Domain Monopoly System

Japanese: 藩専売制 - はんせんばいせい

The clan monopoly system was a system in which clans in the Edo period monopolized the sale of specific products within their domains or products imported from outside the domains as a means of resolving financial difficulties. It was already in place in the early Edo period, and was implemented in many clans from the mid-Edo period onwards when the clans' financial difficulties became apparent.

[Akira Yoshinaga]

Product monopoly type

The form of monopoly of goods under the feudal domain can be divided into two types: direct purchasing monopoly, where the feudal domain lord directly purchases a specific product, and indirect purchasing monopoly, where the feudal domain lord cooperates with powerful merchants in the castle town and provides them with funds to buy up the product. In some cases, the feudal domain lord also grows or produces the specific product. The sale of the product can be divided into two types: internal distribution monopoly, where the feudal domain lord sells the product exclusively within the domain, and external export monopoly, where the product that the feudal domain lord monopolizes is sent to the Osaka or Edo market for sale. There are also cases where the feudal domain lord does both. In many cases, specialized government offices such as product offices, product associations, and domestic product associations are established to purchase and sell specific products, and some of them have names such as paper associations, cotton associations, and sugar associations, which are named after the product names that are subject to control. In the case of direct purchasing monopoly, feudal domain officials are often appointed as association officials, and in the case of indirect purchasing monopoly, powerful merchants in the castle town or wholesale merchants who handle the products that are subject to control are often appointed as the heads of the associations. In addition, in cases where a monopoly on exports outside the domain existed, there were also cases where the feudal lords set up branch offices in Osaka or Edo, entrusting the sale of goods to powerful wholesale merchants in those areas. The feudal lords needed to prepare funds to buy up goods, but from the mid-period onwards, when domain notes were issued in various domains, a method was put into place in which goods were purchased with domain notes and sent to Osaka or Edo to obtain specie. For this reason, there were also cases where a kaisho for issuing domain notes was set up alongside the kaisho, and in some cases the head of the kaisho, a powerful merchant, also served as the fudamoto (seller of notes). Throughout the period, paper was the most common product subject to monopoly, followed by wax, lacquer, salt, indigo, sugar, ginned cotton, cotton, blue matting, raw silk, silk fabrics, tobacco, agar, konjac, carrots, purple root, alum, and many other products. When the monopoly system was established, people involved in the production and distribution of monopoly goods were prohibited from freely trading their goods, and their lives were inevitably oppressed by the control of the feudal lord. For this reason, movements against the monopoly system spread among producers and middlemen in various places. Some were discontinued due to anti-monopoly movements by the people of the domain, and even if they were implemented, there were very few cases where they continued for a long period of time, except in the case of powerful frontier domains.

[Akira Yoshinaga]

The development of the feudal domain monopoly system

As a concrete example of a monopoly system, the implementation of the salt monopoly system in the Kanazawa Domain can be cited as a representative example of an early monopoly. In this domain, salt had long been produced in salt fields, mainly along the coast of the Noto Peninsula, but around the Kan'ei period (1624-1644), the domain monopolized salt production in exchange for salted rice, and sold it exclusively through wholesalers throughout the domain. As a result, the import of Western salt produced in the Seto Inland Sea into the domain was prohibited. This salt monopoly system continued almost consistently from the early period until the end of the Edo period. Other examples of early monopolies include the implementation of the salt monopoly system in the Sendai Domain and the implementation of the lacquer and wax monopoly system in the Tohoku domains. From the middle period onwards, the domains suffered from financial difficulties and focused on products within their domains other than rice, and implemented policies to encourage industrialization and development with the aim of encouraging these products. Furthermore, when the production of these products became widespread, they aimed to monopolize them through a monopoly system. Or, in places where goods were already produced, they aimed to eliminate the merchants who controlled this production and to monopolize and sell the goods through a monopoly system. Examples of monopolies in the mid-period include the implementation of a paper monopoly in the southwestern domains and the monopoly system for raw silk and silk fabrics in the northeastern domains. Also, each domain implemented a monopoly system for a wide variety of goods. Many of these were export monopolies that sent monopoly goods to the Osaka or Edo markets, and some of them received financial support from influential merchants on the condition that they exported the monopoly goods. In the case of these export monopolies, the goods sent to Osaka or Edo were sold to fellow merchants through bidding by local wholesale merchants or by local exchange officials, and direct sales to the general public or retailers were prohibited. In that sense, the trade of monopoly goods was incorporated into the existing distribution system and was not in conflict with it, and the shogunate also permitted the implementation of the monopoly system. However, as the number of monopolized goods increased, and eventually, at the discretion of the domains, they were shipped directly to each consuming area, excluding Osaka, or traded among domains, the number of goods collected in Osaka decreased, which caused prices to rise. As a result, the shogunate banned the monopoly system in various domains in 1841 (Tenpo 12) when it issued an order to dissolve stock associations as part of the Tenpo Reforms. The most representative example of the later monopoly system is the implementation of a sugar monopoly in the Kagoshima domain. This domain had already implemented a monopoly on sugar and camphor for a time, but as part of the domain government reforms led by Chosho Hirosato, in 1830 (Tenpo 1) it implemented a general purchasing system for Mishima sugar on the islands of Oshima, Tokunoshima, and Kikai, which was then sent to Osaka on Mishima official ships and sold to local brokerage associations, generating large profits. However, it is said that the islanders were forced into slave labor to cultivate sugar.

