Source Criticism

Where Is That Written?

There is a copper coin.

Around the square hole, four characters.

Wadōkaichin.

Museum descriptions say '708.' It's a name seen in Japanese history textbooks. Thus, it seems to be a well-known coin.

However, it is not known how people at the time read these four characters.

Was it 'Wadō Kaichin'? Or 'Wadō Kaihō'?

The problem lies in the single character '珎' in the lower right. Its reading changes depending on whether it is interpreted as a variant of the character '珍' or as an abbreviation of '寳'. This has been a subject of debate since the Edo period, and it remains unresolved to this day.

No historical source that directly records the pronunciation at the time of issue has been confirmed so far.

Why it was not written down is also unknown. Perhaps it was so self-evident to people at the time that it needed no explanation. Or perhaps there was another reason.

What is important here is not to invent an answer.

What we can confirm is that four characters are inscribed, that the issuance of silver and copper coins was recorded in 708, and that no source directly confirming the pronunciation has been found. Beyond that, there are theories.

Textbooks write it as 'Kaichin'. However, this is not because it was definitively decided, but rather because it has come to be called that way without a final determination. There is even a theory that the two characters 'Wadō' do not come from the era name 'Wadō', but from an auspicious phrase signifying the harmony of yin and yang. The entire name has not been definitively established.

When reading history, do not lose sight of this boundary. This book is for that purpose.

There is another point about this coin where 'what is written' and 'what can be found out through investigation' diverge.

The official history 'Shoku Nihongi' records, with the date January 11, 708, that native copper for the raw material was presented from Chichibu in Musashi Province. To celebrate this presentation, the era name was changed to 'Wadō'. However, when the lead isotope ratios of existing Wadōkaichin coins—a kind of fingerprint specific to the origin of the lead contained in the metal—are measured, most match not Chichibu, but the Nagato Dōzan mine in Nagato Province (present-day Mine City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) or Kurameki in Suō Province.

This is not necessarily a contradiction. This is because 'the recording of a presentation' and 'the main source of copper used for mass minting' are fundamentally different questions. The official history records the presentation. The metal analysis indicates a different origin for the copper used in mass production. The two can be verified separately.

How much can we know about the past?

'Where is that written?' — Not many people can ask this question calmly. Source criticism is the art of making this one phrase a habit. Coins are a good practice ground for this. They last longer than writing, the issuing state's own claims are written on their surface, and the material itself provides testimony separate from documents.

The past does not survive intact

1-1 Burned, Rotted, Melted Down

Historical records have not come down to us by sitting quietly on library shelves. They have been burned in fires, rotted in floods, scattered in wars, and eaten by insects. For paper, wood slips, or parchment, surviving a thousand years is the exception.

In the case of coins, their disappearance is more active. They are melted down. Gold and silver coins have value in their material itself. It was common for old coins, coins of a previous king, or coins of a changed standard to be melted down and made into new currency. Coins were not made to be preserved for posterity. When they became old, they were collected, melted down, and remade into new coins. The history of currency is also a history reconstructed from the metal fragments that survived.

And yet, museums are filled with ancient coins. Most were not intentionally preserved. Hoards buried by owners who could not return for them. Cities sealed in volcanic ash. Cargo sunk at sea. Misfortune was the preservation device.

The survival of ancient coins is supported not by museums or royal collections, but by pots 'whose owners could not return.' In 2010 in the UK, 52,503 Roman coins were found in a single pot (the Frome Hoard). The pot does not tell us what happened to its owner.→ Stop on the Pound Voyage: 'The Frome Hoard'

And disappearance is not only due to 'accidents' but also 'executions.' The biography of a single silver coin tells us this.

In 42 BC, Brutus was defeated on the plains of Philippi and took his own life. The victors, Antony and Octavian, ordered the commemorative coins of their enemy to be melted down. To inscribe one's claims on a coin meant that if you lost, those claims would be melted down with it. The EID MAR is a world-renowned rarity today not because it is beautiful, but because it is a survivor that escaped execution.

1-2 The Bias of What Remains

Before we count the surviving historical sources, one point: there is a systematic bias in how things survive.

Only those who can write, can write. Considering literacy rates up to the Middle Ages, the writers of records were almost exclusively clergy, officials, and merchants. The lives of peasants, market prices, daily payments — activities that make up the bulk of history — are only preserved through the pens of 'the observers.'

Inconvenient things are erased. The records of the vanquished are edited by the victors. The melting down of the EID MAR is the numismatic version of this. The same thing happens with documents.

In China, it was institutionalized that 'the official history of a former dynasty is written by the next dynasty.' Official histories are almost always completed by the hands of those who overthrew that dynasty. When reading them, one first checks whose servant the writer was.

