Okinawa is a small, isolated island region with little in the way of natural resources. It has rarely achieved self-sufficiency, a condition only exacerbated during periods of population growth and natural disasters. Domestic constraints dictated an outward-looking economic policy. Traditional beliefs are consistent with this.[1] From the gusuku period of the 12^th century to the unification of the sanzan in the early-15^th century, population growth was never heavy enough to put excessive pressure on the productive capacity of the land or natural resources, but over the course of the next two centuries did. We know sweet potatoes (imo) were introduced at the start of the 17^th century and sugar cultivation was also modernised to increase yields. Both crops fared well against typhoons, and imo very well under drought conditions. Logic dictates that droughts, famines, and damaging typhoons were common and these were attempted mitigating measures. At the same time, we can never appreciate the severity of famines or the harshness of conditions the hyakusho, or peasant farmer, endured. Although just speculation, it is probable that while suffering as other areas northern Okinawa was not experiencing the same population pressure as the southern part of the island, and that meagre resources were not spread as thinly. There were no limits on the people of Kin, for example, gathering whatever timber they required until 1679.[2] Restrictions in the south of the island were put into effect in 1628 when King Sho Ho established the Yamabugyo:[3] a division of the Monobugyosho of the ofu, to protect the somayama, or timber forests.[4]

In no dispute is the toughness of life for the hyakusho who dwelled in poorly-constructed houses and eked out, at best, a life of subsistence. It is probable that some communities were able to juggle food resources so that reserves were kept aside for times of hardship, but the anji would be collecting on his percentage of the harvest and there was the Ofu, which owned all of the lands, to support. The degree to which the anji may have been lenient on the households in his magiri during times of famine is unclear. A solitary clue we have in this regard in the case of Kin, for example, is a verse from the Omoro Soshi pertaining to the 14^th century. In it the local people celebrate the aged anji, presenting him with shinshu, or 'God's sake,' to wish upon him a long and prosperous life.[5] A better indication of everyday life might be the prevalence of animistic systems of belief and rituals specific to agrarian communities, such as warding off typhoons or bringing good fortune during planting seasons. There is also a system of yuimaru,[6] or community interdependence. In predominantly agrarian communities far from Shuri within which people toiled under conditions of extreme hardship there was the recognition that if they did not stand and work together they would likely perish.[7]

The poverty of the hyakusho has to be contrasted with the developing splendour of Shuri and wealth of the Ofu, nobility, and elite. The tributary relationship established with China in 1372 brought immediate benefits for Chuzan, and thereafter the unified state.[8] China provided capital and goods with which Chuzan could initiate a system of maritime trade. The idea was that Ryukyuan ships would use the capital to acquire exotic goods[9] from Southeast Asia which would be brought back to the Ming Court, part as tribute but most for resale.[10] The Ming Court reimbursed the costs of the tribute mission and provided fresh goods. Since the value of commodities differed wildly according to region[11] there were huge profits to be made. The port at Naha became the commercial centre of this import-export trade. Locating Ryukyu within the political economy of Asia at the time, two types of state can be identified. First, there were the large, agrarian-based imperial formations like the Ottomans, Safavids, Vijayanagara, Mogals, Ming, and Mataram in Java,[12] for whom maritime trade was of little interest.[13] Second, were the smaller, predominantly trade-based coastal states: like Kilwa in West Africa, Calicut in Southwest India, and Malacca, and island states: such as Hurmuz and Ryukyu, which occupied "strategic 'choke-points' along key trade routes."[14] The political status of Hurmuz and Ryukyu was different: with Ryukyu being a tributary state of the Ming, and Hurmuz having tributary states in the Persian Gulf, but commonalties in economic structure existed. Both were driven to trade as a result of limited resources. Ryukyu’s geostrategic location was between Japan, Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, but since its ships regularly visited Malacca: the key trade entrepot, one can link the kingdom to a trade network which spread from the Sultanate to India, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, to Southern Africa and Madagascar, and beyond.

The era from the late-14^th to late-16^th century was one of prosperity for Shuri. It is estimated that from 1425 to 1570, over a hundred ships set sail from Naha, via Fukien or Guangzhou on the southern coast of China, to places like Luzon, Siam, Palembang, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Patani, Annam, and Sunda in Southeast Asia.[15] During the same period, Ryukyuan ships conducted regular voyages to Korea and Japan. The spirit of the era is captured in an inscription on a temple bell installed in Shuri Castle in 1458, which talks of bankoku no shinryo, or ships replacing bridges to connect the Ryukyu Kingdom with the rest of the world.[16] One reason for the creation of a contemporary mythology surrounding Ryukyu is that while 200-years of considerable prosperity for the Ofu can hardly be described as ephemeral, it is certainly an aberrant period in the context of Okinawa's economic history. Firstly, the most profitable period of trade for Ryukyu was as a result of the reinstitution of traditional Confucian values which led to a shift in Ming policy toward commerce in the early- to mid-15^th century. Maritime expeditions and further ship construction were banned. China, still in need of such goods it could no longer acquire itself, depended on vassal states, like Ryukyu. Shuri was happy to run errands and fulfil tributary commitments to the Ming Court whilst also conducting profitable non-tributary trade. Advances in domestic shipbuilding minimised the loss when China decided vessels would no longer be provided as gifts to Ryukyu.[17]

China’s self-imposed isolationism had long-term consequences for itself and Ryukyu. European countries were already expanding outwards, seeing Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as ripe for exploitation. By the mid-15^th century, Portugal was utilising the Azores in the mid-Atlantic as a stop-off point on voyages east and west. The construction of better vessels brought India within reach by the late-15^th century, and Southeast Asia by the 16^th century. Portugal seized Malacca in 1511. Ryukyuan ships did not return there nor to Patani after 1543. A withdrawal from Southeast Asia culminated in a last mission to Siam in 1570. Thereafter, Ryukyu trade was in less-exotic goods and limited to China, Japan, and Korea. The catalyst for economic decline was principally Europe's advance into Asia, but the reappearance of Chinese merchants and an increasing number of Japanese vessels in the same waters were no less important. Yet the real problem was internal and systemic. It stemmed from the fact that success was not a result of endogenous factors, beyond geographic position, and was therefore unsustainable. Ryukyu's fortune was linked to its suzerain. The transit trade economy was initiated with Ming capital and technology, was possible because of its tributary status under China’s aegis, and was founded on the shipment of non-domestically produced goods.[18] The economy developed to serve the needs of Ming China. As Ming influence diminished under European pressure in the late-16^th century, so too did Ryukyu’s ability to conduct a maritime economy. If not fulfilling this role Ryukyu had little to fall back on. The basis of Shuri's wealth, therefore, was fragile and subject to swift change; its destiny determined largely by factors beyond its control. Such conditions persisted through most of Ryukyu's history and are defining characteristics even in contemporary Okinawa.