Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa

This book explores the historical roots of economic nationalism within Japan. In a situation analogous to early modern Germany, Japan in the Edo period (1600-1867) was divided into over 230 realms, many of which developed into competitive states that struggled to reduce the dominance of the shogun’s economy. This study of the merchants of one such domain, Tosa, reveals how they developed mercantilist strategies to protect and invigorate their domain’s economy, and to support the public value of the merchant in a hostile Confucian world.