Yongletongbao In The History Of Sino-Japanese Exchange (1408-1608)

Yongletongbao is a type of coin which has been minted in the time of Yongle emperor(Mingchengzu) in China. It has been circulated widely in the tribute system of Ming dynasty,which especially had a huge influence on Japan. So, the studying about Yongletongbao from theview of the history of Sino-Japanese exchange has a theoretical and practical significance. Basedon a briefly review about the correlational studies, the thesis is divided into four parts to discusssystematically about Yongletongbao in the history of sino-japanese exchange.Part one, the thesis mainly analyzes the reason why Yongletongbao was minted. Through areview on the monetary policy of the early Ming Dynasty, the thesis points out that the mainreason why Yongletongbao could be minted in the situation that the domestic circulation of coinshad been banned was from the need of promoting imperial prestige and sovereign authority byMing emperor. And then the thesis reviews the history that how the Chinese coins had been flownto Japan before the Ming Dynasty.Part two, the thesis mainly inspects the means from which Yongletongbao flowed into Japan. Itwas the Kango Trade that the main path from which Japanese got Yongletongbao. At the sametime, Japan also received a certain amount of Yongletongbao from the folk trade with China.Additionally, there was a part the total amount of Yongletongbao flowing into Japan indirectlyfrom An’nan, Ryukyu, Korea and other countries. After entering16thcentury, the Japanese folkbegan minting Yongletongbaos privately in order to meet the needs of Japanese monetary market.Part three, the thesis set four stages to analyze the process of spreading of Yongletongbao inJapan and the related economic phenomenon. In the early time, the Yongletongbao which hadflowing into Japan was not a preference for Japanese. On the contrary, it became the object forerizeni, the reason for which is that the poor credit of Yongletongbao spread into Japan as well.After the16thcentury, the evaluation of Yongletongbao in Japan got promotion due to the impact of some policies such as that the Muromachi shogunate encouraged the use of Yongletongbao,which was widely used as Seisen (good coin)in Japan. It is worth mentioning that Yongletongbaohas different evaluations throughout Japan from that it flowed into Japan on. In the late16thcentury, the difference about evaluation expanded rapidly. At that time, the status ofYongletongbao got decline in Japan Kinki and other western regions due to the competition ofsilver and other reasons. However, in the Kanto and other eastern regions, the status ofYongletongbao continued to rise and even become the Chouseisen(the best coin) in a certain time.Entering in the17th century, due to the Edo shogunate vigorously promote the native coins,Yongletongbao gradually withdrew from the Japanese currency market.Part four, the thesis makes a summary of the impact of Yongletongbao in Japan. The impactof Yongletongbao performed firstly in the promoting of the development of Japanesemonetary economy. Secondly, it has a profound effect on the monetary system ofJapan, a lot of coins in Japan are modeled on which to cast. Last but not least,Yongletongbao also had some certain influence on Japan’s cultural life that time.The part of final conclusion, based on the main conclusions obtaining fromsystematically summing up the thesis, it points out that it is Yongletongbao that theChinese currency which made the greatest impact on Japan in the history of sino-japaneseexchange.