Only interesting things are copied. Before printing, books were preserved by hand-copying. Books not deemed worth copying had their lineage end there. Conversely, interesting stories, instructive tales, and stories convenient for those in power were repeatedly copied and proliferated. This is why a story passed down for two hundred years is not necessarily true. Ease of transmission and correctness are different qualities.

1-3 Coins as an Exception

In this sea of bias, coins occupy a slightly special position. There are three reasons for this.

First, they were made in large quantities. While there might be only one original of a decree, coins struck from the same die existed in the thousands or tens of thousands. Even after being melted down or buried, some would survive. That is why even 'executed coins' like the EID MAR could not be completely erased.

Second, they were inscribed by the issuers themselves. The inscriptions, portraits, and emblems on the surface are the primary claims that the state wanted to project at that time. They are not subject to later editing. Brutus's daggers and the 'Wadōkaichin' of Empress Genmei's court are frozen as the assertions of their time and place.

Third, the material speaks. The amount of silver contained can be determined by measurement, regardless of what the issuer claims. Just as the lead isotope ratios in the prologue pointed to the origin, metal is a witness independent of documents. Words can lie, but weight is harder to fake.

This is why this school reads history from actual coins. However, coins themselves are also subject to 'survivorship bias'. High-value coins, which are easily melted down, are less likely to survive, while those from areas where they were likely to be buried are more likely to survive. They are exceptionally good historical sources, but they are not unbiased sources. With this distinction in mind, let us proceed.

The Fuhonsen coin (c. 683) rewrote the textbooks with the 1998 excavation of the Asukaike archaeological site. After it had long been written that 'the first coin of Japan was the Wadōkaichin,' counter-evidence emerged from the ground. The sum of the surviving records is always provisional.

1-4 Coins and a Great Buddha from the Same Mountain — A Material History of Raw Materials

Let's confirm "what the materials tell us" with a Japanese example. As seen in the prologue, the lead isotope ratio of existing Wadōkaichin coins points to the Chōdo copper mine in Nagato. Numerous wooden slips recording the inflow and outflow of copper have been found at this mountain. This was a mine directly controlled by the state. Ledgers (primary documentary sources) and the lead "fingerprints" (physical evidence) have been unearthed together from the same mountain.

Copper from this mountain was also used for the casting of the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji, which began in 746. This means that the coins of the capital and the Great Buddha of Nara were extracted from the same mountain. The 'Tōdai-ji Yōroku' records the materials used: 739,560 kin of refined copper and a little over 10,400 ryō of refined gold. It is said that a total of over 2,600,000 people were mobilized for the project. There is also an estimate that puts the construction cost at the time of its founding at approximately 465.7 billion yen in today's value.

2.6 million people in total, in an age when a day's wage was between one and ten mon. This was not a scale that could be paid in coins. To bring that copper to the surface, there was the labor of people called Shichō, who wielded chisels in narrow tunnels lit only by torches.

In the 9th century, the copper in coins decreased while the lead began to increase. The same phenomenon as the fineness curve of the Denarius (Diagram H-1) can be read from the material side of Japanese coins. This was the material reason why the coins subsequently shrank. Even if documents are silent, the metal speaks. The two currencies of East and West testify in the same way.Source: Zeni no Kōro, "The Copper that Cast the Great Buddha" and "Chōdo Copper Mine" stops.

Primary and Secondary Sources — Measuring the Distance

2-1 Sources Have "Distance"

In the previous chapter, we saw that the remaining sources are biased. The next question is directed at a single source in hand: How far from the event was this written?

Ledgers, laws, and letters written on the spot, and the struck coins themselves—these are called primary sources. Things that are collected and later reconstructed by someone else—official histories, chronicles, research papers—are secondary sources. Furthermore, textbooks and general surveys that compile secondary sources can be counted as tertiary.

A primary source is material created close to the time and event, without the intermediary step of later summary or reconstruction. "Close" does not mean "correct." The way it is distorted is different from that of secondary sources. A ledger from the scene may have errors, a letter may be written to suit the author, and it will contain the creator's intentions, selections, exaggerations, and misinterpretations. Secondary sources, while organized and easy to read, have been subjected to later selection and summary. Primary and secondary are not a distinction between "right/wrong," but a difference in the type of distortion.

The "Shoku Nihongi" from the prologue was such a case. The official history that records the 708 offering is not a memo from the scene of the event, but a book later compiled by the state. To compile is to select. Someone decided what to write and what not to write. To measure the distance is to not forget that "someone."

2-2 Reservations — The "Mark of Confidence" Left by the Writer

When reading secondary sources, there are reliable signs to look for. A sincere writer, when not certain, will leave such marks in the text. These are called reservations. In this textbook, we will divide them into six types. This classification is for convenience and is not exhaustive.

