Representative Kobans issued in the Edo Period
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Kyoho Koban (1715) gold (fineness about 87%) |
Gembun Koban (1736) gold (fineness about 66%) |
Man'en Koban (1860) gold (fineness about 57%) |
mscale/ Size A4n |
|
Representative Kobans issued in the Edo Period. In the Edo Period, the amount of
gold and silver coins in circulation was adjusted about 8 times by recoinages. In the first recoinage of Genroku 8 (1695), the government debased gold and silver coins to increase the amount of money in circulation. To cope with the inflation caused by the debasement, a recoinage was then carried out to increase the gold content in line with the proposal by Arai Hakuseki, a Confucian adviser to the Shogun. These Kobans were referred to as the Shotoku Koban and the Kyoho Koban. In the Shotoku and Kyoho recoinages, the amount of money in circulation was sharply reduced simply because the Shogunate government stipulated that two old Kobans were equivalent to one new Koban to improve the gold content of Kobans, thereby slowing down economic activity and bringing about deflation. To reflate the Japanese economy by increasing the money supply, the Tokugawa Shogunate government conducted another recoinage in Gembun 1 (1736), on the proposal of Ogyu Sorai, a prominent Confucian adviser to the Shogun, and the debased Gembun Kobans were issued. As a result, the economy improved and Gembun Koban continued to circulate steadily for the next 80 years. Toward the end of the Edo Period, recoinages were often carried out to finance the budget deficits of the Shogunate government: the Kobans were thus successively debased. This led to chronic inflation. The Man'en Koban, the last of the Edo Period, was extremely small in size and its fineness was reduced to about one-eighth of the Keicho Koban. |
BACK
