Commercial Crop Areas and Manure Merchants in the Late Tokugawa Period

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purchase of manure had an important significance in the cultivation of salable farm products in the Tokugawa Period. This study examines the management of manure merchants in the late Tokugawa Period. Areas which this study concerns are "cotton, rape product zone" in Kyoto, "cotton, rape product zone" in Harima, "indigo plant product zone" in Awa, "grain product zone" in North Kanto and other areas. Local markets started to develop in these areas in the 19the century. According to the development, the manure markets came to be opened and manure merchants became less usurious. It has been traditionally alleged that usurious-ness of manure merchants had been reinforced, but this study found otherwise.