庸制の特質を通じてみた古代現物貨幣論 : 古代流通経済における東と西
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概要
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The circulation of material goods in ancient Japanese society has been frequently studied from the viewpoint of tribute paid vertically from local society to the central government. However, barter as a form of horizontal material circulation must also have existed. In fact, in the background of the cho-yo 調庸 system of tribute, there is the existence of trade activities forming the basis of a circulation economy. In the present paper the author focuses upon the characteristic features of the institution of yo 庸 within the ritsuryo taxation system in an attempt to identify goods used as money (in the sense of payment and a medium of exchange), which played an important role in the circulation of goods during the ancient period. Basically, yo tribute consisted of four goods: cloth, rice, wata 綿 (stuffing made from boiling silk worms), and salt. The provinces that submitted each good seem to have been groups together regionally. Furthermore, if yo indeed was intended to be the daily necessities for supporting corvee labor performed in the capital, then these goods must havd functioned on the local leve1 as media of exchange. Turning to the yo goods themselves, first, cloth, which was initially paid as jofu 常布, has already been identified as a unit of cloth functioning widely in pre-Taika times as a medium of exchange. Therefore, there is no doubt that cloth for yo tribute functioned a money. Next, regarding rice tribute, we know that rice was widely used throughout ancient society as a form of payment. As to wata stuffing, it was used in Kyushu as payment for foreign trade goods and at Dazai-fu as part of the stipends paid the bureaucrats there, showing it functioning as payment. After establishing the general monetary character of each of the four yo tribute goods, the author offers the hypothesis that is was because of this basic character that these very goods were designated as yo. Moreover, the fact that each of these tribute goods seems to have been grouped together regionally suggests the existence of trade spheres using specific "in kind" monetary forms. For example, in the eastern provinces cloth functioned as the medium of exchange and payment for goods, while in western Japan rice and wata played those roles. The present study is an attempt to add a new viewpoint to the conventional research, which has tended to recognize in a vague sort of way that rice and cloth probably functioned as money in ancient Japan.
- 1997-11-20