Dōjima Rice Exchange
Coordinates: 34°41′43″N 135°29′55″E / 34.6952°N 135.49867°E
The Dōjima Rice Exchange (堂島米市場, Dōjima kome ichiba, 堂島米会所, Dōjima kome kaisho), located in Osaka, was the center of Japan's system of rice brokers, which developed independently and privately in the Edo period and would be seen as the forerunners to a modern banking system. It was first established in 1697, officially sanctioned, sponsored and organized by the shogunate in 1773, reorganized in 1868, and dissolved entirely in 1939, being absorbed into the Government Rice Agency (日本米穀株式会社).
The Japanese economy grew rapidly throughout the 17th century, culminating in the period known as Genroku (1688–1704) during which merchants prospered like never before. It was at this time that rice brokers and moneychangers (両替商, ryōgaeshō) gathered their shops and warehouses in the Dōjima area; the Rice Exchange can be said to have been established in 1697, the year it received a license from the shogunate. Since members of the samurai class, including daimyo (feudal lords) were paid in rice, not cash, the rice brokers and moneychangers played a crucial, and incredibly profitable, role in the emerging early modern economy of Japan. Over the course of the Edo period, the entire economy would not only shift from rice to coin, but would also see the introduction and spread of paper money initiated and facilitated by the men of Dōjima. The year 1710 marks the beginning of this development, which also brought with it the emergence of the concept of trading in futures (延べ米nobemai). The Osaka merchants, like the Kyoto rice brokers three hundred years before, developed an increasingly monopolistic grasp on the rice trade, determining prices not only within Osaka, but in the entire Kinai (Home Provinces) area, and indirectly having a great effect on prices in Edo.
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