sources of rural wealth which had been shifting increasingly away from rice cultivation on highly taxed paddy fields to cash cropping and commerce and industry. Another problem was that the rate of rural taxation had become customary by the 18th century while
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