Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
arrival. They were not allowed to carry other cargo, whereas the shipping of “private” rice
was paid for by allowing the captain to have one-fifth of the capacity of the vessel for his
own trading. The tax-rice had to be accompanied by a representative of the farmers of the
district from which it came, usually a headman, and he had to get a receipt when it was put
into the rice-store. This receipt he had to take back with him to his province to prove that
he had seen it safely delivered.
That part of the rice so deposited in the Edo granaries of the central government which
was set aside for the salaries of the officials was distributed three times a year, in the
second, fifth, and tenth months, normally in the proportions of one-quarter, one-quarter,
andone-half.Sometimespartoftheincomewaspaidinmoney,ataratethatdidnotneces-
sarily equal the market price of the rice not forthcoming. In the earlier part of the period it
may even have been more money than the equivalent quantity of rice would have fetched;
certainly in later years it was less. Days were allotted to officials according to their grade,
andforofficialsofthesamegradeasortoflotterywasheldtodeterminetheorderinwhich
they would be paid. Originally the official himself had gone to collect his rice, but gradu-
allythisdutycametobepassedontobrokers,membersofthemerchantclass,whoderived
from the proprietors of tea-shops near the rice-stores, where the
samurai
used to wait their
turntoreceivetheirallotment.Thesebrokersacquiredthedutiesofpresentingthewarrants
and collecting the rice; sometimes they delivered it, but more often they took it over, and
gave the
samurai
whose income it was the equivalent in coin. It naturally developed that
they started lending the
samurai
on their topics money in advance of the allotment dates,
so that in the end they were making sizeable profits from the interest on loans and from the
commission for their services in both collecting the rice and selling it.
This sort of system existed in some other castle-towns, but a large amount of the tax-
rice from the domains was shipped to the granaries of the
daimyō
whose rice it was, in
Osaka or Edo. The proceeds of the rice when it was bought by merchants went to pay the
expenses of the mansions maintained in Edo to house the family of the
daimyō
and him-
self when he was on his compulsory visit. The Osaka rice-market was of a complexity that
equals that of many commodity markets still surviving in the West, and involved various
sorts of brokers and jobbers, dealing in rice not yet harvested or even non-existent. The
main business was done in the streets of the Dojima district in the city, the Wall Street of
Tokugawa Japan. With the danger of typhoons at a critical point in the growing season of
rice, and other effects of sun and rain, great attention was paid to weather conditions, and
brokersareoftendepictedaspeeringupintotheskytotrytoassesstheprospects.Therole
ofthemerchantscanbevariouslyinterpreted;theywere,itistrue,actingasnon-productive
middlemen,butthefacilitiestheyofferedinspreadingoutbyloanstheyieldfromaharvest
that occurred only once a year and in making money available in Edo for crops grown in
