Merchant ship - Gyoshosen

...Generally, husbands and wives engaged in casting net fishing, traveling together to various parts of the Seto Inland Sea, with the wife selling the fish or exchanging them for agricultural products such as rice and wheat, maintaining a division of roles. This form continued in the form of peddling ships, with the husband operating the ship and the wife running various businesses. Eventually, they began to sell specialty products from the Tsuru area, such as mandarin oranges and pumpkins from Oita Prefecture, and other non-agricultural products, but the wife still held the real economic power, and the husband was solely responsible for operating the ship. ...

*Some of the terminology used to refer to "merchant ships" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…一般には，打瀬（うたせ）網漁業に従事し，夫婦同乗して瀬戸内海の各地に出漁し，妻たちが魚を売り歩いたり，米，麦などの農産物と交換する役割分担が維持されてきた。この形態がその後も，行商船の形で残り，夫が船の運航をし，妻がさまざまな商売をするという方式が継続されている。やがて大分県内のミカンやカボチャなど都留近隣の特産物を扱い，その他の農産物以外の商品も販売するようになったが，依然としてその経済的実権は妻が握り，夫はもっぱら船の運航のみを行ってきた。…

※「行商船」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