Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/212

RV 186 merchants being shipped. This carrying-trade rapidly assumed large dimensions. The number of junks entering Yedo yearly rose to over fifteen hundred. They raced from port to port, just as tea-clippers from China used to do in recent times, and troubles incidental to their rivalry became so serious that it was found necessary to enact stringent rules. Each junk-master had to subscribe a written oath that he would comply strictly with the regulations, and observe the sequence of sailings as determined by lot. The junks had to call en route at Uraga, for the purpose of undergoing official examination. The order of their arrival there was duly registered, and the master making the best record throughout the year received a present in money as well as a complimentary garment, and became the shippers' favourite next season.

Operations relating to the currency also were brought under the control of guilds. The business of money-changing seems to have been taken up as a profession from the beginning of the fifteenth century; but it was then in the hands of pedlars who carried strings of cash which they offered in exchange for gold or silver coins, then in rare circulation, or for parcels of gold dust. From the early part of the seventeenth century exchanges were opened in Yedo, and in 1718 the men engaged in this business formed a guild after the fashion which obtained such