Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(57) Pawnbroker's—Tamamaki-ya. As porters and a band of monks collecting alms go by
in the street, would-be borrowers bring clothes and other objects to pawn. An official has
brought a wanted notice, with the portrait of the criminal. At the back, the proprietor or
manager sits behind his railing with his thick ledger and his tree of ticket counterfoils. A
woman (possibly the boss's wife) smokes a pipe and warms herself at a charcoal brazier. A
notice states that pledges will be accepted for a maximum of eight months.
In Edo merchants carried on business in much the same way, and in the provinces no
castle-town was without them. The government exercised some control, in particular the
scales and weights that were essential tools of their trade being inspected by an official re-
sponsible for weights and measures. The approved pairs of scales were made by two fam-
ilies only, and the weights were manufactured by the same family that controlled the mints
that made coins.
Two other essential pieces of equipment for moneychangers, and indeed for all those
engaged in trade, were the ledger and the
soroban
. In the first were recorded all the trans-
actions that the firm carried out. It was handled only by the owner and manager and con-
tained confidential information about the turnover and earnings vital to the running of the
business. A new topic was started each New Year.
The
soroban
is an advanced abacus or bead-frame, on which adding and subtracting,
not to mention multiplying and dividing and, if necessary, the extraction of square roots,
etc., could be performed. It was commonly a frame about 15 by 6 inches, with 13 sets of
