Seto Inland Sea, Osaka Bay, Japan.

The castle town of Osaka Castle was developed during the era when "Saru Seki White" Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled Japan. This humble Japanese ruler was different from those feudal lords who regarded land as the basis of their rule. He integrated industry and commerce that could provide a large amount of tax revenue.

Consider it the foundation for your rule over the world.

Therefore, after clearing up the foundation left by the old owner Oda Nobunaga, this Japanese man of the world chose the land of Ishiyama Honganji Temple near Sakai, the industrial and commercial center of Japan at that time, to build a city in 1583 AD.

Construction of Osaka Castle began on the ruins.

The construction project of Osaka Castle was extremely large. After the completion of the Main Maru (which took one and a half years), large-scale projects such as Ninomaru, Sannomaru, moats and canals were constructed. Until the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the project was still in progress.

Not all finished.

While Toyotomi Hideyoshi was building Osaka Castle, he also built an unprecedented scale of castle towns and ports along the Yamato River and Yodogawa outside Osaka Castle. He also ordered all the big merchants who originally did business in Sakai, south of the Yamato River, to be relocated.

Osaka.

Thanks to the efforts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was good at managing territory, Osaka Castle Town prospered rapidly and soon became the industrial and commercial center of the Kinai region of Japan. It also became the largest industrial and commercial city in Japan. Even after the fall of the Toyotomi regime, Jiang

During the Tohoku era, the industry and commerce in Osaka Castle Town continued to develop.

By the time of Shomitsu, the third generation of the Tokugawa shogunate, the population of Osaka Castle Town had exceeded 300,000, and the goods bought and sold through Osaka every year were worth tens of millions.

The tribute rice collected by the feudal lords and the domain's specialties had to be sold through Osaka merchants, so Osaka Castle Town was nicknamed "Tenka Kitchen" and "Tenka Warehouse".

However, compared with the status of "Tianxia Kitchen", the situation that can really make "Osaka's wealthy businessmen angry and the world's princes frightened" was developed by relying on the convenient conditions of "Tianxia Kitchen" and "Tianxia Warehouse"

"Two alternatives".

The so-called ryōdai merchants are actually merchants engaged in currency exchange. The Tokugawa shogunate implemented a three-currency system of gold, silver, and copper coins. In addition, many feudal clans issued their own clan letters, and the currency circulation was relatively chaotic, which contributed to the

The great development of money changers. After these two generations of merchants accumulated a certain amount of capital, they soon began to develop into remittances, bills, credit, etc. In addition to lending money to merchants for turnover, they would also rule various places in Japan.

The feudal lord developed into his own client.

The Japanese feudal lords were often unable to make ends meet due to various reasons (their own luxurious life, too many samurai under their banners, and the payment of pilgrimage fees was too high), so the demand for loans was great. In the era of Iemitsu's rule, in addition to the burden

Except for some of the more intimate feudal clans and the famous poor clans, the lords of most feudal clans were in debt.

Therefore, Osaka Castle Town is not only the kitchen and warehouse of the world, but also the creditor of the world.

This is where the saying goes, "When a wealthy businessman in Osaka gets angry, all the princes in the world are frightened"!

Of course, the princes of the world can also default on their debts... The shogunate will sometimes help them default on their debts. In order to prevent the imperial family or farmers from going bankrupt, the Kamakura shogunate and the Muromachi shogunate have repeatedly issued virtuous government decrees to forgive debts.

.

However, in the Edo period, it was not easy to default on your debts. Because once you defaulted on your debts, you would be blacklisted by Osaka's "ten-person ryōdai", and you would no longer be able to obtain financial services from ryōdai merchants...

This is no small matter! Because during the Edo period, the big merchants in Osaka, Kyoto, Edo, and Nagasaki were inseparable from the two merchants when doing business.

The feudal lord's business (selling tribute rice and specialty products) is a big business. If there is no exchange, remittance, delayed payment or advance payment credit provided by the two-person house, how can this business be done? Moreover, it is impossible for ten people to blacklist 300 feudal clans at the same time.

