ABSTRACT
THE summarized list of Edo tonyas has been based on the first Tokumi tonyas founded in 1694 (7th year of Genroku), in order to show the changes and development at a glance, and at the same time to indicate the changes in the various kabus and tonyas which existed outside the Tokumi tonyas. As already fully described, the Tokumi tonyas was at first a combination of ten guilds of trades having similar interests in their transactions with the Osaka tonyas by means of marine transportation, but during the Kyoho era another twelve guilds were added, while still maintaining the name To'kumi Tonyas Guild. During the Bunkwa era the Tokumi Guild was altered to the Hishigaki Vessel Shippers' Guild, and the ten now numbered sixty-five. In investigating the trades, we may note that their business, when compared to that of the Kyoho and Kwansei eras, showed divisions of trade and tendency to specialize. What had been once a guild of those trading in many lines of goods was now a guild of those handling practically one line, each guild becoming a genuine trade guild. Within the sixty-five guilds there were the old Tokumi members and those who were added owing to the changes in the views of tonya co-operation, which now went beyond those having transactions with Osaka, and the inclusion of newly founded tonyas. The cause of such divisions in the guilds, and the tendency to concentrate in one line, was the development of the tonya trade which gave rise to special customs and transactions, with a consequent difference in interests. We may also note from the specialization the extent of development from the standpoint of economics.
