Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/176

 better remedy than the issue of debased coins. Hagiwara Shigehide, the minister responsible for the first resort to this device, held singularly drastic views. It was his contention that the copper coins struck at the mint were mere tokens, deriving their value solely from the official stamp they bore, and that they might as well be made of potter's clay as of metal if the former were sufficiently durable. By applying this doctrine tentatively to the gold and silver coins and boldly to the copper, he realised several millions for the replenishment of the treasury. But the evils inseparable from such abuses soon presented themselves: prices of commodities rose, and hoarding became the fashion of the time. Eleven years later (1706) the same method was again employed, and on the accession of Iyenobu to the Shogunate (1709), Shigehide made preparations to issue silver coins containing only twelve per cent of pure metal. Many circumstances combined to augment the economical difficulties of the administration. The state of poverty into which the samurai had fallen, owing to causes already stated, rendered them a menace to the public peace. In Yedo alone, at the close of the seventeenth century, 7,690 military men were almost without means of subsistence, and the authorities felt constrained to come to their aid. Natural calamities contributed to the embarrassment. In the year 1703 an earthquake shook down a large portion