JAPAN
to localities. One general rule applied, namely, that the pursuit of trade was considered despicable and degrading. Thus Takeda Shingen, one of the most celebrated representatives of the military class, issued an order forbidding his samurai to discuss matters relating to purchases or sales outside their family circle. Many of the noble houses also showed their independence of vulgar commercial restrictions by using measures and weights of their own for fiscal purposes. Thus a "piece" of cotton cloth might vary from twenty-five to thirty feet in length, and of the masu, or measure of capacity, there were a score, differing more or less in dimensions. One of the Taikō's beneficent reforms was an attempt—not wholly successful—to introduce uniformity in these matters.[1] There are incidental evidences that a somewhat prevalent abuse was the seizure of goods exposed for sale in the market, the grounds of seizure being a pretence that the articles had been stolen; and it is also evident that military men frequently compelled merchants to sell at nominal rates, on the plea that the articles were needed for the Shōgun or for a provincial governor. Efforts to restrain these abuses appear to have been made by many of the feudal nobles, but not with uniform resolution. Some of the principles underlying the laws were remarkable. In the Sendai fief, for example, a rule existed that should a man die without having
- ↑ See Appendix, note 47.
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