AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



Among the three classes of the Japanese people (Heimin), the 

 farmer (Hiyakusho) stood higher in rank than the artisan (Sho- ; u 

 kunin) and merchant (Ahindo). Among the Samurai the occu- " / V 

 pations of the last two were deemed less honourable, but they did 

 not find it beneath their dignity to till the field like common 

 peasants. They made use of this social freedom, however, only in 

 a few districts, as Satsuma and Tosa, that is, in just those regions 

 which were celebrated for producing the bravest and most in- 

 telligent warriors. Maron, in his report on Japanese agriculture,^ a 

 work that is still worth reading, remarks that, owing to the long 

 isolation of the land, the Government and the nation at large had 

 to yield to the consciousness that bodily existence depended under 

 all circumstances upon the productions of their own lands, and that 

 nothing could make up a possible deficit in the harvest. From 

 this we might argue to an improvement in agriculture at the be- ^ 

 ginning of the Tokugawa rule ; which in fact is well known from 

 the history of lyeyasu, especially in reference to the plain of 

 Kuwanto. 



The development of foreign commerce was in those days com- 

 pletely crippled ; and the main working power of the nation was 

 all the more turned to agriculture and kept in that channel. The 

 long period of peace, however, which began with the year 1600 pro- 

 bably had a more far-reaching effect than this fact in determining 

 the character of Japanese agriculture ; for, although it had already 

 attained a vigorous growth after the Chinese pattern, it had later 

 retrogressed very considerably on account of the continual civil 

 wars. 



According to the old Japanese view, which is based on the 

 tradition and representation of his heavenly descent, and the crea- 

 tion of the Japanese islands by his divine ancestors, Isanagi and 

 Isanami, the Mikado was and is the lord of the whole country, 

 and the only landed proprietor in it. But in reality, the extended 

 mountain forests, as well as all waste and barren land, belonged in 

 later times principally to the feudal lords, and is now the property 

 of the State, while the cultivated soil was owned by the peasant, 

 as hereditary lessee. He was, and is still, what we should call a 

 small farmer, who could inherit his property, let it out to others, 

 increase it by purchase, or transfer it to other hands by sale ; but, 

 in any case, he had to see to it that it remained under the traditional 

 system of cultivation and that the taxes reckoned upon that basis 

 were, at the right time, made over to the prescribed authority. By 

 this the right of possession and disposition was, so far, restricted. 

 The taxes upon cultivated soil were in general high, and had 

 to be paid in kind. Apart from this, however, the Japanese 



of Japan was 73,943,258 yen. The ground tax paid 43,029,745 of this, and the 

 tax on Sake and similar articles of luxury, 16,768,135 yen (i yen = 4*3 shillings, 

 about). 



^ See Salviati : "Annalen der Landvvirthschaft," vol. xxxix., pp. 35-72. 