Here is an example. In this school's teaching materials on the Mongol invasions, it says:

The soldiers are said to have numbered between approximately twenty-seven thousand and forty thousand, and the ships approximately nine hundred. The numbers differ depending on the historical source.

Within one sentence, there is an estimate (approximately, range), a tradition (it is said), and various theories (differ) all at once. The writer is making a triple reservation. The moment this is rewritten as "about 30,000 soldiers invaded," all three marks disappear. Summarizing is often the deletion of reservations.

A number with a range is not necessarily a weak number. A range may remain as a result of writing down the extent of what is unknown. Conversely, a sentence that carries a single number with an air of certainty is all the more worth checking its source.

2-3 Quick Reference for Phrasing — The Ending is a Contract

Reservations reside in the endings of sentences. The ending of a historical text is not a mere decoration; it is a contract of certainty that the writer makes with the reader. Here is a single sheet that matches the expressions actually used in this textbook to their corresponding types.

And on top of these six types, there are four levels of certainty that this textbook uses throughout all chapters.

2-4 Reading the Textbook to the End, Counting the Reservations

Let's read the rest of the textbook on the Mongol invasions, marking the reservations. The morning after the Bun'ei War, the Mongol army had vanished from Hakata Bay. The *Hachiman Gudōkun* writes that they disappeared overnight. Let's apply the ruler of distance. This document was compiled in the first half of the 14th century, several decades after the event, by a temple to convey the power of its deity. There is distance, and moreover, a motive for writing. The tenth month of the old calendar is past the typhoon season, and current research gives more weight to the depletion of provisions and arrows, conflicts in command, and the danger of crossing the winter sea as reasons for their withdrawal.

What about the Kōan War seven years later? The textbook states that the Eastern Route Army had approximately 40,000 men and 900 ships, and the Jiangnan Army had approximately 100,000 men and 3,500 ships, for a total of 'approximately 140,000 men and 4,400 ships, it is said,' and immediately follows with the reservation, 'There is also the view that these numbers are inflated, and there are various theories.' Numbers, tradition, various theories. As you read while marking, a single paragraph breaks down into 'verified parts' and 'handed-down parts'.

2-5 Sources from Above, Sources from Below

The ruler of distance has another scale: height. Historical sources on currency are usually written from above. Royal edicts, mint ledgers, chronicles — these are the records of the issuing and collecting sides.

However, from the mud of Novgorod (Russia), letters carved on birch bark from about nine hundred years ago have been unearthed. What is written are demands for the return of borrowed items. Demands for payment. Records of what was bought for how much. Distribution of inheritance. Private letters, and children's doodles. These are records of currency, addressed from a nameless person to another nameless person. The writing is blunt, getting straight to the point with little greeting — a nine-hundred-year-old dunning letter is written in almost the same way as a modern one.

Sources from above tell of the system, while sources from below tell of daily life. Even if both are 'primary sources,' the history they reveal is completely different depending on the height from which they were written. A monetary history written solely from royal edicts is a monetary history without the people who used the money.Source: Stop on The Sea Route of the Louvre: 'Letters in the Mud'

2-6 Until It Reaches You — The Chain of Information Becoming History

Finally, let's extend the ruler of distance to the present day. The chain of events until they reach your eyes, when laid out, looks like this.

2-7 Coinage as a 'Primary Source Object'

On this ruler of distance, coinage stands in a unique place. This is because coins are not things that 'recorded' events, but are participants that were made within events and drove those events.

The Wadōkaichin of 708 is an object of 708, cast in 708 by the court of 708 (Japanese coins are cast, not struck — made by pouring molten copper into a mold). There is no compilation from ninety years later, nor any scribal errors. The EID MAR is a political statement in its original form, issued by the assassin himself the year after the assassination. If a primary written source is 'eyewitness testimony,' then a coin is 'physical evidence from the scene.' This difference will be the theme of the next chapter. How much can physical evidence tell us?

What Can a Single Coin Tell Us?

3-1 Reading This One Coin — The Pillar Dollar

Let's take one coin from the database of actual objects for this course. It is an 8 reales silver coin minted in 1768 in Potosí (present-day Bolivia). This is the silver coin that crossed the oceans during the Age of Discovery, which people called the 'pillar dollar' (columnario). We will examine it in numerical order.

The reeding on the edge is not a decoration, but a security device. The reeding on modern coins is a remnant of the 300-year-old battle against thieves who clipped cob coins.

3-2 What can be 'said' from this one coin

We convert observations into testimony. There is much that this single coin can tell us on its own.

