Tokugawa monetary system
Edo Denominations and Accounting Units
Ryō, bu, and shu are declared gold-accounting units; monme is a silver weight unit; mon counts cash.
江戸の貨幣単位Edo monetary units
- Core routes
- 14
- Issue studies
- 12
- Recoinage records
- 21
- Local status
- Published
Context
Historical and monetary setting
The system linked unlike valuation conventions through official conventions and market exchange rather than one decimal scale.
Identification
How to classify the object
Every numeric claim must state its unit, metal branch, rate type, and date context.
Evidence boundary
What this page does not claim
No historical unit is converted into one timeless modern purchasing-power figure.
Valuation
Accounting and exchange relationships
Fixed gold accounting, official cross-metal conventions, and market exchange are different evidence classes.
| Type | Period | Relationship | Boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| fixed-accounting-relationship | Tokugawa period | 1 ryo = 4 bu = 16 shu | This is an accounting relationship within declared-value gold, not a universal market exchange rate among all three metals. |
| official-convention | Early Tokugawa | 1 ryo = 50 monme silver = 4,000 mon copper | The Currency Museum presents this as an early official convention; actual exchange moved with market conditions. |
| official-convention | Eighteenth century | 1 ryo = 60 monme silver = 4,000 mon copper | An official convention used for explanation, not a promise that every transaction cleared at this rate. |
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Related Edo references
Evidence
Sources and scope
These links support the claims on this page. Source authority does not imply permission to republish source images.
Tri-metallic structure, 1 ryo = 4 bu = 16 shu, monme weight, and the distinction between official and market exchange.
Open source1601 Keicho gold and silver, 1636 Kanei Tsuho, recoinage sequence, and later denominated silver.
Open source