, credit was completely undermined by the issue of this
decree. It is strange that such conditions should have existed under
such a ruler as Yoshimune. But even his strenuous influence did not
suffice to stem the current of the time. The mercantile instinct
pervaded all the transactions of every-day life. If a man desired to
adopt a son, he attached much less importance to the latter's social
status or personality than to the dimensions of his fortune, and thus
it came about that the family names of petty feudatories were freely
bought and sold. Yoshimune strictly interdicted this practice, but
his veto had no efficiency; wealthy farmers or merchants freely
purchased their way into titled families. From this abuse to
extortion of money by threats the interval was not long, and the
outcome, where farmers were victims, took the form of agrarian riots.
It was to the merchants, who stood between the farmers and the
samurai, that fortune offered conspicuously favourable opportunities
in these circumstances. The tradesmen of the era became the centre of
extravagance and luxury, so that in a certain sense the history of
the Yedo Bakufu may be said to be the history of mercantile
development.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

Yoshimune devoted much attention to the encouragement of industrial
progress. Deeming that a large import of drugs and sugar caused a
ruinous drain of specie, he sent experts hither and thither through
the country to encourage the domestic production of these staples as
well as of vegetable wax. The feudatories, in compliance with his
suggestion, took similar steps, and from this time tobacco growing in
Sagami and Satsuma; the weaving industry in Kotsuke and Shimotsuke;
sericulture in Kotsuke, Shinano, Mutsu, and Dewa; indigo cultivation
in Awa; orange growing in Kii, and the curing of bonito in Tosa and
Satsuma--all these began to flourish. Another feature of the time was
the cultivation of the sweet potato at the suggestion of Aoki Konyo,
who saw in this vegetable a unique provision against famine.
Irrigation and drainage works also received official attention, as
did the reclamation of rice-growing areas and the storing of cereals.

THE NINTH SHOGUN, IESHIGE

In 1745, Yoshimune resigned his office to his son, Ieshige, who,
having been born in 1702, was now in his forty-third year. Yoshimune
had three sons, Ieshige, Munetake, and Munetada. Of these the most
promising was the second, Munetake, whose taste for li