Energy and Japanese peasant agriculture

It is hypothesized that the Japanese population was near the steady state population during the Tokugawa period (1600 to about 1860) because of an energy resource (land) shortage. This shortage gave rise first to chaos and then peaceful existence under a strict hierarchy which, among other regulations, taxed away more than onethird of the peasant production. The energy flow in Japanese peasant agriculture is modeled and criteria for optimum levels of the population are found under conditions of food taxation. The equations provide a possible mechanism to verify the hypotheses and the need for verification is stressed.