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 ''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. |