''Kabunakama'' (株仲間) were merchant guilds in

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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, which developed out of the basic merchants' associations known as '' nakama''. The ''kabunakama'' were entrusted by the

shogunate , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

to manage their respective trades, and were allowed to enjoy a monopoly in their given field. Some ''kabunakama'', known as ''gomen-kabu'', were even allowed to set prices and manage the operations of other ''nakama''. Though the shogunate originally opposed monopolies, they eventually gave in to the increasing numbers and organization of merchants' associations, and decided to make an attempt to control them by officially licensing them. In 1721, the government began to authorize individual ''nakama'' to become ''kabunakama'' (''kabu'' refers to "

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", though these were themselves not tradeable), and to oversee the organization and trade within given fields. The goal was to encourage cooperation, not competition, and always to work towards the goal of advancing the economy. It is said that these groups became quite social and merchants' moral codes thus developed to a significant degree. Those who were not following ethical market behavior, behaving uncooperatively, or encouraging competition, were shunned by their ''kabunakama'' comrades, and likely by the larger market community. The structure was originally created to replace older guilds, known as '' za'', and by 1785, there were over one hundred ''kabunakama'' in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

alone, including a number granted special privileges by the shogunate, but taxed heavily in exchange. Some of these were groups entrusted and authorized to control the nation's trade in precious metals, iron, and copper. In the 1840s, ''

rōjū The , usually translated as ''Elder (administrative title), Elder'', was one of the highest-ranking government posts under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan. The term refers either to individual Elders, or to the Council of Elders as a wh ...

'' Mizuno Tadakuni attempted to do away with the ''kabunakama'', in order to combat monopolies, but this and many of his other reforms were resisted so strongly by the merchants of Osaka (and others) that he was forced to abandon his efforts. The ''kabunakama'' were all dissolved, however, in 1870 as the economy modernized and new forms of business associations appeared.

References

*Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. *Sansom, George (1963). "A History of Japan: 1615-1867." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. {{Authority control Economy of feudal Japan Cartels Guilds in Japan Japanese stock traders Types of business entity