For example standardisation of laws and taxes and the end to wars between daimyo
The founding of the Edo Bakufu did not standardize laws and taxes. Bakufu law takes precedence for country-wide things, like outlawing Christianity and no building ships that were too big. Otherwise domains set their own laws. Here are the laws for:
Likewise taxes weren't standardized, at least not in the proportion collected. The on-paper taxes were usually 40% or 50% of rice production, but some domains at one time or another had as high as 70% or 80%. By the way, in reality this is not as high as it looks. There were a lot of exemptions, which cut tax for the Bakufu realm down from 50% on paper to around 30~40% in the 18th century. Plus the tax is only on rice, which according to early Meiji figures made up of on average 50~60% of cereal production by weight. If this figure is used, then the actual tax rate by weight of cereal (not monetary value) is usually 15%~25%.
But to answer the question, from what we can tell the answer is almost without a doubt yes. Though we have little to no records the farmers wrote themselves, there are other data we have.
Taking the data from Japan’s Medieval Population by William Wayne Faris, here are various estimates for Japan.
| Year | Population Estimate | Average Annual Growth Rate | Arable Land | Rice Yield | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millions | % Per Year since previous period | Pre-Tokugawa Chō | % Change | Tokugawa Koku/Tan | % Change | |
| 1280 | 5.7-6.5 | 977,000 | 0.85 | |||
| 1450 | 9.6-10.5 | 0.2-0.23 | 1,241,379 | 27% | 1.23 | 45% |
| 1600 | 15-17 | 0.225-0.32* | 1,588,462 | 28% | 0.955 | -22% |
| 1721 | 31.3 | 0.51 | 2,251,539 | 42% | 1.094 | 15% |
*Using the figure of 10.5 million in 1450 and 17 million in 1600, Faris says that the growth rate would be 0.3% per year, but on calculation it should be 0.32% so maybe Faris just rounded it down. Faris also notes the possibility of pushing the 0.51% growth per year back to 1550. In that case by my calculations the population growth between 1450 and 1550 would’ve been 0.225% per year, and the population in 1550 roughly 13.2 million.
Either way the transition to the Edo saw a considerable increase in population growth. Which must have meant a marked increase in life-expectancy and decrease in infant mortality. Abortion and infanticide, which Jesuit Luis Frois noted was very common in the Sengoku, must have also decreased as family can now feed more offspring. There was already a large effort to open up new farms in the late Sengoku, but the peace of the Edo must have made things much smoother now there were no risk of marauding armies “asking” for provisions, competing lords demanding taxes, warriors kidnapping villagers as hostages, stealing and burning crops, markets, and homes, and bandits attacking wherever there’s an opportunity. A common thing in the Sengoku was that things were so bad the farmers often abandoned (at least temporarily) their fields and fled into the hills, and many joined armies just to get enough to eat. And now that war wasn’t a thing, manpower could be devoted to production.
See here on a quick summary of what marauding armies did to the people. If we take a look at the disease and famine data below (also from Faris), we can see that famine and disease often coincided with each other and also with warfare. This is not a surprise as the disruption of agriculture must have played a large part in food shortages, and malnutrition of course made people’s immune system weaker. So war led to famine and disease which led to more war. There's even strong evidence that daimyōs specifically went on campaign when there's famine at home in order to feed their people off their enemies. Some scholars also believe the weather might have caused problems between 1450 and 1550, though it’s apparently debated whether it was worse than the previous. Even without taking the weather into account, we can see the Kyōtoku War coinciding with the Kanshō famine in the late 1450s, with famine again rearing its head in the Onin War, and the breakdown of social order following the Meiō Coup coinciding with the worst period between 1490 and 1520. Afterwards, the consolidation of small lords and local warfare into bigger, more stable domains until finally unification coincided with ever decreasing mention of famine and disease in the records.
