Chapter 53: Owari Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau
“Ah, right, I still need to sell them…”
As Yuan Ye inquired, A Man snapped out of her blissful fantasy of bathing in fine wine. After all, soy sauce alone was useless; it couldn’t be used for bathing. She needed to convert it into money to indulge in debauchery and truly start enjoying life.
Since it concerned her grand plan for enjoyment, she was eager to take charge. She puffed out her chest, ready to declare that selling it was no problem, but as she raised her hand, she dared not slap it down—this matter was completely different from what she had imagined!
Yuan Ye had merely asked if she could sell the soy sauce if she had any. In her mind, soy sauce was only a few *shi* at most. She figured she could find some of her grandfather’s merchant friends and sell it off, either directly or on consignment.
But it was clearly not the case here. Yuan Ye could brew several *shi* in seven or eight days, and this was just the beginning without any scale. In the future, producing a hundred *shi* a month would be easy, and he could even keep increasing production, driving all other soy sauce workshops in Tōkaidō and even the entire world out of business.
With such a large volume, she couldn’t handle it. She really didn’t dare to slap her chest.
Given the gravity of the situation, she hesitated for a moment, then scratched her face and said with an embarrassed expression, “Sell it… the volume is too large. I can’t sell this much soy sauce. You’ll need to find a way to ask the old monk.”
“The old monk?”
“Yes, you need to find the old monk! The Lower Four Districts of Owari Province are within the sphere of influence of Soto Zen. You need to find the old monk at Kannon Temple, one who has authority. You need his permission to sell this much soy sauce.” A Man added, “You’re not just selling these few jars, are you? You plan to sell them long-term, right?”
“Of course!” Yuan Ye planned to renovate his new home thoroughly, even designing a central air conditioning system. He was just waiting for enough money to start. Otherwise, he’d surely die of heat in the summer. Selling only three to five thousand jars of soy sauce wouldn’t be enough to complete the plan. But he hadn’t expected Kannon Temple to be involved, and he couldn’t help but ask curiously, “What does this have to do with them? Don’t you know any merchants? Can’t you just sell it to merchants directly?”
A Man shook her head without a second thought. “No, the volume is too large! Three to five *shi*, or even a bit more, is fine. If you secretly sell it to a merchant, no one will notice, and even if they do, no one will care. But if you sell dozens or hundreds of *shi* every month, it’s impossible to hide. Without the old monk’s consent, no merchant would dare to accept your goods. If they did, the monks would raid their shops directly, and they wouldn’t be able to be merchants anymore. The losses would be immense; they’re not that foolish!”
Yuan Ye was confused. It sounded like the monks were also acting as the “Industry and Commerce Administration,” responsible for managing the market? What was she even talking about!
He said displeasedly, “What exactly is going on? Explain it clearly! Who can understand this without any context!”
His tone wasn’t good, and A Man wasn’t his servant, so she immediately became unhappy and retorted, “Are you blaming me because you lack common sense? I’ve already explained it very clearly!”
“I’m not blaming you, I’m not blaming you!” Yuan Ye couldn’t do without her right now. A wise person knows when to yield. His attitude immediately softened. He handed the soup bowl to her and began to respect her again, humbly asking, “But I really didn’t understand. Do monks manage merchants?”
A Man was satisfied. She took a sip of the radish soy sauce soup and felt that the soy sauce was indeed good. Even the bland, dry radish tasted savory and delicious when boiled like this, starting to become quite palatable.
After sipping the radish soup a couple of times, she perked up her Dou Dou Eyebrows and said somewhat demurely, “This is a long story. It goes back hundreds of years…”
“Then make it a short story. Just briefly mention the old, trivial matters.” Yuan Ye interrupted her directly, indicating that unimportant historical trivia could be summarized. If such things were in a novel, readers wouldn’t like them, and he wasn’t very interested either.
“Alright!” A Man was still eating his rice, so she was obedient. After thinking for a moment, she said, “In the past, the government… do you know what the government is? It’s those imperial family nobles and dignitaries in the court. Those people controlled the world back then, and everyone could get a share of the benefits. Each family could monopolize one or several industries and had sales monopoly rights and tax exemption rights in related fields.
For example, there was an incident in Kyoto where a dignitary monopolized the fish catch sales rights. Not only did he open his own fish market, but everyone else selling fish catch had to give him a share, or he could prohibit that person from engaging in any fish-related industry. Another dignitary monopolized the salt industry, and everyone selling salt had to give him a share, or they couldn’t do business.
Then one day, the dignitary who monopolized the salt industry discovered that salted fish sold very well in the market, and salted fish had salt crystals on them. So, he declared that salted fish counted as salt and that he should be paid from then on. This angered the one in charge of fish, who argued that salted fish should be considered fish, and the money should still go to him.
The two argued fiercely, and neither could win. So, they summoned their samurai and fought violently in Kyoto, resulting in many deaths and a significant impact. Finally, the matter was brought before the Emperor to be resolved.”
Yuan Ye was speechless. He roughly understood the meaning, but this was too brief, omitting the era, names, and official positions. It also sounded a bit fantastical. Did the Japanese court manage commerce like this? The more he listened, the more it sounded like playing house—the ancient Japanese court seemed like a giant makeshift stage!
But since A Man said so, he decided to believe her for now and couldn’t help but ask, “So, who won in the end?”
