Advance payment of annual taxes

Japanese: 年貢先納 - ねんぐせんのう

Taxes paid by villagers before the due date at the command of the feudal lord or land steward. As most of them were paid in cash, they were also called advance payments. The economy of feudal lords in the Edo period, based on the rice tax system, was in principle supported by the collection of rice taxes, so the feudal lord's revenue was limited to the autumn harvest season. However, due to the burden of alternate attendance, reductions in revenue due to natural disasters, transfers of duties, succession of family headship, and frequent emergency expenses such as the burning of Edo mansions, borrowing money from both within and outside the domain before the due date became a regular occurrence from an early stage. Daimyo-kashi, represented by wealthy merchants in Kyoto and Osaka, generally used future tax rice as collateral and repaid with the proceeds of the sale of the feudal lord's rice sent to the central market during the harvest season. However, as debts accumulated and repayments were repeatedly delayed or written off, it became difficult for the feudal lord to borrow from outside the domain, where the power of the feudal lord was not in its reach.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

領主や地頭の命によって村方から納期以前に納める年貢。その多くは貨幣納とされたから，先納金とも呼ばれた。　石高制にもとづく江戸時代の領主経済は，原則として米納年貢の収取によって賄われたから，領主の歳入は秋の収穫期に限られたわけであるが，参勤交代の負担や天災による歳入の減収，役替え，家督相続，江戸屋敷の類焼など臨時支出の頻発によって，収納期前の領内外からの借入金が，早い時期から恒常化していた。京都，大坂の富商に代表される大名貸は，将来の年貢米を担保とし，収穫期に中央市場に回送される領主米の販売代銀で返済するのが一般であったが，債務の累積によって返済の延滞や切捨てがたび重なるにつれて，領主権力の及ばないそのような領外からの借入を困難にしていった。

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

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