History
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, as Japan's economy continued to develop and modernize in many ways, the ie adapted, changing and growing to meet the demands of the new economic situation. Many became banks, trading originally in rice (which was essentially currency; see koku) and later in paper and metal currency. In doing so, they began to replace the Osaka rice brokers; by 1868, the Osaka rice brokers, in many ways the first bankers in Japan, had disappeared. The next step in the development of the ie would come with the opening of Japan to foreign trade in the 1850s-60s. Many ie reorganized and came to be known as sōgō shōsha (総合商社), trading companies which focused on exchanging domestic goods for foreign goods, which they would then resell in Japan's major cities. By the beginning of the 20th century, the ie had disappeared. However, many were not eliminated, but rather transformed into modern sōgō shōsha, zaibatsu, and banks.
Read more about this topic: Ie (trading Houses)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)