Technological testimony. A perfect circle, uniform thickness, impressions from machine striking. Decrees in 1728 and 1730 ordered colonial mints to transition to machine striking, and in 1732 the Mexico City Mint struck the first pillar dollar — the very 'regularity' of this coin is physical evidence that this technology transfer reached Potosí.

Economic testimony. Silver with a standard weight of 27.06 grams. This served as the standard currency across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1792, the newly independent United States, through the Coinage Act, based its own dollar on the 'Spanish milled dollar then in circulation'. This silver coin was the standard for the American dollar.

Political testimony. The inscription VTRAQUE VNUM and the two hemispheres. How the colonial empire wanted to present itself — a primary self-declaration, solidified without editing.

3-3 What cannot be 'said' from this one coin

At the end of the observation, we make a list of what cannot be said. Up to this point is what is called observation in source criticism.

A single coin speaks of technology, standards, and self-declaration, and is silent about motivation, provenance, and reception. Carry both the breadth of what it can say and the breadth of its silence at the same time. This is how to handle physical evidence.

Let's practice turning observations into judgments in a table. There are three judgments: can be confirmed from the actual object / requires external sources / cannot be said from this individual piece alone.

The silver coin called the 'Spanish dollar' that became the standard for the American dollar, and the 'pillar dollar' told from the side of the Potosí mines, are one and the same piece. Depending on which shore you view it from, the same physical evidence becomes the protagonist of a different story.

3-4 Applying the same procedure to another coin — Reading the Wadōkaichin

A procedure is a tool only if it can be transferred. Let's apply the same steps ①-⑦ to the Wadōkaichin from the prologue.

① Inscription. The four characters "Wadōkaichin" are arranged top, right, bottom, left. ② The controversial character. The character *Chin* at the bottom right — is it a variant of the character for "rare", or an abbreviation for "treasure"? (Prologue). ③ Hole. A square hole in the center. This is a definite observation, but we cannot say why it is square from this single coin — this goes in the "what cannot be said" column. ④ Manufacture. Whereas the Pillar Dollar was machine-struck, this coin was cast — a method where copper is poured into a mold. ⑤ Dimensions. Diameter approx. 24 mm. ⑥ Edge. There is no reeding. Edge lettering as an anti-counterfeiting technique was invented a thousand years after this coin. ⑦ Material. Copper — and as we saw in Chapter 1, its lead isotope ratio tells of its origin.

What becomes clear when they are placed side by side is that although the framework for observation is the same, the fields that are filled and those that are left empty differ for each coin. The pillar dollar has extensive entries in the fields for standards and technology, while the Wadōkaichin has extensive entries for materials and silence. The empty fields are not failures. They are a map of the 'yet-to-be-investigated areas' of that coin.

Questioning numbers — Trust the order of magnitude, not the last digit

4-1 Measured numbers and estimated numbers

Let's start with an example. An English silver penny. The standard of 1247 was: weight 1.446 grams, fineness 0.925. The resulting pure silver is 1.337 grams. These are the specifications written in the mint accounts, and are measured numbers that can be verified with a scale (the 417.6 grains = 27.06 grams of the pillar dollar from the previous chapter are in the same category). This much is verifiable.

On the other hand, a figure like 'the mintage for this year was approximately three million coins' is usually an estimated number. The surviving record might be something like 'the total amount of silver input'. The number of coins is then calculated by dividing that total by the weight per coin. If the total amount before division is an estimate, then the resulting number of coins is also an estimate.

This is how you should read it. Trust the order of magnitude, not the last digits. 'Three million coins' should be read as 'not hundreds of thousands, nor tens of millions'. Even if it is written as '3,024,000 coins', you must separately verify whether the final 'four thousand' is meaningful. However, 'trust the order of magnitude, not the last digits' is an initial habit for questioning a number's precision, not a rule. Sometimes the order of magnitude itself depends on an estimation.

4-2 Four types of ranges

Historical numbers have at least four types of ranges. We will list them with actual examples from this school's materials. This is not an exhaustive list of four, but rather recurring types.

Range of conversion. The copper for the Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji is recorded in the "Tōdai-ji Yōroku" as "739,560 kin of refined copper." This number, written out to the last kin, has the appearance of precision. However, when converted to modern units, it can only be stated as "approximately 500 tons," and moreover, this is the total amount used in casting, not the weight of the statue itself. The case of gold is even more extreme. The record states "a little over 10,400 ryō of refined gold"—there are theories of a "small ryō" and a "large ryō" for conversion, leading to a range from about 150 kilograms to about 440 kilograms, a difference of more than double. Even if the record is precise, the conversion creates a range.

Range in records. The gold recovered from the ruins of Osaka Castle is recorded as both 18,000 and 28,060 pieces. This range will be the main topic of Chapter 6.

