Japan's Sengoku Period: The Sanada Clan's Ambition

Chapter 64: Land Inspection (Part 2)
Nobuyuki Sanada nodded. "The servants will arrive in five days."

"That's good. Then I will begin mobilizing my people to start logging."

The fact that they can begin mobilizing the people proves that negotiations with all the villages in Takai County have been completed. It seems that Izuura Morikiyo is very efficient.

At this moment, Hirabayashi Masatsune stood up and said, "My lord, the land survey records for each village have been compiled. This is the final result. Please take a look."

"The stone tally has already been tallied?" Sanada Nobuyuki asked in disbelief, considering he hadn't even been gone for two days.

Hirabayashi Masahiro nodded. "Lord Izuura has already sent me the annual tribute accounts recorded by each village, and the statistics have now been completed."

Before leaving, Sanada Nobuyuki gave Hirabayashi Masatsune the task of presenting tribute to several temples in Takai County, which Hirabayashi Masatsune completed successfully in just one day.

Subsequently, Masahide Hirabayashi began assisting Yoshitada Kasugamoto in compiling statistics on the stone height of each village.

Izuura Morikiyo's men were all experts at gathering intelligence, and they quickly compiled the information about each village and sent it to Hirabayashi Masatsune.

Sanada Nobuyuki took the land survey ledger from Hirabayashi Masatsune and began to peruse it page by page, his head bowed. The ledger recorded the annual tribute paid by each village over the past three years, allowing him to compare the data and ensure its accuracy.

At the end, the land survey ledger showed the total annual tribute from Gaojing County: 17,423 shi (a unit of dry measure).

Nobuyuki Sanada immediately frowned.

It's low, and very low.

Upon seeing this, Hirabayashi Masahiro quickly said, "This only records the amount of annual tribute; other miscellaneous taxes such as Duanqian and Dongbieqian are not recorded."

Upon hearing this, Nobuyuki Sanada's expression softened slightly.

"How were the annual tributes collected in Takai County before?" Sanada Nobuyuki put down the land survey record and continued to ask.

Hirabayashi Masatsune quickly replied, "The annual tribute for Suda territory is 650 mon per field for paddy fields and 200 mon per field for dry land. The annual tribute for Takanashi territory is 680 mon per field for paddy fields and 220 mon per field for dry land."

If we convert the current rice price into koku, it's equivalent to the Suda family previously receiving nearly 4 koku per field per year as tribute, while the Takanashi family received slightly more, but only a little more.

After hearing Hirabayashi Masatsune's explanation, Sanada Nobuyuki was even more puzzled.

The Sanada family's annual tribute was 500 mon per field, which was roughly equivalent to a standard of six public officials and four private officials. The Takai district had previously collected over 600 mon, which was practically eight public officials and two private officials.

It's hard to imagine how the farmers in Takai County survived.

Despite such a high tax rate, only a little over 17,000 koku were collected. If we extrapolate from this, after deducting the temple and shrine territories, the actual total koku (total output) of Takai County would not exceed 30,000 koku.

Hirabayashi Masahiro understood where the problem lay, so he bluntly stated, "The villages below must be concealing a large amount of farmland. If we want to know the true land yield, we'll probably have to conduct a comprehensive land survey."

"However, this amount of work is not something our family can currently complete."

"Moreover, the farmers' resistance will be very high. They're newcomers."

"Alright." Sanada Nobuyuki waved his hand, not letting Hirabayashi Masatsune continue. "Let's put this aside for now and set this year's annual tribute accordingly."

The Sanada family currently lacks the capacity for large-scale land surveys. If they start recklessly wreaking havoc, the resulting widespread uprisings are not something Sanada Nobuyuki wants to see.

The Sanada family's top priority now is to quickly consolidate their newly acquired territory; everything else can wait until things are completely stable.

"However, when the Suda and Takanashi clans left, they didn't take away the annual tribute for the second half of the year, did they?" Sanada Nobuyuki asked uncertainly.

Fortunately, Hirabayashi Masatsune's answer did not disappoint Sanada Nobuyuki: "No, because the Oda clan's offensive was too fierce, the people of northern Shinano have not yet had time to collect their annual tribute for the second half of the year."

Sanada Nobuyuki breathed a sigh of relief. If the Suda and Takanashi families had been so inhumane as to take away the annual tribute for the second half of the year, Sanada Nobuyuki would have been left with nothing.

"Then the next step is to collect the annual tribute."

"Yes." Hirabayashi Masatane nodded, then continued, "What is the tax rate for our main family?"

