The development of the modern nation-state of Japan is based, in part, upon common belief in and support of a nationally organized political economy. Kokueki thought as developed in Japanese domains in the eighteenth century was the origin of such belief. The word kokueki, meaning “prosperity of the country,” was a neologism in eighteenth-century Japanese – the key term in a newly developing mercantilist economic thought and ideology (kokueki shisō) of many domainal states in Japan of the late Edo period. Because it was a protonational vision of economic organization, kokueki played a highly influential role in the creation and development of the Meiji period (1868–1911) nation-state of Japan, and continues to resonate in modern times.

As this book will demonstrate, kokueki thought played importantly in the latter half of the Edo period, justifying a great proliferation of domainal economic initiatives. Tokushima domain became a famous producer of indigo, Aizu domain of lacquerware, and Matsue domain of ginseng during the eighteenth century, all revealing a high degree of domain government involvement in the development of these industries under the bannerhead “Prosperity of the Country.” A key issue is that the “country” in each case referred to the domainal country (ryōgoku, okuni) and not to the whole of the Japanese archipelago. Japan was undergoing a process of linguistic and cultural unification in the Edo period, but the space of the archipelago included a collection of many states that were individually strengthening their nature as countries in the realm of economic policy.