Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
distant provinces made possible the working of the extremely artificial system which the
Tokugawas devised.
One feature of the Osaka exchange was that, even when actual rice was behind a trans-
action (as it was most of the time, dealings in imaginary and future rice being periodically
discouragedbythegovernment),whatexchangedhandswasawarrantforaquantityofrice
in the warehouse where it had been stored on its arrival. The result of all the trading was
that some of the rice went off to other districts. Kyoto, for example, depended for its sup-
plies on Osaka. The local demand had also to be met, and this was very heavy, Osaka folk
havingareputationasheartyeaters—oneproverbsaysthatinOsakabankruptciesweredue
to over-eating, in Kyoto they arose from over-dressing. In the turmoil of the rice-markets
there would be circulating those who wanted rice to sell in their shops. The prices ruling in
the exchange would decide how much they had to pay, and they would receive their chits
for the amount purchased, go to the warehouse and collect it, perhaps in heavy ox-carts
(generallyprohibitedtocommonersinJapan,butallowedforthetransportofriceandother
goods in Osaka streets).
Up to now, the grain was usually still in its brown outer skin. Some poorer people con-
sumed it thus, but it was normally the function of the rice-shop to “hull” it, often by a
quantities, employed “hullers” who brought portable equipment to the house, and set it up
in the street outside.
Although Edo was the natural outlet for a hinterland of provinces, and had a fair-sized
rice-market of its own, its turnover was greatly exceeded by that of Osaka. This is also
true of almost every other product—oil (derived from various seeds), cotton, indigo, and
so on, not to mention
sake
and soy sauce from the regions near Osaka—so that not only
were Osaka merchants dominant, but also Osaka was the center of a great network of ship-
ping engaged in transporting produce and goods to Osaka, and from there to Edo. Before
the Tokugawa period the main routes for trade had been from Osaka west through the In-
land Sea (linking the littoral of Honshū with that of north Shikoku and Kyūshū), and east
to Edo, with an important port of call at Shimoda. From the northwest coast, shipping had
plied to the ports of Tsuruga and Obama, whence goods had to be carried overland to the
northern end of Lake Biwa, thence by boat along the lake, and by river to Osaka. There
wasaroutefromthenortheasttoEdo,thatdidnotgoroundtheBōsōpeninsula,buttookto
inland waterways from Chōshi. The Inland Sea routes had earlier been dangerous because
of the activities of pirates operating from the innumerable small harbors in the islands, but
with settled conditions, and the active measures taken by Hideyoshi, this hazard ceased to
be a threat to shipping.
