Dōjima Rice Exchange, Rice exchange in Dojimahama, Japan
The Dōjima Rice Exchange was a trading center along the Dōjima River where rice merchants and brokers gathered to buy and sell rice in organized sessions. The building operated as a kaisho, an open trading house where buyers and sellers met face-to-face to negotiate prices and complete transactions.
The exchange was founded in 1697 and grew into one of Japan's most important rice trading centers over the following decades. The Tokugawa shogunate granted it official authority in 1773 to regulate rice commerce across the nation.
The exchange transformed rice from a basic commodity into a sophisticated financial instrument, introducing futures contracts to the Japanese economic system.
The location along the river made the exchange easy to reach by boat and road, and the covered halls protected traders during daily business. Visitors can explore the site to see where merchants gathered and how the trading floor was organized.
This was Japan's first exchange to develop futures contracts for rice, creating a modern financial system centuries before similar practices emerged in Europe. The brokers' system for managing these contracts became a model that influenced how merchants elsewhere understood organized commodity trading.
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