Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/230

RV 202 show that it was thoroughly and efficiently supervised. The pawnbrokers formed a guild like all other merchants, and received licences from the Government. In the year 1723, the records show that the Yedo guild consisted of 253 associations, comprising 2,731 persons. In 1770 the number was limited to 2,000, each of whom paid 1 s. 4 d. annually as "benefit money." Ōsaka, though its population did not exceed one-third of that of Yedo, had nearly as many pawnbrokers. At the time (1832) of the Government's crusade against the guild system, the pawnbrokers' licences were withdrawn, only to be restored ten years later when the benefits of cooperative enterprise came to be appreciated.

Itinerant merchants in Japan deserve notice. Omi and Etchiu were the provinces chiefly remarkable for such tradesmen. The pedlars of the former are said to have been originally samurai of Yawata, who, deprived of their feudal service, laid aside their swords and shouldered a pack. At all events, they showed remarkable enterprise and business capacity. They travelled even to Yezo and to the South Sea Islands; they established stores in remote regions; their thrift was such that they would pick up straw sandals discarded on the wayside and preserve them for future use, and they ultimately succeeded in rendering Omi proverbial for wealth. The pedlars of Toyama in Etchiu were a still more interesting fraternity. Their origin dated from