Commerce and Currency
Kiga's economic system is based on the land tilled by farmers and protected by the samurai. The Emperor properly owns all land, yet leases it to the Shogun, who leases it to the clans, which
hereditarily lease it to their daimyō in turn. Given the limits of roads—often dangerous and unpaved affairs—many provinces become lawful lands unto themselves, where the daimyō acts as an extension of the Emperor over the peasants who work the rice paddies. It is rice—a vital crop that keeps the Emerald Empire alive— that provides much of Kiga’s wealth.
Barley, wheat, millet, soybeans, and rye are also common crops grown by farmers, but it is a yearly stipend of rice that forms the basis for currency in Kiga: koku. The clans able to harvest the most rice are among the wealthiest in the Empire, and therefore the most influential politically, but to directly conflate wealth with power would be an insult to the importance placed on honour and virtue in society.
Trade and commerce are indispensable for Kiga to thrive, but it is considered dishonourable
for samurai to involve themselves in such mercantile pursuits. Their primary concern should be with serving their lord, not personal enrichment, but virtue and reality can sometimes diverge. Nevertheless, to maintain a veneer of civility, samurai leave monetary matters to non-samurai, who in turn seek the patronage of a powerful lord.
This allows samurai to engage in trade and currency manipulation without sullying their honour with crass, uncouth avarice. Those few clans and families that flagrantly involve themselves in trade are looked down upon by the others, who see greed as incompatible with absolute loyalty.
Coins
Japanese coins aren't the same weight or shape as European ones.
- A) The MON were round copper coins, weighing 3.75 grams (0.14 ounce). The Mon was about an inch in diameter with a quarter-inch hole in the centre so it could be strung on a hemp string of 25, 100 or even 1000 coins. 25 Mon equalled 1 Bu.
- B) The BU was a thin rectangle of silver, with rounded corners (about 1"x1.5"), weighing 4.5 grams (0.16 ounce)
- C) The KOBAN was a thin sheet of gold, in the form of a rectangle with rounded corners (about 2"x3"), equalling 10 Bu. It weighed 18 grams (0.6 ounce).
- D) The OBAN was a similarly proportioned but larger sheet of gold which weighed 72 grams (2.5 ounces) and equalled four KOBAN, 40 Bu, or 1000 mon.
Peasants and fishermen bartered their crops and fishing catch for what they wanted. Other peasants sold their goods or services for coins or bartered them for things. Merchants, artisans, and outcasts bought and sold things for coins. Hermit priests lived off what they could find in the wilderness. Wandering priests and ronin samurai had to pick up coins by working or begging.
Temple Buddhist priests, Shrine Shinto Priests, Clan Samurai and Nobles were paid a fixed salary of bags of rice every harvest. They usually sold their allotment to a rice merchant in exchange for coins.
The Koku
A KOKU of rice is about 5 bushels and will feed an adult for a year. After a good rice harvest, the value of rice fell relative to the coins system and the nobles and samurai received less money by the merchant’s point of view. After a bad rice harvest, the value of rice rose, and the nobles and samurai received more money by the merchant’s point of view. The average value of a koku is 20 bu, but it might rise to 30 bu or fall to 13 bu.
