Banking Before Banks in Early Modern Japan: Buddhist Temple Finance

Matthew Mitchell ()
Additional contact information
Matthew Mitchell: High Point University

A chapter in Beyond Banks, 2025, pp 299-328 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In this chapter I provide an overview of lending in early modern Japan (1600–1868). Following this, I discuss three types of financial products offered by Buddhist temples and convents: direct loans, loans from endowments, and mutual financing associations. Throughout this, we see how Buddhist loans drew from and, if handled well, had the potential to strengthen existing connections between temples and others. If handled poorly, they could threaten these connections. We also see how Buddhist lending often mirrored loans offered by non-clerical sources. In other words, these loans were often a way of earning money for the temples (or in some cases, the non-clerical investors), and were not morally any different from other loans of the time in terms of lending practices or the potential recipients of loans.

Keywords: Buddhism; Japan; Mutual financing; Loans; Nuns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psitcp:978-3-031-75819-5_10

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783031758195

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-75819-5_10

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().