Range in aggregation. Keishitsu Teisei, who calculated the military expenses of the Satsuma Rebellion as just over 41,560,000 yen, himself added the disclaimer that 'this figure varies considerably depending on the source material.' The total changes depending on the method of aggregation. The person who did the counting knew this best, which is likely why he could state the range.

Range in dates. No contemporary minting records survive for the dinheiro, the first coin struck by the Kingdom of Portugal. The period can only be inferred from the inscriptions on extant coins. While some sources state 1128, the prevailing view is that it was after 1179, when papal recognition was received. The textbook states it this way. Not settling on a single year is closer to the facts. The only certainty is that silver was struck in the king's name. Sometimes, even dates should be held as a range.Source: Escudo's Voyage, 'From County to Kingdom' stop

Ranges are not just a matter of old records. They also exist in modern research. How much silver from the New World ultimately flowed into China? Some studies suggest around one-third, while other researchers believe it exceeded 40%, leaving a significant range in the figures even today. Nevertheless, the textbook states what can be asserted outside this range: the overall direction was singular—the world's silver flowed towards China. Differentiating between the numbers within the range and the conclusion outside the range is a fundamental stance when reading research.Source: Peso's Voyage, 'Chop Marks' stop

A number with a range is not necessarily a weak number. A range may remain as a result of stating the extent of what is unknown. Someone who knows only a single number carries it without knowing the range. There is one rule for reading: quote numbers with ranges as they are, and for numbers where the range has disappeared, ask 'who erased it?'

'739,560 kin'—a precise number written to the last digit becomes 'approximately 500 tons' the moment it is converted. Precision can only exist within its unit. A number that crosses units carries a range with it.

4-3 Graphs are also edited representations

A skeptical eye for numbers should also be turned to graphs. This is because a graph is a 'way of showing' numbers, and different impressions can be created from the same data. We will draw the fineness of the denarius from Diagram H-1 (from the 90% range down to around 50%) using two different axes.

4-4 Numbers come alive through ratios

Let's add one more basic principle for reading numbers. The absolute value of historical monetary amounts does not connect with meaning for modern readers. Hearing 'military expenses of 41,560,000 yen' doesn't tell us if it's high or low. Ratios create meaning. In the same paragraph, the textbook adds that the government's tax revenue around the same time was approximately 48,000,000 yen. The civil war, lasting just over half a year, consumed nearly 90% of tax revenue. The moment they become a ratio, the numbers begin to have meaning.

The same applies to the 'total of 2.6 million people' mobilized for the Great Buddha. This number comes to life only when placed against the yardstick of 'a world where a day's wage was one to ten mon.' It was not a scale that could be paid in cash coins. This national project operated outside the cash coin economy. A number in isolation is a fragment of fact; it becomes testimony only when it finds something to be compared with.

How to Read What Is 'Not Written' — Three Entry Points for Reading Silence

First, let's pause at the entrance. When we say 'there are no records,' three different states are mixed together. Was it never written down in the first place? Was it written but lost? Or has it simply not been found yet?

This chapter deals with how to read the silence of what was not written. It is impossible to exhaustively classify silence into three types. The reasons for not writing are endless: it was forbidden, the medium was different, only oral tradition remains, and so on. Here, we will take up three ways of reading that repeatedly appear in monetary history.

5-1 The 'Absence' of the Self-Evident

The reading of Wadōkaichin is not written in the official histories. It is possible that for the people of that time, the reading was too obvious to require explanation. As we saw in the prologue, this too is speculation. However, if a certain silence is truly 'due to being self-evident,' then we can read the common sense of the time from it. What was so commonplace that no one bothered to write it down is precisely the atmosphere of that era. We can only conclude that it was 'self-evident' when other reasons, such as intention or loss, have been eliminated.

5-2 The 'Absence' of Intention

The United States Constitution was silent on the federal government's own issuance of paper money. It was not an oversight. This silence is not a void, but a space for future generations to contest. Even in what is not written, there is an author.

In fiscal history, there is a textbook case of this type. In February 1781, the French Director-General of Finance, Necker, published his financial report to the king. It was the first document in French history to publicly disclose the royal finances. The report stated a surplus, with ordinary revenue exceeding expenditure by over ten million livres. Twenty thousand copies were printed and sold out in a few weeks.

However, there was a trick to this surplus. The report only listed the current accounts, leaving out extraordinary expenditures like war costs. The debt from the American war was hidden in that blank space. The illusion that 'the finances are sound' made the subsequent collapse all the more dramatic. The conclusion of this textbook is also the conclusion of this chapter. The unlisted extraordinary column was the most eloquent. One should not only verify what is written. The question to ask is, 'What accounts are not listed in this table?'Source: Franc's Voyage, 'Louis XVI and the Reformers' stop

Coins also have intentional silences. A state that debased its coinage through recoinage did not inscribe this fact in the legend. Even when the silver content of the denarius dropped from ninety to fifty percent, the emperor's face on the obverse remained, and the coin stayed a white, silvery color. Among the things not inscribed are the things they most wanted to hide.

