Th is system both off ered possible social advancement and in-
stitutionalized the government bureaucracy.
In contrast to China’s extensive recorded history, there
is no reliable record of Japanese development before 400 c.e.
From the fi rst signs of civilization in 10,000 b.c.e. to the cul-
tivation of rice that began in the Yayoi Period starting around
300 b.c.e., Japan was in a Neolithic phase, characterized by
tribes of hunters and gatherers who shared chores and re-
sponsibilities related to basic sustenance. Th ere is evidence
of the use of pottery in this period but no evidence that the
making of pottery was specifi c to any one group of dedicated
professionals. At the start of the Yayoi Period, Japan was
made up of hundreds of tribes, with chores within each tribe
divided equally among its members. By the end of the pe-
riod, however, a large class of advanced potters was making
pottery on wheels. Iron was being used to produce tools and
weapons, and bronze was being used to make weapons, bells,
mirrors, and similar objects—all requiring classes of trained
workers. In agriculture village labor was becoming more var-
ied, with villagers weaving cloth and constructing buildings.
Landowners gained wealth through the eff orts of rice growers
in irrigated lands.
As the tribes bonded together over centuries, forming
alliances against each other, military professionalism came
into existence. Th e Kofun Period that began in 250–300 c.e.
and extended into the sixth century was marked by a cen-
tral government, with regional control in the hands of fami-
lies or clans, called uji. Th e uji were frequently identifi ed as
members of professions, such as religious uji or military uji.
Th e growth of the clan structure created the need for subsid-
iary workers, called be or tomo, to work for the families. Th e
people in this category were on the lower rungs of the labor
ladder; sometimes foreigners but more oft en skilled Japanese
laborers, they provided valuable services to the lords. Below
this class was a class of common laborers and slaves who were
acquired in warfare to do unskilled work.
Th e centralization of government services that gave Ja-
pan a stable system for workers had already been in eff ect in
India for hundreds of years by the time that the Kofun Pe-
riod emerged. Th e Indus Valley civilization, which fl ourished
from 3000 to 1600 b.c.e., had a thriving economy in which
people worked as farmers, herders, metalsmiths, and traders.
Th ey also worked on public works projects, building streets,
drainage systems, and waterworks. Th e caste system, which
divided people into social classes based on birth and which
arose from Hinduism, created classes of workers, leading to
division of labor and the development of the apprentice sys-
tem for training workers.
Th e Maurya Empire came to power in India in 312 b.c.e.,
when the country was a collection of warring states that taxed
workers and conscripted them into armies. Mauryan culture
was organized under principles laid out in the Arthashastra,
a treatise on statecraft generally attributed to a minister of
Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the dynasty. In the
Arthashastra rules are laid out that provided stability to the
merchants, farmers, and traders who made up the civilian
economy. Th ey were freed from the oppressive taxes that had
been levied on them by multiple governing bodies when the
country was fragmented, and a unifi ed economy across In-
dia allowed for increased productivity, as workers were able
to move freely from district to district. One distinct benefi t
Mauryan culture had was that of privately held corporations,
which pooled capital to create trade, craft , and artisan busi-
nesses with more international power than the family-ori-
ented businesses that had been traditional for the country.
Th e later Gupta Empire (240–550 c.e.) continued the expan-
sion of trade and was a kind of golden age of Indian culture.
Th e productivity of the country’s labor force created surplus
wealth that supported writers, poets, craft workers, artisans,
architects, scientists and mathematicians, and philosophers.
Many of the smaller countries of the Asian mainland fol-
lowed the social and economic pattern of China, with whom
they had been trading for centuries. While China and the
surrounding countries that it infl uenced (Vietnam, Cambo-
dia, and Korea, for example) supported a steadily growing
bureaucracy that, in turn, supported a centralized govern-
ment, the social structures of the Pacifi c Island countries was
less complex. While the islands, like China, tended toward
large populations, they were confi ned to limited geographical
terrain, which meant a greater population density than on the
mainland.
Th e remotest of the islands in the Oceanic region, be-
tween Asia and America, were colonized by people from
Southeast Asia in about 2000 to 1500 b.c.e., relatively late
compared with the thousands of years in which civilization
had already spread across Asia, but their populations grew
quickly. Th e resulting societies tended to be as stratifi ed as
the society established in China, but they were less compli-
cated. Th ere were still rulers and tax collectors and trades-
persons and peasants. Th e vulnerability of the island nations,
however, tended to drive the citizenry toward the protection
of the government that controlled the military. While main-
land nations were ruled by governments that conquered their
citizenry and imposed taxation on them, the island nations
tended toward more close-knit, cooperative, and voluntary
support of their leaders.EUROPE
BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL
Th e concepts of employment and labor, as they are under-
stood in the modern world, were in many respects unknown
in ancient Europe. In early hunter-gatherer societies, the chief
occupation of nomadic tribal cultures was fi nding food. Any
additional goods that people had—clothing, pots, tools—they
probably produced themselves, though some bartering for
goods took place, and services were provided by the family,
clan, or community as a whole. Th e basic economic unit was
the family, clan, and tribe, so there were no businesses, no
commerce or trade, no large public works. In this ty pe of eco-430 employment and labor: Europe