A Study Of The Reform Of Choshu Clan Between Tenpo Period And Ansei Period

Choshu Clan is a strong domain in southwest Japan.It's the main power to promote Meiji Restoration.But at the beginning of Tenpo period,It has been tortured by severe financial shortage and peasant uprisings just like other clans.To break the difficult situation,It has started its own reform almost at the same time as the Tenpo reform of Tokugawa Shogunate.The main purpose of the reform is to reduce large amount of financial deficit and prevent the peasant uprisings to occur.But,behind this problem,it has a far more severe problem:the structural contradiction between the shogunate system and the feudal economy.The original intention of the reform is to restrain the peasant commodity economy and prevent the dividing of peasant stratum.But during the reform,due to the growth of peasant commodity economy,the reformer's intention to strengthen the control of production and contribution process was failed,and had to revise the reform route to adjust the developing of peasant commodity economy.This thesis will divide into three parts due to the period,and will mainly focus on the Tenpo and Ansei reforms.It will divide into three chapters to probe the changes of reform steps and the deep reasons of them.In the first chapter,I will focus on The Tenpo reform of Choshu Clan.The main target of The Tenpo reform is to reduce the large amount of financial deficit.To reduce the financial deficit,the reformers have to broaden sources of income and to reduce expenditure.By the way of invest by the clan itself to strengthen the trade connection with other clans,the Choshu Clan has made itself to be a merchant,to discover profits from other clans to reduce the exploitation to the farmers inside.Thus to soothe the farmers.And it had a lesson from the Tenpo Uprising,to relax the restriction of the production in the clan,although it still has so many restrictions.Due to the incomplete reform of monopoly system,with the developing of the peasant commodity economy,the contradiction between two part is getting sharper and sharper.The second chapter will discuss about the Koka/Kaei period between Tenpo and Ansei reforms.This is a relatively quiet period,but it doesn't mean the reform stopped.And because of the resistance suffered during the reform,the reformers started to divide into two parts,and the division soon became a political struggle that lead to the situation of that The Ansei reform was leaded by two parts in turn.The third chapter will discuss The Ansei reform of Choshu Clan.The Ansei reform is the second high tide after The Tenpo reform.The problems that left unsolved by The Tenpo reform was amplified during The Ansei reform and advanced forward by the two part's alternating promotion.The most difficult problem of the reform is the reform of monopoly system(which is largely due to the structural contradiction between feudal economy and peasant commodity economy),as the amendment of two parts,it has finally released the the restraint because of the development of the peasant commodity economy,so the commodity producers have more freedom at the production and distribution process.From the process of the reform of Choshu Clan,we can see the main purpose of the performers is to defend the feudal economy and shogunate system,then to try to alleviate the contradiction between the Clan and commodity producers under this premise.But with the development of peasant commodity economy,the feudal economy system has become a burden under shogunate system,and the peasant commodity economy prevailed during the completion with the feudal economy.lt has finally decided the direction of the reform of Choshu Clan and accelerated the collapse of shogunate system.