In their attempts to prevent change, the Shoguns were unable to master
one basic element in their society--trade and industry. Even before the
Tokugawa regime was established, as we have seen, Japan’s commerce had
already grown sizable. Foreign trade was then cut off. But internal
trade, stimulated by a long period of peace, continued to develop. New
luxury goods of many varieties were produced, and industry prospered.
The merchant class in the cities grew wealthy and powerful. Large
business houses, including the present Mitsui firm, were founded.
Money, instead of rice, became the medium of exchange. The transition
to a money economy was gradual, but it worked a revolution in Japanese
society.
Incomes of the _daimyo_ and _samurai_ were in rice. The rice had to
be changed into money, and great exchange marts--similar to our modern
commodity exchanges--grew up in Osaka. The rice brokers “rigged”
prices. Dizzy price fluctuations occurred. The feudal lords and their
_samurai_ fell into debt to the rice brokers and the money lenders.
Government intervention did not help matters. The Shogunate either
debased the coinage, or tried vainly to control prices by decree. The
farmers suffered most of all--from the change to money, from the price
fluctuations, and from still heavier taxes when the feudal lords became
indebted to the merchants. After 1725 the number of farmers declined;
after 1750 peasant uprisings were frequent.