Fushimiya Shirobei - Fushimiya Shirobei

Japanese: 伏見屋四郎兵衛 - ふしみや・しろべえ

Years of birth: unknown. A merchant in the mid-Edo period. Born into a family of lumber merchants in Edo, he took over the family business. He frequented the home of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, who wielded great influence as a chamberlain to the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and in 1695 was granted permission to trade 1,000 kanme of silver, equivalent to 9% of the fixed amount of Nagasaki trade, in barter (substitute exchange) for copper. However, Nagasaki merchants and copper merchants in Osaka opposed this privilege, and this trade ceased after only two years. He had a taste for extravagance, and built an Inari shrine at Shinnyodo in Kyoto, and his daughter married into the Mitsui clan. However, it is said that he starved to death in poverty 20 years after his contract for substitute exchange. <References> Mitsui Takafusa, "Machinin Kogenroku" ("Tokugawa Period Commercial Series", Vol. 1), Nagazumi Yoko, "Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and the Substitute Exchange at Fushimiya" ("Nihon Rekishi", No. 434)

(Yoko Nagatsumi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

生年：生没年不詳
江戸中期の商人。江戸の材木商の家に生まれ,家業をついだ。将軍徳川綱吉の側用人として権勢をふるった柳沢吉保の家に出入りし,元禄8(1695)年に銅との物々交換(代物替)で,長崎貿易定額の9%に当たる銀1000貫目の取引を許可された。しかし長崎商人,大坂の銅商人がこの特権に反対したため,この取引はわずか2年で止んだ。派手好みで京都の真如堂に稲荷社を建て,娘は三井の一族に嫁した。しかし,代物替請負の20年後に困窮の中に餓死したといわれる。<参考文献>三井高房『町人考見録』(『徳川時代商業叢書』1巻),永積洋子「柳沢吉保と伏見屋の代物替」(『日本歴史』434号)

(永積洋子)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

<<: Fuji Musume - Fuji Musume

>>: Fushimi Magistrate