Fudasashi

札差 ／ fudasashi　—　People & places

Merchants in Kuramae, Edo, who converted the rice stipends of hatamoto and gokenin samurai into cash and provided loans using the warehoused rice as collateral.

Their business operated on thin margins, with a commission of three bu of gold per hundred bales of rice. They grew wealthy through high-interest loans secured by the warehoused rice. When the Kansei Edict of 1789 cancelled old debts, they stopped lending. It was not the debt that disappeared, but trust. (From Tei in "The Sea Route of Money: Famine and Riots").