Introduction. The Autonomy Of Market Activity And The Emergence Of Keizai Thought

This introduction chapter describes some relevant contours of Tokugawa Japan. The author imagines the activity of keizai thinkers not as a network but as a dynamic and contentious field of positions shaped by the interaction of participants. In this view, the emergence of political economy as a distinct intellectual field reflected the actual increasing autonomy of the object of these thinkers, namely market-economic activity. At the same time, keizai thinkers formulated and asserted claims for the autonomy of market activity as a kind of program. Sometimes their assertions were self-interested claims, sometimes more matters of detached observation. Keywords: keizai ; market-economic activity; Tokugawa Japan