Finance for everyday people in modern Japan : the case of a pawnbroker in Shiba ward in Tokyo(Finance for everyday people in modern Japan: the case of a pawnbroker in Shiba ward in Tokyo,PANEL DISCUSSION: 82nd annual conference)

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Other Title
  • 近代日本の庶民金融 : 東京市芝区T質店の研究(パネル 近代日本の都市庶民金融-東京市芝区T質店の研究-,第82回全国大会小特集)
  • 近代日本の庶民金融 : 東京市芝区T質店の研究
  • キンダイ ニホン ノ ショミン キンユウ : トウキョウシ シバク T シチミセ ノ ケンキュウ

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Abstract

In the field of modern Japanese financial history there are few publications on the organs of finance for everyday people, such as pawnbrokers, although there are many works on the activities of the Bank of Japan, city banks, and regional banks. Previous studies on pawnbrokers focus mainly on those located in the countryside or downtown (shitamachi) Tokyo. Most of the authors argue that the pawnbrokers charged exorbitantly high interest rates to poor people who were in straitened circumstances. To explore the reality of pawnbrokers' activities, we conducted a statistical analysis of pawnbrokers in the city of Tokyo, and a case study of a pawnbroker (Shop "T") in Shiba ward in the under-explored, near-central part of Tokyo. In our study, we used the pawn books and customers lists of 1915, 1925 and 1935. Our analysis reveals that the pawning reflected local people's lifestyle, and its change over time as their ways of living became more Westernized and they had more leisure time. Contrary to what previous works have argued, we find that pawnbrokers played an indispensable role in the daily lives of ordinary consumers by providing them with ready liquidity in small amounts in the short term by using real material objects for security.

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Details

  • CRID
    1390282680072371072
  • NII Article ID
    110009893091
  • NII Book ID
    AN00406090
  • DOI
    10.20624/sehs.80.3_291
  • ISSN
    24239283
    00380113
  • NDL BIB ID
    025937590
  • Text Lang
    ja
  • Data Source
    • JaLC
    • NDL
    • CiNii Articles
  • Abstract License Flag
    Disallowed

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