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Japan Economic Development
Economic development during the Tokugawa period
included
urbanization, more shipping of commodities, a significant
expansion
of domestic and, initially, foreign commerce, and a
diffusion of
trade and handicraft industries. By the mid-eighteenth
century, Edo
had a population of more than 1 million and Osaka and
Kyoto each
had more than 400,000 inhabitants. Many other castle towns
grew as
well. Osaka and Kyoto became busy trading and handicraft
production
centers, while Edo was the center for the supply of food
and
essential urban consumer goods. The construction trades
flourished,
along with banking facilities and merchant associations.
Increasingly, han authorities oversaw the rising
agricultural production and the spread of rural
handicrafts.
Data as of January 1994
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