Turning Point - Sekigahara: Toyotomi's Global Expansion and its Consequences

Phase 11 - Japan at Its Peak

In the form led by the Osaka Regency, a large-scale migration to the west coast of North America had been ongoing for over a decade, but in 1730, a dramatic change occurred.

In the suburbs of the town of Sakurame in Kashū (California), a small river was found to have gold dust. It was the long-awaited discovery of a new and enormous gold mine that the Regency had been waiting for, and rumors of gold in California quickly spread throughout Japanese society.

The rumors of gold spread not only to neighboring Nueva España, the nearby Chinese communities, Southeast Asia, the Dutch, and even to the European colonists on the East Coast of the New World, India, Englishmen coming to India, and eventually throughout all of Europe. Even European pirates who were being pushed out of the Caribbean were reached by the rumors of gold found at the edge of the world. However, it took some time for the rumors to reach the Japanese, East Asians, and the Pacific, and for a considerable period, the situation unfolded without the knowledge of Europeans.

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The first to flock to the gold-producing areas were initially the local inhabitants, mostly Japanese immigrants, with a small number of nearby indigenous people joining in. And then, one after another, Japanese people arrived by ship from the mainland of Japan. In the first year, due to the late discovery, there were about 5.000 people, but the following year it increased to 30.000, and in the explosive growth of 1733, the population surged further. The cause of this surge was the Kyōhō Famine that occurred in western Japan in 1733.

Many people clung to the rumors that they could find unlimited food and become wealthy if they went to the New World at the edge of the East, and they entrusted themselves to arduous voyages, spending their fortunes to board ships.

Since many of them couldn't afford the fare for the ship, they were treated almost like cargo, leading to many casualties during the voyage. However, even more people than ever before set foot on the New World. Some reports suggest that the number exceeded 50.000 in a year, and even in the year after the famine subsided, more than 30.000 people crossed to the New World in search of gold.

The famine itself in the Japanese archipelago remained at a moderate scale due in part to various measures taken by the Osaka Regency (such as the cultivation of sweet potatoes and other relief crops) and the expansion and acceleration of the logistics network, which helped to control it. It was the desire of people seeking gold that continued to promote population expansion in the New World.

The California Gold Rush itself almost subsided after about six years when the easily accessible gold was exhausted. However, by that time, approximately 300.000 Japanese people had flooded into the central part of the west coast of North America. The Japanese population until then had only reached around 100.000, including population growth in the local area, so you can imagine the magnitude of the change. Of course, it wasn't just people seeking gold who came, but also many who came for various businesses related to those seeking gold, and there were also pure agricultural immigrants.

At that time, the smartest immigrants were those who used their wealth from Japan to board ships, skillfully obtained initial investment funds for gold prospecting, and became agricultural entrepreneurs with vast lands, farming equipment, and livestock as their capital. There were also many who succeeded in various businesses catering to those who came in search of gold. Since many miners had little more than the clothes on their backs, providing food alone could make a fortune. Running gambling houses or brothels could also make someone a millionaire in just a few years.

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It is estimated that the total amount of gold found during the initial gold rush (approximately five years) was equivalent to about 25 million koban coins, or approximately 360 tons in weight. In terms of European standards, this would be roughly equivalent to about 100 million gold coins (3,53 grams each) and about 1,6 billion silver coins. To put it in perspective, this is a significantly larger scale than the total amount of gold extracted from the well-known Sado Gold Mine in Japan, which was about 80 tons (note that the ore from the mine was about 15 million tons, including 78 tons of gold and 2.300 tons of silver). Furthermore, due to large-scale mining investments, it was expected that additional gold would be extracted in the future. With the development of various new technologies, it was projected that approximately 1.000 tons of gold (an average of 10 tons per year) would be brought into the hands of the Japanese people over the next century.