A 'Parallel and Contrast' study of Natural Environment and Resources Use in the Early Modern Villages : the utilisation of the fileds and commons in English and Japanese rural societies in the period of the Growth of the Market Econom

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This project is a 'parallel and contrast' study of the use of the natural environment and resources in early modern villages, in particular focusing on the utilisation of the fields and commons in English and Japanese rural societies in the period of the growth of the market economy. Recently economic historians have been paying more attention to the environment, against the background of the general increase in global interest in environmental issues. However, we have few empirical studies in on how the lands were actually used including the transformation of land (rice paddy), the clearance of the mountains for cultivation or the use of land in the mountains. Such development of the cultivated land is closely connected with the market economy, and it would be possible to make a comparison with English villages including Willingham, Cambs. where we have already established a comprehensive historical database, from the environmental view. This micro-study has therefore aimed to focus o … More n land usage in Kami-shiojiri, Ueda, Nagano. Having gained as many documents, maps, aerial photographs going back as far as possible, we have completed a database on land use and the social and economic history of the land as well as the commons as part of the landscape factors. In the eighteenth century, one third of the village's cultivated land was changed from rice paddies to mulberry fields. This seems to have been attributable to the development of the silk industries centerd on the silk worm eggs industry encouraged by the national market expansion of this period.As a result of the research project, the group has uncovered several collections of documents including the collection of documents, approximately 10,000 units of documents belonging to Mr.Ryuuichi Sato at Kami-shiojiri. The Satos have been considered the leading member of the village. Also we have found the almost unknown data set of the Kamishiojiri housings which had been compiled by Professor Kazuo Yamazaki's group at Kogakuin University.Currently, the group is preparing the publication of the 3 volumes of the monograph of Kami-shiojiri in English and Japanese. In addition to the monographs, we are comparing the English villages, in particular Willingham, from the various perspectives provided by the current research. Less