Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/224

RV 196 vogue, and the measures of capacity and weight showed similar variety, the "catty" of tea, for example, weighing one hundred and twenty me, or one pound avoirdupois; the catty of incense, two hundred and thirty me, and the catty in general, one hundred and sixty me.

The Tokugawa rulers showed their appreciation of the value of good communications by imposing upon each feudal chief the duty of repairing roads, building bridges, and providing post-horses and ferry-boats within the limits of his fief. What has been explained in a previous chapter on this subject may be supplemented by saying that at first a "governor of roads" was appointed, but subsequently his functions fell to the Chief Censor and the Finance Magistrates. Assignments of land were made on condition that their revenues should be applied to pay the expenses incurred by post-towns in furnishing horses and messengers for the public service. The inhabitants of these towns enjoyed the privilege of being exempt from land-tax and received monetary loans occasionally from the treasury. Milestones were set up along the main thoroughfares, and to two families was entrusted the duty of organising and superintending all matters relating to land transport. These facilities were for the benefit of officials only. In the middle of the seventeenth century, however, the Osaka merchants organised a land-transport service to Yedo. They had to obtain permission for the carriers to