Parent and Child Quality

... Looking at the genealogy of wealthy merchants in the early modern period, a surprising number of them started out as pawnbrokers. Examples include the Mitsui family from Matsuzaka in Ise, the Nakai family of Omi merchants who expanded from Tohoku to Kyushu, the Ono-gumi who were active in Edo and the southern part of the country, the Juichiya Uma family of Osaka, and the Yamatoya Asako family who established a parent-child pawnbroker network in Edo. In the late early modern period, in both urban and rural areas, a relationship between former and subordinate pawnbrokers was organized in which a parent pawn, run by a wealthy merchant or farmer, would take pawned items from a small subordinate pawn and lend them funds, and pawn financing, making use of intermediaries rooted in the community, became popular. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "parent-child quality" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…　近世豪商の系譜をみると，質屋あがりが意外に多い。伊勢松坂出身の三井家をはじめ，東北から九州まで進出した近江商人中井家，江戸や南部で活躍の小野組，大坂の十一屋羽間家，江戸に親子質網を敷設した大和屋浅古家など一例である。近世後期には都市農村を問わず豪商農が経営する親質が零細な子質から質物を取り資金を融通する元･下質関係が組織され，地域に根ざした取次人を活用する質物金融が盛んになった。…

※「親子質」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報