Empirical analysis of the futures market during Edo period

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During the Edo period (1603-1867), Japan's market economy was as advanced as in the West at that time. The monetary economy expanded remarkably within the framework of the rice standard system, and the Dojima rice market at Osaka established during this period was said to have been the world's first, well organized futures market. Osaka had been long known as the "Kitchen of the Country" for its robust mercantile activities, ant it was also bustling with the rapidly growing business of money changing in the areas of finance and exchange. Credit institutions became firmly established, and the merchants of the day exhibited a great flair at their vocation by creating what could be called a prototype market economy. In a sense, the model for today's Japanese economy can be said to have originated in the Edo period. Futures transactions were contrived at the beginning of the Kyoho era (1716-1736) with the purpose of hedging price fluctuation risks. In the year 1730, the 8^<th> Shogun Tokug … More awa Yoshimune authorized futures transactions for rice, marketing the birth of the world's first futures exchange, the Dojima rice exchange, in Dojima, Osaka. This development was a spontaneous response to needs dictated by the economic environment at that time. Brokers at the exchange carried out both rice spot trading and rice futures trading. On payment of a margin in a specified quantity of silver, they were able to trade amounts 100 times their margin on the day of trading. The opportunities to speculate and hedge in the futures trading market attracted the merchants, whose favor fueled a remarkable expansion in the exchange. Eventually, the Dojima rice exchange of the Edo period became the world's fastest-developing commodity exchange with a futures trading system, clearly attesting to the resourcefulness of the Osaka merchants of the day. This projects empirically analyzed the futures market at the Dojima rice exchange and found some similarities between the Dojima rice exchange and the current securities futures market. Less