5-3 The 'Absence' from Lack of Means

The third is when there is no way to verify it. Why are the personifications on coins female? Neither this textbook nor this school has an answer that can be verified. The proper approach in this case is not to fill the gap with imagination, but to state that 'we do not have an answer.'

A state that reduced the silver in its coinage through recoinage does not inscribe this on the coin. The face of a coin is a 'list of things to say,' and at the same time, if you flip it over, it is also an 'absence list of things they didn't want to say.'

If different people write about the same event — The gold of Osaka Castle

6-1 Accounting for Gold in the Ruins

On May 8, 1615, Osaka Castle fell. Gold and silver were dug up from the ruins of the burnt storehouses. From this point, the records diverge. One account states 18,000 gold pieces and 24,000 silver pieces, while another claims 28,060 gold pieces. This school's teaching materials present both accounts side-by-side, without deciding between them.

One is tempted to ask, 'Which one is correct?' The answer from the perspective of source criticism is, first of all, not to decide. Having two records side-by-side is a far more fortunate situation than having only one. If there were only one, there would not even be a clue to doubt it.

The cause of the discrepancy is not just lies. The timing of the count was different (the excavation continued for many days). The scope of the count was different (was it only gold, or were bankin and koban counted separately?). The position of the counter was different (was it the side that recovered the treasure, or was it hearsay?). By closely examining the nature of the range, one can narrow down the possible reasons for the discrepancy.

6-2 Establishing a Different System of Measurement

There is a yardstick to verify this incident: the 'Ledger of Gold and Silver Received at the Kunōzan Treasury', created in the following year, 1616, upon the death of Ieyasu. This is not hearsay, but a practical document of the handover. It states a total of 1,931,150 ryō in gold and silver. It says that this was divided among the Gosanke and Hidetada, and the remainder was deposited in the treasury at Kunōzan.

The numbers from the burnt ruins of Osaka (records including hearsay) and the numbers from the Tokugawa treasury (practical receipt books). Two historical sources of different origins illuminate the scale of gold and silver of the same period from different angles. Even among primary sources, ledgers and chronicles have different characteristics. This is a situation where we use the 'distance' ruler from Chapter 2.

The Toyotomi exchanged gold for soldiers and lost; the Tokugawa exchanged gold for institutions and endured.— From the “Price of the Realm” stop, The Course of Coin

6-3 Dissecting a Legend

This incident has another embellishment that makes it suitable for a textbook: the story that 'the gold from Osaka Castle was transported to the Tada silver mine, where it lies dormant as a hidden treasure.' The textbook debunks this in a single line. This story relies on a document from the early Shōwa period and lacks supporting evidence.

A document that appeared 300 years later is, by the measure of distance from Chapter 2, a far-distant tertiary source. This is a living specimen of 'How Popular Beliefs Grow', which we will see in Chapter 7.

The source of the legend of buried treasure at Osaka Castle is not even from the Edo period, but a document from the early Shōwa era. Legends can be newly born even 300 years after an event. An “old story” is not necessarily an old record.

The four vessels are not competing to determine 'which one is correct'. It is about discerning what kind of source each one is, and what can be learned from it. That is what it means to 'read' them.

6-4 Collating the “it is said that” accounts — Shinzei's constructions

The object of cross-referencing is not limited to numbers. A person's reputation can also be cross-referenced.

In the second year of the Hōgen era (1157), Shinzei, a close retainer of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, began the reconstruction of the burnt palace. The textbook states the following: Shinzei was skilled in arithmetic. It is said that he personally calculated the expenses, allocated them to the various provinces, and completed the reconstruction in less than a year. The sentence ends with 'it is said'.

Then the textbook immediately applies a yardstick. Recent research suggests that what was rebuilt at this time was a limited area centered on the Chōdō-in and Suzakumon, in order to be ready for Emperor Nijō's enthronement ceremony the following year. The entire palace was not reconstructed. The reputation of a “genius who rebuilt the palace in less than a year” reverts to that of a life-sized “excellent administrator” once one learns of the limited scope and the deadline.

Tales of competence grow even after the person's death. Trimming away the grown parts is not to belittle the person. It is to restore the outline of what was actually done.Source: “Coin, Comes Again” stop, The Course of Coin

How do famous explanations become “common knowledge”?

