Economic development in Alyska
Early Years, 1300-1420
Initial Japanese interest in Alyska revolved around the rich fishing waters along the coast. And many of the initial settlements in the region revolved around this industry. In the very early days of Japanese colonization settlements were only temporary and served as a location where fishing ships could offload and prepare their catch for transport back to Japan, or effect any needed repairs.
Eventually proper warehouses were established as merchants relocated to Alyska proper. Once there they would buy catch directly from the fishing boats and store it before selling to merchant ships which made the long voyage back to Japan once or twice a year. This allowed the fishing fleet to base itself permanently in Alyska rather than traveling back and forth each year, permitting them to spend more time on the fishing grounds and less in transit.
The fishermen that now came to live full time in Alyska still needed to buy practically everything but fish from the merchant ships which traveled back and forth from Japan. This included food, clothing, medicine and tools. But soon some farmers began to establish themselves outside the small fishing villages. Selling their surplus to the fishing fleet at lower cost than their Japanese equivalents. Artisans soon followed, selling their goods to both the fishing fleet and farmers, and eventually to the native villages scattered throughout the country.
Alyska soon became a place where many of the less fortunate in Japan went to start over. Land being much more readily available for those not lucky enough to inherit property from their fathers. Alyska also attracted criminals and wanted men, those cast off from Japanese society at large. It also attracted many native peoples who saw life with the Japanese superior to their own more basic means of life.
It is estimated that by the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century that the Japanese population in Alyska totaled almost fifty thousand, fully half of which were born there rather than Japan. Although growth was slow during this time there was growth.
During the latter stage of this period Alyska had grown ever more important, with the fishing fleet diversifying and spreading out into other forms of prey. Hunting the whales which made the area their summer homes for the oily blubber. Whaling would play a major role in the economy of the region for centuries and later would fuel the early Alyskan colonial ventures in the greater Pacific.
Expansion, 1420-1490
The first age of Ronin was brought to an end by an invasion by the Ashikaga Shogunate which was largely motivated by the disruption of trade with the region caused by the Ronins fighting amongst themselves. Following the conquest and the edict of Kyoto Alyska was opened up to settlers to an even greater scale. With the Ashikaga and Diamyo viewing the area as an means of alleviating overpopulation in Japan itself. Aside from poor farmers and merchants several lesser sons of the Japanese nobility would come to settle in the region and carve out their own fiefdoms.
As the population in Alyska grew, with immigration peaking around 1460, trade gradually fell off between the Japanese in Alyska and the home islands. With Alyska self sufficient in most ways merchants from Japan had little incentive to make the long voyage over, and Alyskan goods were found largely distasteful to the Japanese, of lower quality than domestically available or Chinese products.
Alsyak continued to grow however, with the local economy of the region growing thanks to the development of trade between the various city states and outside native peoples. Trade with Japan had never been terribly great in its scale, immigration being the key incentive for people to make the journey to the cold Alyskan shores. And as Japan itself plunged into a period of warlordism and infighting what trade there was petered out. The economy stagnated, a process accelerated as the city states geared up to fight one another and abandoned trade between themselves.
In future trade would pick up once more, with various domestic Alyskan herbs and crops coming to carve a niche for themselves in the Japanese and wider Asian market. In fact Alyskan spices would play a key role in the growth of the region and would be what would eventually attract the attention of the Europeans to the region. But this is still far ahead in the future and will be dealt with when we get there