Since the Genroku era at the end of the 17th century the shogunate government had tried to restore their finances by the issue of coins with low content of gold and silver and the further issue of currency so as to get profits from the issue of coinage, but every case caused hyper-inflation and resulted in failure (the issue of the genroku gold coin [genroku koban] by Tsunayoshi TOKUGAWA, Genbun gold coin [genbun koban] by Yoshimune TOKUGAWA, Nanryo silver coin (nanryo nishu gin) around the era of Ienari TOKUGAWA, and so on).
幕府は17世紀末の元禄年間以降、貨幣の中に含まれる金を減らし、貨幣の発行量を多くすることによって貨幣発行益を上げて財政を持ち直そうとしたが、いずれも過度のインフレーションを招き失敗に終わっている（徳川綱吉の元禄小判、徳川吉宗の元文小判、徳川家斉の頃の南鐐二朱銀の発行など）。