7-1 “Money Arose from Barter”

This is an explanation that usually appears in the first few pages of economics textbooks. The first person to write this theory was Adam Smith (1776, “The Wealth of Nations”), and he cited no historical sources. When we open the oldest records, we do not find a society of barter. What we find are temple ledgers, records of debt inscribed on clay tablets detailing who owed how much to whom.

For two hundred years, this theory was repeatedly cited. Each time it was cited, it seemed to become more certain. However, citation is not verification. Even if a hundred people cite it, if the primary sources do not increase, the basis remains the same as it was at the beginning. Anthropology has also provided verification that “no example of a pure barter economy has ever been described” (Humphrey, 1985).

What we must be careful about is not to declare that 'therefore, barter did not exist.' That is jumping to the opposite conclusion. All we can say is that no primary sources have been found to support this theory, and that is all.

7-2 'Bad money drives out good'

Gresham's Law. However, Gresham himself never wrote down this formula in this form. It was the economist Macleod who gave it its name three hundred years later, in 1858. Moreover, the law itself does not always hold true; there are conditions under which it applies.

Verifying a famous quote is a separate task from verifying its content. 'Did bad money actually cause good money to be hidden?' is a historical question. 'Did Gresham say so?' is a question of origin. Many popular fallacies collapse on the latter.

Moreover, if you dig deeper, more will emerge. Precedents for the same observation can be found in the works of Oresme in the 14th century and Copernicus in the 16th century. The phenomenon has existed for a long time, but the name came much later. The textbook captures this inversion in a single line.

The name of the law is also like a coin that was reminted in a later age.— From the 'Gresham and Recoinage' stop on the Pound Sterling course

7-3 'Coinage is that which is made by the state; even if it were made of rubble...'

This is known as a famous quote by Ogiwara Shigehide, the finance commissioner who planned the Genroku recoinage. It is recorded in an anonymous book called 'San'ō Gaiki,' and there is no way to confirm if he actually said it. Another example: many of the anecdotes from the tulip mania, such as 'a single bulb for a house,' were not from transaction records but were rumors originating from moralizing pamphlets printed immediately after the crash.

The tulip anecdote even shows us the manufacturing process of a popular fallacy. What was printed immediately after the crash were moralizing pamphlets warning against speculation. Morals require extreme examples. 'A single bulb for a house' was a rumor that arose and spread not from transaction ledgers, but from the demand for such a moral. Stories grow in the direction of those who need them. This is the driving force behind how popular fallacies develop (Diagram G-10).

Just to be clear, this does not mean the stories themselves are false. Ogiwara did in fact carry out the recoinage, bad money did in fact cause good money to be hidden, and the price of bulbs did in fact go wild. What is weak is not the events, but the origin of the words.

7-4 Questioning 'the first person who said it'

The archaeology of a name has a sequel. Even if you strip away the naming and return to the person themselves, that person may not be the first.

In 16th-century France, there was a debate over soaring prices. In 1566, Malestroit argued that 'the price increase is merely apparent—it is only that the metal in the livre has been reduced.' In 1568, the jurist Jean Bodin countered that 'the main cause lies in the abundance of gold and silver flowing in from the Americas.' This is often described as the moment that first linked the quantity of money to the price level, the seed of the later quantity theory of money. The textbook immediately adds a line: Bodin was not the first in the world. A Spanish scholar had stated almost the same thing twelve years earlier.

Just as Oresme and Copernicus came before Gresham, a Spanish scholar came before Bodin. The title of 'the first person who said it' recedes further back each time you dig. Let's add a fourth item to our checklist: Who wrote it? Did the person themselves write it? When did it develop? And was there anyone before them?Source: 'The Silver Century and the Price Revolution' stop on the Franc course

It was an economist, about three hundred years after Gresham's death, who named 'Gresham's Law.' Famous quotes are often delivered to the person after their death.

How to check for yourself — Four habits

8-1 Look up

When you encounter a word you don't know, look it up in the dictionary (glossary) on the spot. If you read about recoinage without a clear distinction between fineness and weight, you will not see the difference between 'reducing the gold content' and 'making the coin lighter'. The precision of the words directly translates to the precision of your understanding. The denarius fineness curve in Chapter 1 and the 27.06 grams in Chapter 3 were both based on the distinction between these two words.

You can try the search right here. For example, 'touchstone' — if you enter a word you're interested in into this school's cross-catalogue search, you will get a list of all occurrences of that word from the texts of all the school's voyages, over three thousand stops. How the same word is used in different eras and different countries is displayed on a single screen — looking up a word and collecting usage examples are done at the same time.

8-2 Cross-reference

After reading one account, cross-reference it with information from a different line of evidence. After reading a document, look at the actual object (Object Database). After looking at the object, return to the document. This is a repetition of what we did with the Wadōkaichin in Chapter 1: the official historical account, the actual coins, and the lead isotope ratios. No matter how much you read within a single line of evidence, you are only listening to the same testimony over and over. A cross-check only occurs when you switch to a different line of evidence.