“My father had previously ordered that taxes be levied on the family’s direct estates according to the rates of small counties: 500 cash per unit of paddy fields and 180 cash per unit of dry land.”

No sooner had Sanada Nobuyuki finished speaking than Kasuga Yoshitada, who was standing to the side, stood up.

Kasuga no Yoshitada looked at Sanada no Nobuyuki with a worried expression. "Lord Genzaburo, if we collect taxes in copper coins, I'm afraid..." "What? Is there a problem?" Sanada no Nobuyuki asked, puzzled.

Harumoto Tadashi and Hayashi Masahiro exchanged a glance and nodded in unison.

"Shinano is short of money," Kasuga no Yoshitada slowly uttered.

Nobuyuki Sanada was even more puzzled. "Do you need to tell me you're short of money? Who isn't?"

Seeing that Sanada Nobuyuki did not understand, Kasuga no Mototada further explained, "This money means copper coin. Copper coins are scarce in Shinano Province and most of them are bad coins."

So-called "bad money" refers to copper coins privately minted, which, due to issues with craftsmanship and being underweight, are far inferior to the widely recognized Yongle Tongbao.

That's right, Yongle Tongbao (including Song Dynasty coins) is the only officially recognized circulating currency in Japan.

Previously, Japan had no shortage of Yongle Tongbao coins. Through the Kanghe trade, Japan could transport large quantities of copper ore to the Ming Dynasty every year and then exchange them for a large number of high-quality copper coins to take back to Japan.

However, due to the interruption of the tally trade and the rampant presence of Japanese pirates along the Ming Dynasty's coast, very few high-quality copper coins flowed from the Ming Dynasty to Japan in the past few decades.

Many of them were privately cast by Japanese daimyo, or smuggled from merchants in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty (smuggled ones were also privately made).

In Kyushu and the western regions, merchants refused to settle accounts with copper coins and instead used silver for circulation.

"Because of the rampant use of counterfeit money, the price of rice fluctuates greatly. If the annual tribute is collected in copper coins, the people's losses will increase, and our family will also suffer losses."

Now Sanada Nobuyuki understood. It turned out there were more to it than met the eye; Sanada Nobuyuki had never encountered these things before and truly had no idea.

"How about we just levy taxes in grain?" Kasuga no Yoshitada immediately suggested.

Since there aren't enough copper coins in Shinano, it's better to collect grain directly than to collect a bunch of worthless coins.

In fact, the ancient trading method of "barter" was quite common in Japan during the Sengoku period, unless it involved large-scale trades that were settled in gold or silver.

“Then let’s levy 3 koku per reclaimed paddy field.” Sanada Nobuyuki estimated the levy rate for the Sanada family and finally set the levy amount for Takai District.

Kasuga no Minato nodded quickly, "I will immediately send someone to discuss the matter with the various villages."

The grain harvest is imminent, so it would be good to finalize the annual tribute quota as soon as possible to avoid any unforeseen complications.

Given the Sanada family's current control over Takai County, they have no way to delegate power to the individual villages and can only negotiate with the Sōmura village below them.

Somura collected the annual tribute according to the quota set by the Sanada family and then paid it to the Sanada family in one lump sum.

Now that the annual tribute issue has been temporarily resolved, there is another matter that is causing Sanada Nobuyuki an even bigger headache: military service.

Takai County is now essentially under the direct control of the Sanada family, so the military service for the entire county rests on the shoulders of Sanada Nobuyuki.

When the Sanada clan is about to engage in battle again, Sanada Nobuyuki will be in charge of mobilizing foot soldiers in Takai County.

Although most foot soldiers would prepare their own weapons and equipment, not every foot soldier's weapons and equipment met the requirements. Sanada Nobuyuki also had to prepare extra weapons and equipment to "lend" to these foot soldiers.

Weapons, equipment, bows and arrows, firearms, and the number of soldiers.
Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

　Foot soldiers: Foot soldiers are composed of civilians who undertake military service. Only farmers with a lot of land can become foot soldiers, because they need to prepare their own weapons and equipment. If you have little land, you won't have the money to buy them.

　　The recent chapters have all been about domestic affairs, which may be a bit dry.

　　However, Kira also hopes to use concise content to popularize the military service, knowledge and conduct of Japan's Sengoku period as much as possible.

　　However, since Kira is just a Japanese history enthusiast, he cannot guarantee that all the content is consistent with the historical facts at the time. If there are any errors, please forgive him and just consider it as a parallel world or the setting of this book.

　　If anyone has anything to add, please feel free to comment below. Kira isn't an expert in this area and is still learning.

　　thank you all.

　　Thank you for the donation from "Sun Jiying".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)