Shoji Kouki - Shoji Kouki

A businessman from the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was known by the nickname Shoji, and his pen names were Nangeki and Sekikei. He was born to a wealthy merchant family in Arita, Hizen (Saga prefecture). While he attempted industrial development projects on the ground, he also consulted historical and modern examples and academic theories, and wrote economic books such as "Hiroku of Economic Mondo" (1841), "Tenmei-roku" (1856), "Kajo Yodo" (Essential Path of Family Affairs) and "Samurai Seven Virtues" (1845). His theories contain some unorganized parts and aspects that follow conservative economic theories, but on the other hand, he considered merchants' free economic activity to be the basis of a wealthy country, and opposed the popular arguments of the time, such as samurai returning to farming, equalizing land use, limiting land use, and artificial restrictions on interest rates, and developed an economic theory that was not bound by the narrow-minded views of his contemporaries. For this reason, some people see in Koki's ideas the beginnings of Japanese bourgeois economic theory. His works are included in volumes 34, 35, and 36 of the Encyclopedia of Japanese Economy.

[Takao Shimazaki May 19, 2016]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

幕末の経世家。通称は正治、号は南鴃(なんげき)、碩渓(せきけい)。肥前（佐賀県）有田の富商の家に生まれる。実地に産業開発事業を試みる一方、古今の事例、学説を縦横に参照し、『経済問答秘録』（1841）『天明録』（1856成立）『家職要道』『武家七徳』（1845）などの経世書を著した。その所説には、未整理な部分や保守的経世論を踏襲した側面もあるが、一方で、考祺は商人の自由な経済活動を富国の基礎と考え、武士の帰農、均田、限田などの単純な平等論や金利の人為的制限などの当時流行の主張に反対し、同時代人の偏狭な見解にとらわれない経世論を展開した。このため考祺の思想に日本的ブルジョア経済論の萌芽(ほうが)を認める者もある。著作は『日本経済大典』34、35、36巻に所収されている。

［島崎隆夫　2016年5月19日］

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