Changes

*See Dusinberre (Hard Times in the Hometown) pp34-36 for effects of Meiji changeover on port towns. after 1871, han are abolished, and local/regional taxes come to be paid in cash, not in kind, eliminating a large sector of the shipping of rice and other goods through the inland sea. Domainal monopolies and monopsonies also come to an end, exposing local industries to international competition – local industries in salt, cotton, etc. suffer or struggle. // most private merchant shippers (kitamaebune operators) cannot afford to purchase steamships, and so lose out to corporations like Mitsubishi, who can afford such investments, and who then come to dominate the shipping industry.

*See Dusinberre (Hard Times in the Hometown) pp34-36 for effects of Meiji changeover on port towns. after 1871, han are abolished, and local/regional taxes come to be paid in cash, not in kind, eliminating a large sector of the shipping of rice and other goods through the inland sea. Domainal monopolies and monopsonies also come to an end, exposing local industries to international competition – local industries in salt, cotton, etc. suffer or struggle. // most private merchant shippers (kitamaebune operators) cannot afford to purchase steamships, and so lose out to corporations like Mitsubishi, who can afford such investments, and who then come to dominate the shipping industry.