Domestic Products Association

Also called the Domestic Products Bureau, Product Bureau, Product Association, and Bussan Kaisho. From the mid-Edo period onwards, these were government offices established by feudal domains to promote or control domestic products produced within their territories. Some domains named them after the products that were subject to control, such as the Cotton Association or the Sugar Association. Many domains, which had suffered from financial difficulties from early on, began to focus on specific products within their territories as a source of revenue and actively promoted them, partly due to the implementation of the Shogunate's policy of promoting industry through the Kyoho reforms. They also aimed to earn profits by selling these products exclusively, and so domestic products associations were established in each domain. Influential merchants in the castle town were appointed as presidents or directors of the associations, and they promoted specific products by raising funds, lending them to producers, introducing and teaching technology, and controlling quality, and also collected these products through the associations and shipped them to markets in Edo and Osaka. Many of them also established branch offices in Edo and Osaka for the purpose of selling them. Towards the end of the Edo period, the advancement of rural merchants was remarkable, and in some places, kaisho (trading offices) were established throughout the domains to serve these merchants. The products that were encouraged or controlled by the kaisho were diverse, including paper mulberry, paper, wax, lacquer, lacquer wax, iron, cotton, raw silk, silkworm eggs, textiles, salt, and sugar. In many cases, domain bills were used to collect goods. Due to serious financial difficulties, kaisho often aimed to monopolize products, and some kaisho became targets of attacks by peasant uprisings. The shogunate also established kaisho to control products such as carrots and alum, but at the end of the Edo period, it strengthened industrial control by establishing the Kokumei Kaisho and the Hakodate Products Kaisho.

[Akira Yoshinaga]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

国産方、産物方、産物会所、物産会所ともいう。江戸中期以降、諸藩が領内で生産される国産の奨励または統制を行うために設けた役所。藩によっては統制の対象となった商品名をつけて木綿(もめん)会所、砂糖会所などとよんでいるところもある。早くから財政窮乏に苦しんでいた多くの藩では、幕府の享保(きょうほう)の改革による殖産興業政策の実施もあって、財源として領内における特定産物に注目し、これを積極的に奨励するようになった。また、これの一手販売による利益の獲得を目ざすようになり、国産会所が各藩で設置されることになったのである。会所では城下有力商人が頭取(とうどり)や取締役に任命され、資金の調達と生産者への貸与、技術の導入と指導、品質の管理などを通して特定の産物を奨励し、また、これを会所を通して集荷しては江戸、大坂の市場へ移出した。なかには江戸、大坂に販売を目的とした出先の会所を設けている例も多い。幕末になると、農村の商人の進出も目覚ましく、これら商人を中心に領内各地に会所が設けられたところもある。会所で奨励または統制の対象となった産物は、楮(こうぞ)、紙、櫨(はぜ)、櫨蝋(はぜろう)、漆(うるし)、漆蝋、鉄、綿、木綿(もめん)、生糸(きいと)、蚕種(さんしゅ)、織物、塩、砂糖など多種多様であった。集荷にあたっては藩札(はんさつ)が用いられている例が多い。会所は、深刻な財政難もあって産物の独占を目ざす場合が多く、このため百姓一揆(いっき)の攻撃目標になった会所もある。なお、幕府も会所を設けて人参(にんじん)、みょうばんなどを統制していたが、幕末には国益会所や箱館(はこだて)産物会所を設けて産業統制を強化した。

［吉永　昭］

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