SEMINAR – HYBRID EVENT: Japan's First Economic Miracle: Early Medieval Trade, Minting and Continental Agency

Abstract

The twelfth century was a pivotal time in Japan’s history. It witnessed intense factionalism within the court in Kyoto, several armed conflicts, Japan’s first national civil war (1180-85) and above all the rise of warriors to national prominence, culminating with the establishment of Japan’s first warrior government, the Kamakura Shogunate (1185-1333). It is hardly surprising then that warrior society has been the main focus of countless studies of this period, but this approach has also led to one-dimensional descriptions of a society that was considerably more complex than is assumed. Specifically, Japan’s medieval economic development, which from a global historical perspective can only be described as remarkable, have taken the backseat to the warrior-focused narrative that is often both teleological and ahistorical. Beginning in the mid-twelfth century, Japan was transformed from a rice economy to one based on cash coins imported from China. For the next three centuries, transactions, tax collections and even fines were expressed in terms of copper coins, which in turn spurred the emergence of trade cities, new classes of merchants and artisans, as well as the establishment of guilds. And yet not a single coin was minted in Japan. This “minting-less” monetization stands in sharp contrast to developments in medieval Europe, where monetization went hand in hand with rulers who struck their own coins.

Scholars have struggled to explain these discrepancies, if they have been noted at all outside Japan despite their importance to current theories of monetary history, which are often held to be universal. To shed light on Japan’s medieval monetization, it may therefore be useful to compare the early stages of minting in Scandinavia to those in Japan. Both were peripheral to centers of high economic activity and the minting of coins, and both imported them initially as metal, but there the similarities seem to end. Or do they? In this talk, Mickey Adolphson will attempt just such a comparison by bringing together archeological, textual, literary and religious sources, while exploring what one might call “Japan’s first economic miracle.”

For more information and the webinar link, please see http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html.