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Servants, Shophands, and Laborers in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan
by Gary P. Leupp
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Princeton University Press (1992-06)
ISBN: 0691031398
EAN: 9780691031392
Dewy Decimal #: 305.5620952
Hardcover: 237 pages
SKU: S070611-n6077
Condition: Like New
Comments: Like new book. Like new condition. Ships same day or next in a bubble mailer. Enjoy,
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In this analysis of lower-class life in Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868), the author portrays the emergence of an urban proletariat during a time of extraordinary economic change. With the rapid increase in urban construction and commercial activity, hired labourers came to replace the traditional workers, while in households, contracted servants supplanted hereditary workers. The text demonstrates that in the same way that products previously restricted to use by the elite became commodities for mass consumption, labour power itself became a commodity: class relations were gradually mediated by money, and employers and employees dealt with each other on increasingly impersonal, if not hostile, terms. Attempting to control such trends, government officials regulated workers by fixing employment seasons, limiting job tenures, setting wages, and establishing labour exchanges, licensing systems and workhouses. The author points out many cases in which Tokugawa policies toward labour resembled those applied by early modern regimes in Europe. Based on population registers, household records, legal documents and popular literature, the book offers a social history of workers and employers alike.
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Customer Reviews
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Very, very detailed...
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-08-07
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is a much needed book for anybody interested in Japanese history. It gives a very detailed account of the policies of the ruling class while at the same time showing the development of the large cities and their free labour market. It shows that Japan already had a large unrban working class before the morden period. The author also gets into the social history and the beliefs that many of the ruling class had about servants during the same period.
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