| Year | Disease | Famine |
|---|---|---|
| 1450 | ||
| 1451 | ||
| 1452 | Smallpox | |
| 1453 | Smallpox | |
| 1454 | ||
| 1455 | Widespread | |
| 1456 | Local | |
| 1457 | ||
| 1458 | ||
| 1459 | Widespread | |
| 1460 | Widespread | |
| 1461 | Widespread | |
| 1462 | ||
| 1463 | ||
| 1464 | ||
| 1465 | ||
| 1466 | Widespread | |
| 1467 | ||
| 1468 | ||
| 1469 | ||
| 1470 | ||
| 1471 | Measles | |
| 1472 | Widespread | |
| 1473 | Local | |
| 1474 | ||
| 1475 | Local | |
| 1476 | Local | |
| 1477 | Smallpox | Widespread |
| 1478 | ||
| 1479 | ||
| 1480 | ||
| 1481 | ||
| 1482 | Local | |
| 1483 | ||
| 1484 | Measles | Local |
| 1485 | ||
| 1486 | ||
| 1487 | ||
| 1488 | ||
| 1489 | Measles | Local |
| 1490 | Local | |
| 1491 | ||
| 1492 | Widespread | |
| 1493 | ||
| 1494 | Local | |
| 1495 | Smallpox | Local |
| 1496 | Local | |
| 1497 | Local | |
| 1498 | Widespread | |
| 1499 | Widespread | |
| 1500 | Local | |
| 1501 | Widespread | |
| 1502 | Widespread | |
| 1503 | Widespread | |
| 1504 | Widespread | |
| 1505 | Widespread | |
| 1506 | Measles | Widespread |
| 1507 | ||
| 1508 | ||
| 1509 | ||
| 1510 | Local | |
| 1511 | Widespread | |
| 1512 | Widespread | |
| 1513 | Measles | Widespread |
| 1514 | Local | |
| 1515 | Local | |
| 1516 | Local | |
| 1517 | Widespread | |
| 1518 | Widespread | |
| 1519 | Widespread | |
| 1520 | Measles & Influenza | |
| 1521 | ||
| 1522 | ||
| 1523 | Smallpox | Local |
| 1524 | ||
| 1525 | Smallpox | Widespread |
| 1526 | ||
| 1527 | ||
| 1528 | Local | |
| 1529 | Measles | |
| 1530 | ||
| 1531 | Smallpox | |
| 1532 | Smallpox | Local |
| 1533 | ||
| 1534 | Local | |
| 1535 | Influenza | Widespread |
| 1536 | Local | |
| 1537 | Smallpox | |
| 1538 | Local | |
| 1539 | ||
| 1540 | Widespread | |
| 1541 | Local | |
| 1542 | Local | |
| 1543 | ||
| 1544 | Local | |
| 1545 | Local | |
| 1546 | Local | |
| 1547 | Local | |
| 1548 | ||
| 1549 | ||
| 1550 | Smallpox | Local |
| 1551 | Local | |
| 1552 | Local | |
| 1553 | ||
| 1554 | ||
| 1555 | ||
| 1556 | Influenza | Local |
| 1557 | Measles & Smallpox | Widespread |
| 1558 | Local | |
| 1559 | ||
| 1560 | ||
| 1561 | ||
| 1562 | Local | |
| 1563 | Local | |
| 1564 | ||
| 1565 | Local | |
| 1566 | Local | |
| 1567 | Local | |
| 1568 | ||
| 1569 | ||
| 1570 | ||
| 1571 | Smallpox | |
| 1572 | ||
| 1573 | Widespread | |
| 1574 | ||
| 1575 | ||
| 1576 | ||
| 1577 | ||
| 1578 | Measles | |
| 1579 | ||
| 1580 | ||
| 1581 | ||
| 1582 | Local | |
| 1583 | ||
| 1584 | ||
| 1585 | Widespread | |
| 1586 | ||
| 1587 | Measles | |
| 1588 | ||
| 1589 | ||
| 1590 | ||
| 1591 | ||
| 1592 | ||
| 1593 | Unknown | |
| 1594 | Unknown | Local |
| 1595 | ||
| 1596 | ||
| 1597 | ||
| 1598 | Local | |
| 1599 | Local |