Japanese Ōei Economic Recession

Timeline

1. 1393–1394Japan · JapanIn the early Ōei years, alternating droughts and floods sharply reduced rice output, grain prices soared, flight and famine spread through the countryside, and local lords struggled to collect taxes.
2. 1393–1395Kyoto · JapanTo cover fiscal deficits the shogunate minted large quantities of debased coins such as Eiraku Tsūhō; declining fineness caused severe inflation, market prices became chaotic, merchants hoarded goods, and the economic order was damaged.
3. 1394–1396Japan · JapanThe recession worsened peasant burdens and the fiscal difficulties of shugo daimyō; local disturbances occurred from time to time, showing that the Muromachi shogunate's foundations were already fragile economically and planting the seeds for later upheavals such as the Ōnin War.