Suiko

出挙 ／ suiko　—　Institutions

A system in ancient Japan where temples or the state lent rice plants or goods and collected interest. It was the earliest form of moneylending.

Public suiko initially carried an annual interest rate of 50%, while private suiko was permitted up to 100% per year under the Ritsuryō code. It also functioned as a system to prevent famine by distributing seed rice, which transformed the act of lending into one of righteousness. When coins began to circulate in the Kamakura period, the practice shifted primarily to lending coins instead of rice (from the "Sea Routes of Coinage" stop, "Temples as Banks").