This page was created by Maren Ehlers.
The Mercantilist Approach to Vaccinations
Toshitada regarded all resources within his territory as a potential source of wealth, and this included the working bodies of subjects. In 1842 Toshitada launched a major domain reform with the goal of improving the domain’s budgetary situation. During the Tenpō famine in the 1830s, the domain had lost at least 4,900 lives (out of a population of approximately 29,000), and Toshitada apparently saw vaccinations as a way to boost the economy by increasing the size of the population [Fukui kenshi, Tsūshi-hen 4, 496]. One of the earliest domain edicts advertising the benefits of the vaccine began with the statement that in “Holland,” not a single life had been lost to smallpox since the commencement of the vaccinations, and the population was increasing every year. In 1858, the government claimed that in the past seven or eight years the domain population had increased by 2,000 thanks to vaccinations ["Shutō shōrei ni tsuki furegaki," 1851, in Fukui kenshi, Shiryō-hen 7, 458-459].
For Ōno's lord and his advisers, vaccinations were thus linked to territorial rule. On one hand, the mercantilist motive probably accelerated implementation of the treatment among domain subjects. On the other hand, domain rule also hindered transmission because of territorial fragmentation, as explored in the
, and there were parts within Echizen province where the vaccine was passed on more easily
The cowpox virus had to be moved to a new host every seven days but did not discriminate between subjects of particular domains. Ōno's exclave, go to the pathway "Transmission in the Nishikata Exclave."
