Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/149

 mortgages and the distraining of property were constant sources of embarrassment and distress. In times of adversity, when it seemed that the burden of debts had become excessive, or that they had been contracted under the pressure of want resulting from natural calamities, the Government sometimes adopted the course of proclaiming the cancellation of all obligations in existence at a certain date. Naturally this false policy had ultimately the effect of accentuating the distress it was intended to relieve, for by greatly increasing the risks of the lender, it compelled him to make his terms proportionately severe. Nevertheless, since the original motive of the measure was a benevolent desire to free the poor from the obligations they had contracted to the rich, and to prevent the accumulation of large wealth in the hands of individuals, it was called toku-sei, or the "virtuous system." Yoshimasa, the Ashikaga Shōgun spoken of above, abused the toku-sei in an extraordinary manner. Having resorted to forced loans from the well-to-do citizens of Kyōtō as often as eight times in a month, whereas the limit previously had been four times in a year, and having thus issued an inconvenient number of bonds, he freed himself from all these obligations by proclaiming the toku-sei, not once, but several times. In his case it was evidentlv robbery, pure and simple, but his ministers solemnly adhered to the pretence of aiding the poor and disseminating wealth. The practice of such