Dojima Rice Exchange: How Osaka Invented Futures Trading (1730)

The Dojima Rice Exchange in Osaka and the history of futures trading: samurai rice stipends, the house of Yodoya, Tokugawa Yoshimune and the edict of 1730. Traders shouted prices for rice that would never be delivered, until a burning rope ended the day. Gambling or lifeline? This episode follows the story: an economy that measured wealth in rice; the house of Yodoya and the rice-bill market at its door, described by Ihara Saikaku in 1688; the move to Dojima and the confiscation of Yodoya in 1705; Tokugawa Yoshimune, the "rice shogun", and the collapse of rice prices; the bans, the reversals and the edict of 1730 that legalised futures but refused to enforce them in court; how "book rice" deals, clearing houses, flag signals and the burning rope worked; the famine of 1732 and the Edo rice riot of 1733; whether the market worked; and how it ended, from the courts of 1773 to the Meiji ban of 1869 and the wartime closure of 1939. We show where the sources disagree: when the market moved to Dojima (1688 or 1697), who pushed for the 1730 decision (Edo or Osaka merchants), the year of official sanction (1730 or 1773), how many traders were licensed, when the rope was lit, and the size of the 1733 crowd. The story of Yoshimune's box of rice prices is told as a story. This is history only, not trading advice; today's Dojima Exchange is a separate modern company. Earlier: The Ice King (Frederic Tudor):    • Frederic Tudor, the Ice King: How Frozen P...   Forgotten Ledgers tells the little-known stories behind business history. No ads, no sponsors — just the story. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: the burning rope 0:41 Paid in rice 1:28 In front of Yodoya's house 2:28 The fall of Yodoya 3:29 The rice shogun 4:17 Gambling or lifeline? 5:19 The edict of 1730 6:17 Book rice 7:13 The burning rope 8:02 Hunger 8:50 Did it work? 9:36 Courts, chaos and the end 10:28 After 10:58 End Support the channel (viewer-funded only): Ko-fi (one-time or monthly): https://ko-fi.com/forgottenledgers USDT (TRC20 network only): TMmDGBC1HVWexCdsFGQLohBkots9omUtvs Main sources Mark D. West, "Private Ordering at the World's First Futures Exchange", Michigan Law Review 98 (2000), including his translation of the 1730 edict Ihara Saikaku, "Nippon Eitaigura" (1688), passage on the Kitahama rice market; our translation Japanese Wikipedia: "Dōjima kome kaisho", "Yodoya", "Kome kitte", "Chōaimai torihiki", "Tokugawa Yoshimune", "Kyōhō no kaikaku", "Kyōhō no daikikin", "Hatafuri tsūshin", "Kome sōba" Wikipedia: "Dōjima Rice Exchange", "Tokugawa Yoshimune", "Kyōhō Reforms", "Kyōhō famine", "Koku" (claims flagged as claims) Narration voice: Azure AI Speech (synthetic voice). Script researched and written for this channel. Image credits (CC-licensed): The Dojima rice market, from One Hundred Views of Naniwa, 19th century: Utagawa Kunikazu, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Monument at the site of the Dojima rice exchange (photo 2023): Tokumeigakarinoaoshima, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Bales of tax rice, museum display (photo 2016): big-ashb, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Other archival images: public domain or no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons (full list in the project files). Maps and graphics: our own (Natural Earth coastlines). Music: "Ishikari Lore" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... "Ripples" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... #history #businesshistory #documentary