“The one in charge of salt won,” A Man didn’t keep him in suspense. “He was the Emperor’s maternal uncle. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been in charge of salt. So, to this day, salted fish are not fish, just like rabbits are not birds.”
Yuan Ye nodded, recalling that it seemed to be the same in modern Japan. Salted fish were a type of seasoning and not really considered fish.
He pondered for a moment and then signaled A Man to continue. A Man recalled and said, “Then the samurai rose to power, and the court nobles were sidelined, unable to manage the entire country. These monopoly sales rights became nominal. So, they sold these rights to temple families. For example, the initial iron smelting rights were sold to Tōdai-ji Temple, which then specialized in iron smelting. If any blacksmith didn’t pay Tōdai-ji Temple, the temple could expel them from the industry or even confiscate their shop.”
Yuan Ye finally began to understand and nodded slightly. “So, the monopoly sales rights for all industries are now in the hands of the monks?”
“And the tax exemption rights are also in their hands. They don’t pay taxes, at most giving the court a pittance every year.” A Man’s wealth-resentment resurfaced. Seeing others make money made her feel worse than losing money herself, and she said unhappily, “The court is powerless now and can’t afford to offend the samurai. They can’t interfere in local affairs, but the temple families are numerous enough to support a large group of warrior monks and a bunch of brainless followers. Local samurai wouldn’t dare to provoke them easily, let alone try to collect taxes from them. Thus, those monks have become increasingly wealthy, each as fat as a wild boar, their droppings oozing oil!”
She paused and, to strengthen her argument, emphasized again, “There’s a children’s rhyme that goes like this: The world’s wealth is one *shi*. Gods and Buddhas get nine *dou*, samurai get three *dou*, the Emperor and court eat leftovers, half a *dou* to fill their mouths. This rhyme is sung everywhere. The gods and Buddhas mentioned refer to temples of various sects and regions, so monks managing merchants is common knowledge that everyone knows.”
Yuan Ye nodded slightly, indicating he understood, but then immediately asked curiously, “Is it sung incorrectly? Isn’t that one *shi* and two and a half *dou*?”
“And us!” A Man pointed to herself, looking displeased. “We commoners and scoundrels, worse than cattle and horses, owe them two and a half *dou*!”
This had a modern feel to it. Japan was quite advanced in this regard, entering a society of indebted cattle and horses five hundred years early.
Yuan Ye grumbled inwardly, finally understanding what was going on. He also recalled that the old monk Haixin at Aragiko Kannon Temple had mentioned before that most merchants in the Lower Four Districts of Owari Province received their *kangō* from him.
At the time, he had wondered what that meant. Now he saw that the old monk was indeed one of the “Directors of Owari Industry and Commerce,” or at least an “Executive Deputy Director,” holding monopoly sales rights for most industries. Merchants indeed needed to obtain a “business license” from him, pay him a fee, and dared not indiscriminately purchase bulk goods without his consent to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Moreover, he finally understood how the Japanese Medieval Period operated. The court held the righteousness and legitimacy, the temple families managed industry and commerce, the samurai were responsible for managing land, grain, and various raw materials, and the rest of the commoners, merchants, and scoundrels were responsible for being beasts of burden…
The division of labor was clear, and they cooperated with each other. Some aspects were reasonable, and it seemed to operate very smoothly!
After figuring it out, Yuan Ye was utterly speechless. “In other words, if I want to sell soy sauce in large quantities, I can’t bypass Kannon Temple at all. I have to obtain sales permission from them and pay them a sum of money?”
A Man scratched her face and hesitated for a moment before saying, “Based on past events, it’s probably not just paying a sum of money. If you have something good, Kannon Temple will likely buy all of it. Then they will distribute it to the merchants under them for exclusive sale, or even resell it to other regions to make money.”
Yuan Ye was rendered speechless. To do business, he had to be exploited by the monks first, and by a group of shameless monks at that. This was too frustrating!
He thought for a moment, feeling somewhat unwilling, and asked A Man again, “Is there no other way?”
A Man noticed that Yuan Ye seemed to have some objections to Kannon Temple and couldn’t help but ask, “Did Kannon Temple offend you before? It’s indeed a bit unpleasant to have them take a cut, but there’s no other way. Besides, associating with them isn’t without benefits. If you can help those monks make money, you’ll be considered one of them. They’ll be happy to provide you with working capital, help you collect debts, and offer a certain degree of protection, so no one will easily dare to harm you.”
Yuan Ye didn’t deny it and said directly, “Offended… it’s not exactly an offense, I just don’t like them. So, is there any other way?”
A Man didn’t quite understand but still said, “If you don’t want to deal with the Kannon Temple faction, then you can only go to the Shōtoku-ji Temple faction in the Upper Four Districts.”
“The Shōtoku-ji Temple faction?”
“Yes, it’s a Nichiren Buddhism temple. Its overall strength is even greater than the Soto Zen Kannon Temple faction.”
Yuan Ye nodded slightly. Perhaps Shōtoku-ji Temple would perform better than Kannon Temple. It seemed he could try talking to them first. Before he could decide, he suddenly heard a dull bell sound from outside, making his heart leap and then sink.
A Man also heard it. She jolted and sprang up, exclaiming in surprise, “It’s the alarm bell! An enemy attack!?”
