The control and symbiosis of the regional environment in early modern society : a parallel and contrast study of two rural societies, one in England and one in Japan

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This research project has been engaged in the 'parallel and contrast' study of two rural societies, one in England and one in Japan, in the period of the formation of the market economy, in other words the early modern period. The study is based on two village societies namely Willingham, Cambs., U.K. and Kami-shiojiri, Ueda, Nagano, Japan. It comprehensively analyses, as well as contrasts and parallels, the changes in the ordinary daily productive activities and the development of the responses to extra-ordinary natural disasters such as famines and bad harvests. Work in each research field has shown that social and economic organisations revealed their communality at the everyday level and there are very similar features which unite all the different activities carried out in times of natural disaster. The famines and other disasters were severely affected the villagers and these results also reveal the responses of the landlords and governments to such overwhelming circumstances.