Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(63) Mitsui drapery shop in Edo.
The Kyoto side of the business was also expanded, with a buying department in the
Nishijin district, center of the weaving of high-class silk material, and in the first years of
the new century, lengths of silk material imported from China through Nagasaki began to
appearinhisshops.Alittleearlier,anothershophadbeenopenedinEdoforthesaleofcot-
tonmaterial; byabout1720ithadastaffwhichhadrisenfrom17tomorethan130.Thisis
anindicationoftheincreaseofthenumberofpersonswhocouldaffordtheclothingsoldin
the Mitsui shops, an increase that arose partly from the growth of the urban population and
partlyfromitsincreasingopulence.SaikakuincludesadescriptionoftheMitsuienterprise.
Among innovations that he ascribes to the firm were the specialization of the sales staff,
with each man in charge of a different product, and also the readiness to make up materials
into garments at a moment's notice, while the customer waited (
63
).
A further extension of operations came in 1683, when a money exchange was added to
oneoftheEdostores.ThreeyearslaterthefamilyresidencewastransferredfromMatsuza-
ka to Kyoto, and a money exchange was incorporated in the new building. In 1687 Mitsui
becameofficialdraperstothecentralgovernment,withofficesforthispurposeinbothEdo
and Kyoto, but Takatoshi was not at all sure that it was good commercial practice to have
this standing, honorable though it might be; he took an early opportunity of excusing him-
self, and warned his successors against requesting that the distinction be granted again. In
1689 the Edo exchange business became one of the 30 or so “principal money exchanges”
in Edo. These, like the “ten men” of Osaka, had special supervisory powers over the other
persons in the same business, and also acted as money-handlers for the government, attest-
ing to the accuracy of wrapped coin, checking amounts paid in and out, and so on.
UptonowtheactivitiesoftheMitsuifamilyhadbeenconfinedtoMatsuzaka,Edo,and
Kyoto; now they moved in to Osaka, with a drapery and money exchange, and in the same
year, 1691, they placed themselves under contract to transfer public money from Osaka to
Edo. The basic system was that the Osaka exchange office received the money and agreed
to deliver it within 60 days to the Edo authorities. For this they were paid no commis-
sion, but they devised a scheme whereby they not only got government protection for their
private transactions, but took a small but steady profit as well. As the money came into
the Osaka office, they lent it out against promissory notes to other Osaka merchants who
had debtors in Edo: the notes were then taken there and presented to the debtors, who re-
deemed them, thus settling their debts. With the money thus produced, the Mitsui met their
own obligations to the government. It seems that throughout these transactions, the money
involved was considered as public money, with the result that any failure to pay up would
bedealt withaccordingly; theMitsuialsousedsomeoftheirownfundsinthetransactions,
and managed to make them indistinguishable from the government money, so that they too
