Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

Chapter 103 Route Opening

In response to Takeno Joou's praise, Yoshishige remained calm: "I know that it will take time to accomplish this, so I hope you can help me."

"Your Highness, please feel free to tell me what difficulties you have. I will do my best." Wu Ye Shaoou agreed readily.

"Before our family's castle town becomes established, I hope you can serve as the merchant manager of our Takeda family." Yoshishige solemnly requested Takeno Joo.

The Merchant Bureau is an "advanced version" of the imperial merchants. In addition to being responsible for the exchange of materials in peacetime and collecting weapons and food in wartime, as well as other duties of imperial merchants, it must also have high prestige and strength and be able to coordinate and control local merchant groups, similar to the head of the imperial merchants.

In response to Yoshishige's request, Takeno Joou pondered for a moment, and then replied: "Your Highness, I can meet this request, but you also know that I have to travel frequently between Kyoto and Sakai, and I may not have much time to take care of Wakasa. If Your Highness insists on letting me be the merchant, I will obey your order, but from Your Highness's perspective, I am willing to recommend someone to take on this important task."

"Oh? Who is it?" Yi Zhong thought, since it was someone recommended by Takeno Shaoou, he should be good.

"I am not talented. This man is my son-in-law, Imai Hikohachiro Hisahide." Takeno Shao'ou introduced, "Before, he helped take care of my business in Sakai. If Your Highness is willing, I can let him focus on the business in Wakasa in the future."

"Imai Hikohachiro... isn't he one of Takeno Joo's three most famous disciples, Imai Munehisa, who is known as one of the 'Three Great Masters of the World' along with Sen no Rikyu and Tsuda Muneki?" Yoshishige was very satisfied with Imai Hisahide who was introduced by Takeno Joo.

You should know that in history, this person's business involved a wide range of fields such as warehousing, finance (lending), medicine, cannons, and military equipment. The wealth he eventually accumulated was even more than that of Takeno Joo. In addition, with his keen political sense, he became one of the tea people and merchants relied on by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

"Everything is up to you, Excellency." Yizhong bowed and thanked him, then continued: "There is one more thing, which is a little difficult to say..."

"Your Highness, please speak. We are all from the Takeda clan, so please don't be polite when you follow me." Takeno Shaoou responded.

"I would like to borrow some money from you to make up for the income gap caused by the initial implementation of Leshi Lezuo and avoid unrest in the territory." Yishige said embarrassedly. After all, he was the guardian of two countries, but he had fallen to the point of borrowing money from merchants. He couldn't help feeling a little conflicted.

"No problem, Your Highness. How much would you like to borrow?" Wu Ye Shaoou responded readily.

"About 8,000 kan." Yizhong thought for a moment and gave this number. "But I won't use your money for nothing. I will give you and your merchants tax exemptions, including Dongbie money, market money, customs money and many other taxes. Not only that, I will also give you the exclusive right to sell some aquatic products. What do you think?"

In fact, Yoshishige was not short of money at that time. In addition to rewarding retainers, paying tribute to the imperial court and the shogunate, and visiting daimyo, the Asakura family's compensation still had a lot of surplus. The reason why he borrowed money from Takeno Joou was, first, to prepare for emergencies, second, to use the money to strengthen the construction of Tango and Wakasa, and third, to build a strong navy and a medium-sized maritime trade fleet.

"Eight thousand strings of cash, this number is appropriate." Wu Ye Shaoou nodded slightly and said thoughtfully: "How about this, I will just lend you ten thousand strings of cash, and the interest will be as you said just now, how about that?"

"Thank you so much!" With this money, Yoshishige finally breathed a sigh of relief and could start the road to revitalizing Wakasa. On the eighth day of the eighth month in the eighth year of Tenbun (1539), Yoshishige promulgated the "Ohama Castle Town Nakaoki Sho" and the "Takahama Castle Town Nakaoki Sho", and began to explore the Raku City Rakuza with Obama and Takahama as pilot cities in Wakasa.

The above-mentioned documents each have 13 articles, and the basic content is to deny the privileges of the seat, reward merchants to settle in the castle town, allow all merchants to trade freely, exempt them from corvée burdens, eliminate concerns about "virtuous governance", ensure public security, exempt dobetsu fees and market fees, etc.

Due to the good results, the Takeda clan's deputies also followed Obama and Takahama and began to implement Rakuichi Rakuza. In 1542, Yoshishige enacted and promulgated the Rakuichi Rakuza Order, announcing that except for special permission, Rakuichi Rakuza would be implemented throughout the Takeda domain. It took three years for this measure to be fully implemented.

However, Yoshishige's set of Rakuichi and Rakuza was not applicable to all cities in the territory. Considering the special circumstances, Tsuruga, which had developed commerce and strong temple and shrine power, only implemented the "Rakuichi" first, while retaining some "za" to ensure local stability.

The implementation of this policy was not smooth sailing. Temple and shrine forces protested strongly many times, and some even planned to incite an uprising. However, in the end they were either suppressed by Yoshishige or bribed by him with large sums of money, and ultimately did not cause too much chaos in the three areas of Wakasa.

By the way, not long after the two "Castle Town Okitsushika" were issued, Imai Hisahide arrived at the Takeda clan's mansion escorting the 10,000 kan of Eira money that Takeno Joo had promised to lend to Yoshishige.

Yoshishige was particularly enthusiastic about the arrival of Imai Hisahide. After all, compared to Takeno Joo who was far away in Sakai Port, the person in front of him was the "God of Wealth" of the Takeda family in the future.

In the hall of Takeda's residence, Yoshishige met Imai Hisahide. It was hard for him to imagine that this young businessman, who was only one year older than him, would have such a legendary experience and countless wealth in the future.

"Your Highness, on the way here just now, I noticed that the area around the Takeda Clan's mansion is full of merchants and businessmen. This scene is not inferior to Kyoto." Imai Hisahide praised sincerely, "I heard that this is all because of your implementation of the 'Rakuichi Rakuza'. You have such a boldness, which is a blessing for the people of Wakasa."

"Your Excellency, thank you for your compliment," Yoshishige smiled, then said with difficulty, "Although this 'Rakuichi Rakuzo' has attracted many merchants, it has also offended many temples and shrines. A lot of the money you sent is to be 'donated' to these temples and shrines to appease their emotions. At this critical juncture, the slightest carelessness may lead to an uprising. You should know what an uprising means to a country."

Imai Hisahide nodded and said, "The Ikko-ikki in Kinki once forced a powerful daimyo like Hatakeyama Uesuke to death. I am aware of their destructive power. Therefore, it is truly admirable to see that Your Highness has managed to stabilize the situation so well."

After saying that, Hisahide Imai yawned unconsciously.

"It seems that you are tired from the journey. Why don't you go to the villa to rest for a while and then we can discuss in detail at the banquet tonight?" Yi Zhong asked with concern.

"That's not necessary. This distance is nothing to me. I just like to finish what I want to say all at once, and then I can drink and eat meat. This way, I can have no worries."

"In that case, I'll speak frankly." Yizhong pondered for a moment, and finally revealed his plan: "I have two things I would like to ask for your help. One is to assist our family in formulating a new set of tax laws, and the other is to help our family set up a commercial fleet. I'm thinking about whether we can open a route and try to do business with the fleets of Ming and Nanman."

(End of this chapter)