Population and economy of local towns in early modern Japan

本研究考察近代早期日本的经济和人口。我们将明治初期（1870年代和1880年代）纳入我们的范围，因为我们在明治时代之前没有全国性的人口统计，但在明治维新之后，政府进行了人口登记并公布了结果。我们首先可以得到城市人口的概况。在明治初期，日本还没有完全实现工业化和城市化，因此德川时代的频谱仍然存在。利用1884年的城市人口统计数据，可以得出该地区社会经济发展程度的秩-规模分布。卡罗尔·史密斯教授认为，如果人口的分布形式是头重脚轻的，那么政治权威就非常强大，一个或几个大城市在该地区占主导地位（城市首要地位）。若在对数图两侧呈直线分布，则社会经济发展明显（正态型）。如果分布接近平坦，则发展不够（过早型）。明治时期的日本，其形状是“正常的”。本研究利用近代日本早期城镇的微观数据，选取了以下四个城镇。郡山（武津省），2。Kiryu （Kozuke省），3；Okoshi （Owari省）和4。高冈（Harima省）。由于这些城镇具有当地的商业和工业特征，因此，当政治力量维持的大城市人口减少时，人口就会增加。但原始数据格式不统一，难以进行比较分析。有些城镇可以向我们提供人口指数的总体情况，但有些城镇只能提供移民情况。从整体上看，“城市墓地效应”并不强烈，但各城镇的人口增长都是由周边农村人口的大规模迁移带来的。

This study examines the economy and population in early modern Japan. We included the early Meiji period (1870s and 1880s) to our scope, since we have no national population statistics before Meiji era, but after the Meiji Restoration, the government carried out population registration and published the results. We can first obtain the general picture of urban population. In the early Meiji era, Japan was not entirely industrialized or urbanized, so that the spectrum of Tokugawa Era existed still. Utilizing the urban population statistics in 1884, we can draw the rank-size distribution, by which the degree of social and economic development of the area will be settled.Professor Carol Smith argued that if the shape of dotting of population was top-heavy, the political authority was very strong and one or a few large cities were predominant in the area (urban primacy). If the distribution takes a straight line on the both sides logarithms graph, the social and economic development was clear (normal type). If the distribution was nearly flat, the development was not enough (premature type). The Meiji Japan's case, the shape was ‘normal.',The study utilizing the micro data of towns in early modern Japan, we took following four towns.1.Koriyama (Mutsu Province), 2.Kiryu (Kozuke Province), 3.Okoshi (Owari Province), and 4.Takasago (Harima Province). As these towns had local commercial and industrial characteristics, the population grew when the population of large cities, which were maintained by political power, was declined. But the format of the original data was not common, it was difficult to analyze them comparatively. Some town can give us the general picture of the demographic indices but some one only migration. As a whole, the ‘urban graveyard effect' was not so strong, but population growth of each towns was brought from a large scale of migration from surrounding countryside.