8-3 Mark

As you read, use different marks for assertions and for reservations. When you find the six types of reservations from Chapter 2, such as 'it is said that...', 'approximately', or 'there are various theories', mark them. People who read with marks and those who read without them take away information in different forms from the same book. Those who don't mark take away a 'string of facts' with the reservations stripped away. As we saw in Chapter 7, the place where reservations are stripped away is the very birthplace of popular fallacies.

8-4 Write

Finally, write. When you try to rewrite what you think you've understood from reading in your own words, your hand may stop where your understanding is vague. This hesitation is quite useful, because the place where you stopped is the next thing you need to investigate. In each subject at this school, there are 'six questions' that cannot be graded by a machine. These are questions where you don't choose an answer, but answer in your own words.

To 'writing', let's add one rule: document the scope of your research. There is no exhaustive way to check prior work. You might read ten sources, and the eleventh could say the same thing. All we can do is record 'how far we have searched'. But if you don't record it, the next person will dig in the same spot. The list of sources at the end of this textbook is not for decoration; it is a demonstration of this practice.

8-5 And, Don't Forget the Actual Objects

The four habits are all tasks involving text. Finally, let's add one step that goes beyond text: looking at the actual objects. If possible, holding them in your hand.

Books tell history, ruins show history. But coins—they let you hold history in the palm of your hand.— From Currency's Voyage, 'Biography of a Single Coin' stop

Coins were not made for decoration. They are tools that have actually passed from hand to hand as someone's salary, as someone's payment. This school's database of actual objects contains photographs of the coins you have read about in the text. Reconfirming with the actual object what you have confirmed in writing—this is the daily practice of what we learned in Chapter 1: 'documents and objects are separate witnesses'.

To hold on to what is unknown, as it is

Let's return to the question from the prologue. Is Wadō-kaichin read 'wadō-kaichin' or 'wadō-kaihō'? Now that you have read this textbook to the end, has an answer emerged?

It has not. And that is fine.

In terms of the types of reservations from Chapter 2, this is classified as 'alternative theories exist', and it will remain so unless a decisive historical source appears. What we were able to do was: ① confirm why it is unknown (no surviving sources directly confirm the reading—and the reason for that is also unknown), ② list what evidence each theory is based on, and ③ consider what kind of source would be needed to settle the matter.

To doubt is not to deny. There is a wide middle ground between 'unconfirmed' and 'false'. The first trap that people new to source criticism fall into is to leap over this middle ground and cast everything to the 'false' side. That is as crude a reading as believing everything.

Trained doubt works like this: when you see an assertion, you ask for its basis. If the basis is weak, you don't discard the conclusion, but rather change its certainty label and hold onto it. 'Confirmed facts', 'Prevailing theories', 'Alternative theories', 'Unknowns'. The four labels this textbook has used in every chapter were tools for this purpose.

To hold on to what is unknown in its precise form, without resolving it. This means enduring the discomfort of being in limbo. But because there were people who accurately preserved this uncertainty, the question was still alive when a new measuring stick called lead isotope ratio analysis arrived.

There is a place where the textbook demonstrates this attitude directly. In the monetary history of India, a weight of 3.4 grams appears twice, separated by two thousand years—why? The textbook, knowing it would be neat to write 'a tradition was passed down', closes the chapter without writing it, because there are no records to support it.

The outline of what is unknown can only be drawn on the outside of what is known.— From Rupee's Voyage, 'A Rare Coin' stop

How the Wadō-kaichin was read is still unknown.

Therefore, this question is not over.

If a new historical source is found, the answer might change. If not, it may remain unknown.

Either is fine.

Reading history, I believe, is not about rushing to fill in the answers, but about preserving the line between what is known and what is not.

The tools used in this textbook—distance, reservation, range, silence, cross-referencing—are prerequisites for all six questions of this school. The continuation is in the review questions and the six questions of Course E1.

Trying Out Source Criticism

From here on is the exercise book. Please open it as if it were a separate volume from the main text. We have selected 15 'voyages' from this school—texts from actually published teaching materials—and will analyze them using the tools from this textbook. There are 5 beginner-level texts to be read with a single tool, 5 intermediate-level texts using a combination of tools, and 5 advanced-level texts for reading beyond current events and records. Each is accompanied by an entry point to the original text. Read the quotation, read the analysis, and then reread the original text from the beginning. If the way you make marks has changed between the first and second reading, you have acquired the tools.

Beginner Level — Reading with a single tool

Intermediate Level — Combining tools

Advanced — Reading Beyond the Records, and the Present