DUTIES OF THE RULER

Question: What is the function of the ruler?

Answer: In benevolence the ruler should be the father and mother of his people, for the practice of benevolent government is his function.... The practice of jinsei consists in the finding of men. Let wise men be put in the higher offices: lay the administration upon men of original talent: commit the various responsibilities to men of power and then the benevolent purposes of the ruler will be spread abroad and benevolent government will prevail.

Question: How is rice wasted which can be saved the new mode of government which you advocate?:

Answer: If the great quantities of rice now waster were to be conserved, the shogun as well as daimyo would have very large resources... let me describe some of the ways in which rice is wasted. I shall begin with small wastes which are easily noticeable. First, about one million koku of rice are wasted in the sixty provinces in a wet year, simply because of the unscientific construction of river levees. On the other hand, there is a lot of rice which might be, but is not produced in a dry year, because ponds and reservoirs are not utilized at all or are ineffectively used. Secondly, there is an incalculable loss of rice caused because of the frequent wreckage of large transports to and from Edo, as well as of rice vessels bound to Osaka from Kyushu, Shikoku, Saikoku, and Hokkoku. In the third place, taxes were formerly paid in unhulled riced, but not they must be paid with hulled rice, and a large percentage of the hulled rice spoils in the public granaries. Fourthly, we have not w hundred times as many wine makers as in former times, turning precious rice into unprofitable liquor. Fifthly, we find a loss in rice production because of the extensive cultivation of tobacco. Sixthly, we have a similar loss due to the cultivation of cotton. Seventhly, there is a loss in rice production because of the enervation of the people and their lower laboring capacity....

Kumazawa Banzan, Dai Gaku Wakumon. Translated by Galen M. Fisher in "Kumazawa Banzan, his Life and Ideas," Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Second series, Vol. XVI, May 1938, pp. 267-68; 281.

ESSAY ON PRICES

The rise in prices has ben due, not to one, but many causes...the increased demand for goods which has been encouraged by the weakness of our sumptuary laws and regulations. In the ordinary way, the supply of and demand for goods would be in satisfactory harmony and prices would not rise if expensive goods were consumed only be people of the upper classes and members of the lower classes were content with cheaper goods. Those migrating from the country to castletowns are used to a simple life, eating the cheaper cereals such as barley and various millets, drinking unrefined sake, burning brushwood, wearing hemp or home-made cotton clothes and sleeping on rough straw mats. On removing to the towns, however, they eat rice and bean curd, warm themselves at a charcoal fire, wear ready-made clothes, drink excellent sake, and install paper-doors, ceilings, sliding-screens and fine straw mats, all of which they did not have in their country homes. Even the lowest classes of labourers and employees do this. Meanwhile, the townspeople of comfortable means use clothes, food, houses and furniture almost equal to the of the daimyo, and there is no one to prevent them. Hence these large demands for goods have caused a rise in their price. 69

Samurai in Edo and in castletowns live outside their own fief and buy their daily necessities with money. That is the principal reason why merchants are prosperous, for they try to bring about an equilibrium in prices between the countryside and towns and the powerful influence of several millions of them can scarcely be prevented. Regulations attempting to lower prices in the castletowns are, in view of this huge influence of the merchants, mere nonsense.

The above evils are wholly the result of the absenteeism of the samurai. If this fundamental cause is removed and at the same time the samurai retain their rice, the merchants will soon be bankrupt and prices can be controlled as desired. Thus, the cause of the high prices in absenteeism of the samurai and inefficient regulation.

Ogyu Sorai, Seidan. Translated by Neil Skene Smith, "An Introduction to Some Japanese Economic Writings of the Eighteenth Century" in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Second series, Vol. XI, December, 1934, pp. 69-71.