Tokugawa+Period+Economy+and+Society

The Tokugawa ruled over Japan from 1603 to 1868. This time was known as the "Great Peace." Some of the Tokugawa government rules and regulations regarded the four social classes- the samurai, farmers, artisians,and merchants. The Tokugawa government intentionally had created a social order called shinokosho. The samurai class was officially the highest social rank in the social class system. After the samurai came the peasants, then the merchants and artisians. But over time many samurai became poor. After time the daimyo and samurai were moved into castle towns. This changed Japan because of increased population and global change. As the castle towns were increasing greatly during the Tokugawa period trade became very common. By 1700 Edo's population had grown to 1 million making it one of the largest cities.



From the growing population in Japan during the Tokugawa period, the three lower classes such as artisians, farmers and merchants were benefiting from the growth. For farmers they were benefiting from more land being available for crop growing, their farming skills got better, and food production grew. As for artisians, cities were still expanding they were in need for skilled labor to build great castle towns and to maintain and build roads, bridges, and buildings. As samuari were becoming poor from the periods economic growth merchants were benefiting from it. Samurai had to exchange rice for cash with the merchants, who controlled the exchange. Samurai borrowed from merchants just to keep their upper class lifestyle that they couldn't even afford. Merchants grew wealthy selling their products.