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The ''itowappu'' system was a system in which a guild of [[Kyoto]], [[Sakai]], and [[Osaka]]-based textile merchants was granted a monopoly on the domestic sale of Chinese [[silk]] imported by [[VOC|Dutch]] and [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese]] merchants in [[Nagasaki]]. The system was implemented by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] in the 17th century in efforts to better manage the silk market.

The ''itowappu'' system was a system in which a guild of [[Kyoto]], [[Sakai]], and [[Osaka]]-based textile merchants was granted a monopoly on the domestic sale of Chinese [[silk]] imported by [[VOC|Dutch]] and [[Chinese in Nagasaki|Chinese]] merchants in [[Nagasaki]]. The system was implemented by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] in the 17th century in efforts to better manage the silk market.

The system was put into place in [[1604]], and abolished in [[1655]], after which trade in silk returned to being free. The competition of a free market, however, drove prices up, aggravating the problem the shogunate was seeking to solve: namely, that the shogunate desired to see more silk come into the country, and less [[silver]] flow out. Meanwhile, in the intervening time, Chinese and Dutch merchants were permitted entry into the monopoly-holding guild in [[1631]] and [[1641]] respectively.

The system was put into place in [[1604]], and initially applied only to Iberian traders, providing them with a set number of Japanese trading partners who would be able to effect some control over the prices, while Dutch and ''[[shuinsen]]'' merchants were still free to trade with whomever they liked. The system was later expanded to cover the Chinese in [[1631]] and the Dutch in [[1641]] as well, while the ''shuinsen'' system was abolished. However, the fall of the [[Ming Dynasty]] in [[1644]] led to a severe disruption of normal economic patterns, and prices began to rise considerably.

 

The ''itowappu'' system was then abolished in [[1655]], after which trade in silk returned to being free. The competition of a free market, however, drove prices up, aggravating the problem the shogunate was seeking to solve: namely, that the shogunate desired to see more silk come into the country, and less [[silver]] flow out, and also to claim for official coffers a greater portion of the proceeds of trade. Attempts to curtail speculation by having Nagasaki prices posted in [[Osaka]] had little effect.

The system was revived in [[1685]]...

The system was revived in [[1685]]...

==References==

==References==

*Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 52.

*Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 52.

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Economics]]

[[Category:Economics]]