Koshini-gata

Koshini-gata was a system in which some domains engaged in the Edo period, in order to glean official revenues out of private trade activities. The system involved establishing a series of warehouses in the domain's ports, run by goyô shônin (private merchants officially commissioned/employed by the domain), which would make out loans to private shippers, paying the interest on the loans (or some portion of the interest) into the domain coffers.

Chôshû han established such a system beginning in the 1790s. Warehouses in Shimonoseki, Murozumi, Kaminoseki, and elsewhere offered warehouse space to private merchants, using the goods stored in the warehouses as collateral for loans. The merchants then spent their borrowed money on local goods (thus aiding the domain's economy) or on goods carried by other passing ships, and paid interest to the warehousers, which was then passed on to the domain.

References

• Martin Dusinberre, Hard Times in the Hometown: A History of Community Survival in Modern Japan, University of Hawaii Press (2012), 26-27.