[Akira Yoshinaga]

"A Study of the Process of the Collapse of Feudal Society" by Takao Tsuchiya (1927, Kobundo Shobo) "The Monopoly System in Early Modern Japan" by Yasuzo Horie (1933, Nippon Hyoronsha) " The Monopoly System in Early Modern Japan" by Akira Yoshinaga (1973, Yoshikawa Kobunkan)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

藩専売制とは、江戸時代に諸藩が財政困窮を解決するための手段として、領内における特定商品、あるいは領外から移入される商品の販売を独占する制度をいう。すでに江戸初期から実施され、諸藩の財政窮乏が表面化する中期以降に多くの藩で実施されている。

［吉永　昭］

商品の独占形態

藩専売制における商品買占めの形態は、領主自身が直接、特定商品の買占めにあたる直接的購買独占と、城下有力商人らと提携し、彼らに資金を与えて買占めを行わせる間接的購買独占の二つに分けることができる。なかには領主自身が特定商品の栽培または生産を行う場合もある。商品の販売にあたっては、領主が領内に一手に売りさばく領内配給独占と、独占した商品を大坂や江戸市場に送って売りさばく領外移出独占との二つに分けることができる。あるいは、両者をともに行っている例もある。多くの場合、特定商品の仕入れおよび販売にあたっては、産物方・産物会所や国産会所といった専門の役所を設置し、なかには統制の対象となる商品名をつけた紙方会所、木綿会所、砂糖会所などといった名称をもつものもある。直接的購買独占の場合、藩の役人が会所役人に任命されている例が多く、間接的購買独占の場合には、城下の有力商人や統制の対象となる商品を扱う問屋商人が会所の頭取に任命されている例が多い。また、領外移出独占の場合、大坂や江戸に出先の大坂・江戸会所を設け、同地の有力問屋商人に商品の販売を任せている例もある。領主は商品の買占めにあたって資金の準備を必要とするが、中期以降、諸藩で藩札が発行されると、藩札をもって商品を購入し、これを大坂・江戸に送って正貨を獲得する方法が実施された。このために会所と並んで藩札発行のための会所を併置した例もあり、なかには会所頭取の有力商人が札元(ふだもと)を兼ねる場合もあった。専売の対象となった商品は、全期間を通して紙がもっとも多く、続いて櫨(はぜ)および櫨蝋(はぜろう)、漆(うるし)および漆蝋、塩、藍(あい)、砂糖、繰綿(くりわた)、木綿、青莚(あおむしろ)、生糸、絹織物、煙草(たばこ)、寒天、蒟蒻(こんにゃく)、人参(にんじん)、紫根(しこん)、明礬(みょうばん)など実に多種多様であった。専売制が開始されると、専売商品の生産および流通に関係する人々は、商品の自由取引を禁止されて、領主の統制によって生活は圧迫されざるをえない。このため各地で生産者や仲買人らによる専売制反対の動きが広まった。なかには、領民の専売制反対の運動によって中止されている例もあり、実施されても長期にわたって継続されている例は、辺境雄藩の場合を除いて非常に少ない。

［吉永　昭］

藩専売制の展開

専売制の具体例としては、まず初期専売の代表的なものとして、金沢藩における塩専売制の実施をあげることができる。この藩では古くから能登(のと)半島の沿岸を中心に、揚浜(あげはま)塩田による製塩が行われていたが、寛永(かんえい)（1624～44）ごろ藩は塩手米(しおてまい)との引き換えの形で製塩を独占し、これを領内各地の問屋を通して一手に売りさばいていた。また、このために瀬戸内で生産された西国塩の領内への輸入は禁止されていた。この塩専売制は初期以降、幕末までほぼ一貫して継続されている。ほかに初期専売制の例としては、仙台藩での塩専売制の実施や東北諸藩における漆蝋専売制の実施などがある。中期以降になると、諸藩は財政窮乏に苦しみ、米以外の領内商品に注目し、これの奨励を目ざして殖産興業政策を実施した。また、その商品の生産が普及すると、専売制による独占を目ざした。あるいは、すでに商品が生産されているところでは、この生産を支配する商人を排除して、それの専売制による独占と販売を目ざした。中期専売の例としては、西南諸藩における紙専売制の実施や、東北諸藩における生糸、絹織物などに対する専売制などがある。また、各藩で多種多様な商品に対する専売制が実施されている。その多くは専売商品を大坂・江戸市場に送る領外移出独占であり、なかには専売商品の移出を条件に、有力商人から資金の援助を受けている例もある。また、この領外移出独占の場合、大坂・江戸へ送られた商品は、同地の問屋商人または出先の会所役人の手によって仲間商人に入札で販売されており、一般庶民や小売への直売は禁止されていた。その意味では、専売商品の取引は既成の流通機構に組み込まれており、それと対立するものではなく、幕府もまた専売制の実施を許可していた。しかし、専売商品が増加し、それがやがて藩の意志によって大坂を排除して各消費地に直送されたり、藩相互間で交易されたりすると、大坂へ集荷する商品は減少し、これが物価騰貴の原因となった。そこで幕府は1841年（天保12）天保(てんぽう)の改革による株仲間解散令のときに、諸藩における専売制を禁止している。後期の専売制をもっとも代表するものとしては、鹿児島藩における砂糖専売制の実施がある。この藩ではすでに一時、砂糖、樟脳(しょうのう)に対する専売を実施していたが、調所広郷(ずしょひろさと)による藩政改革の一環として、1830年（天保1）大島、徳之島、喜界(きかい)島での三島砂糖惣買入(そうかいいれ)制を実施し、これを三島方御用船によって大坂に送り、同地の仲買仲間に販売して大きな収益をあげることができた。しかし、島民たちは徹底した砂糖栽培のために奴隷労働を強制されていたといわれている。

［吉永　昭］

『土屋喬雄著『封建社会崩壊過程の研究』（1927・弘文堂書房）』▽『堀江保蔵著『我が国近世の専売制度』（1933・日本評論社）』▽『吉永昭著『近世の専売制度』（1973・吉川弘文館）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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