Husband seed loan - Fujikitanekashi

Japanese: 夫食種貸 - ふじきたねかし

In the Edo period, this meant that feudal lords would lend peasants food, rice seeds, and wheat for sowing in the event of a poor harvest. In the Edo period, peasants were required to keep only the minimum amount of their harvest necessary to maintain their farming operations and livelihood, and pay the rest to their lords as annual tax. Therefore, peasants' production and livelihoods were extremely unstable, and when they suffered a poor harvest, they immediately ran short of food, rice seeds, and wheat, and they frequently asked their lords to lend them to them. On the other hand, peasants had no choice but to lend food and seeds to peasants in the need to maintain the operations of their peasants, who were the economic base of their own lives, and they did so under the pretext of "relief" based on the lord's "mercy," or "benevolent rule."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

江戸時代，凶作の際に，領主が農民に夫食(食料)や播種用の籾（もみ）･麦を貸与することをいう。江戸時代の農民は，収穫物のうち，農業経営･生活を維持するうえで必要な最低限の量だけ手元に留保し，残りはすべて年貢として領主に上納することを義務づけられていた。したがって，農民の生産･生活はきわめて不安定であり，凶作にみまわれると，たちまち夫食や種籾，麦が欠乏し，彼らは領主に対しその貸与をたびたび願い出た。一方，領主も，みずからの経済的基盤である農民の経営を維持する必要から，夫食種貸を行わざるをえず，領主の〈御慈悲〉に基づく〈御救〉すなわち〈御仁政〉という名目でそれを貸与した。

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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