Manuscript, entitled at beginning of text “Gyoyoshu” [“Collection of Details on Rice Brokers’ Money Lending”]...
101; 100; 100 folding leaves. Three vols. Oblong 8vo (155 x 217 mm.), orig. wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated 1818.
The rice brokers of Japan during the Edo period became fabulously wealthy, not so much from dealing in rice but from money lending. In Edo in 1724, 109 rice brokers formed a powerful guild known as fudasashi (note/bill exchange), located in the Asakusa section of what is today Tokyo, close to the warehouses where the brokers stored rice produced by the farmers of various daimyos. The fudasashi stored rice for a fee, lent money at high interest rates to... More