ABSTRACT
THE ZA SYSTEM DEVELOPS INTO THE KABU SYSTEM. - Oda Nobunaga aimed at freedom of trade and tried to remove anything that obstructed it. He abolished the Seki-sho or barriers at various places and prohibited the za-men from controlling the Seki-sho in Kyoto and Omi, where they were collecting a tax from those passing through, and finally put an end to the za itself, which may be compared with the European guild. By doing so Nobunaga destroyed entirely the commercial system of the Ashikaga period. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also a free trader, and he, too, suppressed the activities of the za. In Hakata, for instance, Hideyoshi put up a public notice saying that the za merchants would not be allowed to enter that city. No country can ignore the environment, history, and traits of its people. If it does, we see only a temporary phenomenon, which, divorced from environment, will not last long. Nobunaga's free trade policy was no exception to the rule. He had seen that since the beginning of their rule the Ashikaga had been practically under the thumb of their lords, and he realized the necessity of restraining this. He also had been aware that the powerful monasteries in Kyoto and Omi backed some lords against his rule directly or indirectly, and he wanted to suppress such actions of certain groups of Buddhist priests in Kyoto and Omi. All the trade systems and the influence of the merchants belonging to these systems, maintained by the influence of the lords and temples, were marked out for destruction. In a word, Nobunaga was placed in circumstances which drove him to sweep away all the influences of the old social and commercial systems even by revolutionary means. His destruction of the za system, like his punishment of the temples, was nothing but a part of his general policy, to which he was driven by necessity. Hideyoshi was not so drastic as Nobunaga in his general policy, but he followed on the whole the line set by his predecessor. Tokugawa Iyeyasu, who succeeded Hideyoshi, however, changed everything, and adopted a policy which was reactionary to the policies of both N obunaga and Hideyoshi in every respect. In ruling the country both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi relied upon their lords and generals, but Iyeyasu adopted an entirely different system. He drew a distinct line between the private retainers of the Tokugawa family and the lords whom he had subjugated, and relied upon the former for the mainten-
ance of the sway of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The private retainers developed, so to speak, out of the semi-slaves of the olden times who had served their masters generation after generation. Iyeyasu made his generals and lords out of the retainers of the Tokugawa family, and these generals and lords, too, picked their retainers from those related to them personally. The hatamoto, as the direct retainers of the Tokugawa family were called, were men who had served the Tokugawa family from the time of their forefathers or from their boyhood at least. Thus Iyeyasu formed a group of generals and men who had the same history as the Tokugawa family and relied upon their loyalty for the maintenance of his ruling power over the country. In his system, family relation was an essential factor, and unbroken relations between master and retainers for generations ranked next. In appointing his generals and lords, Iyeyasu first made inquiries into their family history and their relationship with the Tokugawa family, and then their character, ability, influence, etc., which were secondary things in his estimation. He believed the system to be the safest for his Shogunate, for the lords and generals related to the Tokugawa family had an interest in supporting it The appointment of a capable new man, with no family traditions, to important positions in the Government, as had been done by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, carried with it, in Iyeyasu's opinion, the seed of future danger. Under Iyeyasu's system, therefore, the greatest feudatory could not become a Minister in the Tokugawa Shogunate unless he was connected with the ruling family. Contrariwise, the most incapable Tokugawa scion could get an important position in the Shogunate and control over other lords. In such circumstances, the free trade policy pursued by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi was discontinued, and the influence of the za system and merchants belonging to it, which Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had attempted to destroy, quickly revived. In those days, as the conditions changed, the name of za was applied to such official lines of trade as gold mint, silver mint, scales trade, etc., but the true za system was to be found among the wholesale dealers, kabu (commercial charter) and kumiai (guilds). Since both in wholesale business and in the kumiai system commercial charter known as kabu was the essential, the kabu system of the Tokugawa period was the same as the za system in the Ashikaga period. The kabu system operated in the same way as Iyeyasu's political system, and commercial privilege, known as kabu, was given only in accordance with family relations and history, and no competition was permitted to crawl in.
