1-9

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A History of Coins
1-9 Oko-gin Silver Coins for Import of Korean Ginseng: A Two-Tiered Pricing System for Silver Coins

Oko-gin
   Front                           Back       Oko-gin
（1710）
As with other cho-gin (silver coins), an image of the god of wealth and the Chinese character [] (takara: treasure) are stamped numerous times over the face.
Because this coin was minted exclusively for the purpose of trade with Korea, its quality was significantly higher than other cho-gin (with a silver content of 20-50 percent) circulating during the same period and comparable to that of the Keicho Cho-gin silver coin, which was minted from 1601 with a fineness of 80 percent.

Hoei yotsuho Cho-gin
   Front                           Back       Hoei Yotsuho Cho-gin
（1711）
　Silver coins were debased four times in five years beginning in 1706. The poorest-quality cho-gin, with a silver content of merely 20 percent, was called the Hoei Yotsuho Cho-gin.
The Chinese caracter[](ho: treasure)within a circle was stamped four times on its face.

Oko-gin
　The Tsushima clan used cho-gin (silver coins) to pay for imports of Korean ginseng and Chinese raw silk, but the Hoei Cho-gin was rejected by the Korean side because of its inferior quality compared with the keicho Cho-gin.
In 1710, therefore, the Tokugawa Shogunate approved the minting of a high-quality cho-gin for use exclusively in trade with Korea, on the pretext that the import of Korean ginseng was indispensable for medical treatment.

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      The Tokugawa Shogunate adopted measures to prevent the outflow of silver coins in payment of trade in the 1660s. Owing to strong domestic demand for high-quality Chinese raw silk, however, the outflow of silver, a trade commodity, could not be halted. As a result of the withdrawal of the Dutch trading houses from Taiwan in 1662, the Taiwan-Nagasaki import route for white raw silk, the finest type of Chinese raw silk, was replaced by the Tsushima-Korea route, with the Tsushima domain as the mediator. By the end of the 17th century, the outflow of silver coins to China had dwindled, but the Tsushima-Korea and Satsuma-Ryukyu routes remained as channels for the outflow of silver. The main channel was the Tsushima-Korea route.
      It is said that a massive volume of silver amounting to 1.1 million kan (420,000 tons) of Keicho cho-gin-approximately three-quarters of the silver coins and silver produced in Japan-drained out of the country during the 100 years following the Keicho Era (1596-1614). Meanwhile, in response to the plunge in silver production, the shogunate debased the quality and weight of gold and silver coins as a means of financing fiscal deficits and to overcome the shortage of silver during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. silver coins were debased four times between 1704 and 1711, with the silver content of the Yotsuho cho-gin, the most inferior coin, dropping to 20 percent.
      The shogunate continued to use the debased cho-gin in trade with Korea via the Tsushima domain. But once the drastic recoinages had lowered the silver content of the coin below 50 percent, the cho-gin lost its credibility as an international currency, and the Korean side rejected it as a means of payment. This crisis caused the price of indispensable Korean ginseng to soar, leading the shogunate to decide for political reasons to permit the minting of the cho-gin a high-quality (80 percent fine) silver coin, for exclusive use in the Korean trade.
      The minting of silver coins exclusively for purposes of trade suggests the introduction of a price discrimination policy for silver, with differing prices at home and abroad. It was possible for the shogunate to implement such a policy because it had sole control of gold and silver.
      The oko-gin was minted for roughly five years. A recoinage in 1714 restored the quality of silver coins, thus obviating the need for the production of high-quality silver coins exclusively for trade; minting of the oko-gin was accordingly suspended. Production of the coin was resumed after recoinage, in 1736, debased the quality of silver coins yet again, but with the development of domestic supplies of raw silk, sugar, and Korean ginseng in the latter half of the 18th century, the oko-gin lost its purpose and its production was discontinued.

Noriko Fujii: Research Division 3, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan
Monetary and Economic Studies 16(1), Bank of Japan, 1998

References
Bank of Japan, Economic Research Department, ed. Zuroku Nihon no Kahei (Japanese Money), Vol. 2, Toyo Keizai Shimposha,1972 (in Japanese).
Tashiro, Kazui, “Tokugawa Jidai no Boeki (Trade during Tokugawa Rule),” Nihon Keizai Shi (History of the Japanese Economy), Vol. 1, Iwanami Shoten, 1988 (in Japanese).
Taya, Hirokichi, “Kinsei Ginza no Kenkyu (A Study of Early Modern Silver Mints),” Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1963 (in Japanese).

Front Back	*Oko-gin* （1710） As with other cho-gin (silver coins), an image of the god of wealth and the Chinese character [] (takara: treasure) are stamped numerous times over the face. Because this coin was minted exclusively for the purpose of trade with Korea, its quality was significantly higher than other cho-gin (with a silver content of 20-50 percent) circulating during the same period and comparable to that of the Keicho Cho-gin silver coin, which was minted from 1601 with a fineness of 80 percent.
Front Back	*Hoei Yotsuho Cho-gin* （1711）　Silver coins were debased four times in five years beginning in 1706. The poorest-quality cho-gin, with a silver content of merely 20 percent, was called the Hoei Yotsuho Cho-gin. The Chinese caracter[](ho: treasure)within a circle was stamped four times on its face.
*Oko-gin* 　The Tsushima clan used cho-gin (silver coins) to pay for imports of Korean ginseng and Chinese raw silk, but the Hoei Cho-gin was rejected by the Korean side because of its inferior quality compared with the keicho Cho-gin. In 1710, therefore, the Tokugawa Shogunate approved the minting of a high-quality cho-gin for use exclusively in trade with Korea, on the pretext that the import of Korean ginseng was indispensable for medical treatment.