Ordinary economies in Japan

Tetsuo Najita

The author explores a powerful theme in the economic thought and practice of ordinary citizens in late Tokugawa and early modern Japan. He examines commoners' writings on the virtues of commerce, on the reconstruction of villages, and on groups offering credit and loans, particularly the traditional cooperative, the kō, which citizens created to save on another in times of famine and fiscal emergency without having to turn to their government. The author's discussion centers on the relationship among economics, ethics, and the epistemological premise that nature must serve as the first principle of all knowledge, and he illuminates comparative issues of poverty, capitalism, and modernity.

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