They blacklist one or two vassals at a time, and other vassals can use the financial services of Liangdai Shang normally. Only one or two blacklisted vassals cannot. Who will do business with them? Even if someone is willing to do it, the price is high.

Massive killing...

If a domain is blacklisted by Ryodai Shang's peer organization, the domain's operation will be extremely difficult. The domain owner may not be frightened, but he will definitely have a headache.

As for sending people to cut down all ten people... Osaka Castle Town is the leader of the shogunate! Where can a poor feudal lord go and cut down people at will?

And it goes without saying that those who can serve as two substitutes for ten people have a backing...

The so-called ten-man ryotai merchants are the ten most financially powerful ryotai merchants in Osaka, namely Tennojiya Gobei, Shinya Kyūemon, Kagiya Rokubei, Sakamotoya Zenemon, and Tennojiya.

Sakubei, Shinyazakaemon, Izumiyabei, Yutaya Sunemon, Konoikeya Zenemon, Sukematsuya Ribei - these ten names are so-called merchant names, which are passed down from generation to generation.

The name is not just a single person, but the big shopkeeper of the two companies. And those houses are the names of the companies. Two of the two companies, Shangquanwu and Hongchiwu, were still in the original history.

Developed into Japan's six major chaebols!

Among them, Izumiya became part of the Sumitomo Zaibatsu due to marriage and inheritance, while Konoikeya developed into the Konoike Zaibatsu.

However, these ten-person duo, which can cause headaches to all the princes in the world, have encountered bigger and more ferocious crocodiles during this time!

In the center of Osaka Castle Town, near the Yodogawa River, there is a courtyard that looks similar to a prince's mansion. This is where the Osaka Ryodai Nakama House (guild of trade) is located. The door is always open on weekdays, but today it is the main door.

It was tightly closed, heavily guarded inside and out, and all the rakes in gorgeous clothes were on guard.

Anyone who knows anything about the Ryotai merchants in Osaka knows that in such a large formation, ten big bosses from Ryotai merchants must be gathering here - the net worth of these ten people together is greater than that of the Tokugawa Shogun.

He would be several times richer, and of course he would have to hire some rogues to protect himself.

What if someone kidnaps me?

But it is impossible for people in Osaka Castle Town to imagine that these ten big businessmen are sighing together now.

The reason why they lament is that the price of rice in Japan has been falling again and again in the past year or so... This is incredible!

Obviously the world is in chaos. Instead of rising, the price of rice is still falling!

In the official rice market in Dojima, Osaka, the price of one stone and one hundred meters (Japanese stone is larger than the Ming Dynasty stone, about 180 kilograms), has dropped from 8 jin a year ago to 4 jin now, and it is still continuing.

Falling. Within a few months, the price of rice in Osaka actually halved... This was really a catastrophe for the two merchants!

Because Japanese feudal lords and samurai are all "meter-based", their income is calculated in meters. And Japan's large transactions and credit are priced in "one or two cents" (gold coins)...

..In the decades after the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate, the exchange rates between gold, silver and copper coins were basically fixed, because the Tokugawa shogunate had the ability to control the exchange rates between gold, silver and copper. And among them, gold

The price against silver remained at around five taels until Emperor Komu came from Korea and occupied Sado Island, the largest gold and silver producing area in Japan!

Since the occupation of Sado Island, there has been a huge amount of gold buying in Nagasaki, Osaka, Kyoto and other places... All the gold stored in the two houses was exchanged in a short period of time.

.In the spring of this year, after the Kobuin army captured Iwami Silver Mountain, the price of gold rose even more sharply. Because the shogunate lost the Sado Gold and Silver Mine and the Iwami Silver Mine, it could no longer control the soaring price of gold. The price of exchange for silver

It went directly from about one to ten to about one to fifteen!
Chapter completed!