A Basic Study on the Finances of the Tokugawa Government

Research Project

Project/Area Number	08610349
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Japanese history
Research Institution	Yokohama College of Commerce
Principal Investigator	IIJIMA Chiaki Yokohama College of Commerce The Faculty of Commerce Professor, 商学部, 教授 (90151224)
Project Period (FY)	1996 – 1997
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1997)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000) Fiscal Year 1997: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1996: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Keywords	Finances of Tokugawa Government / Money stocked by the Tokugawa Government / Emergency funds in the Edo Castle Tower treasure room / Management of the Hasuike-gokinzo / 奥御金蔵 / 金奉行 / 幕府御米蔵 / 幕府御金蔵 / 幕府貯蓄米金
Research Abstract	1.The Tokugawa Govermment founded its tresure houses at several different places such as the Dungeon of the Edo Castle, the Osaka Castle, the Nijo Castle, and the Sunpu Castle. The treasure for emergency use was stored in the Oku-gokinzo (inner the Edo Castle Tower). The treasure house called Hasuike-gokinzo was for the purpose of running expenses. 2.Though the year of establishing the Oku-gokinzo was not officially recorded, it is clear that it was founded before A.D.1722 on the grounds that the year 1722 was recorded in the maintenace record. 3.In the Oku-gokinzo were twenty pieces of gold and two hundred and six pieces of silver bullion at their largest sum in the records, which came up to more than 1,717,000 ryo. However, almost all the amount of the money was spent during the last days of the Tokugawa regime. 4.As the result of my scrutinizing the receipts and disbursements records of gold and silver coins and bullion, it has been made clear that the Oku-gokinzo fulfillled the following three functions. (1) Provisionary expenditures and savings of surplus funds. (2) Adjustment of the balance of the gold and the silver price. (3) Material supply for re-coining. 5.The Hasuike-gokinzo consisted of the two offices - Motokata-gokinzo and Haraikata-gokinzo. The former was in charge of holding and managing money received and the latter of holding and managing money to be disbursed. And the separate two offices were jointed in 1820. 6.In 1791 and 1808, the method of assorting the gold and the silver and bookkeeping was revised. In 1820, the reform intended for the Hasuike-gokinzo was carried into action. It comprised the investigation of the contradiction of the entered figures in the related documents.