The Rice Market in Japan

We tend to think that the technology ofrom centuries ago was by far inferior to that of today's.

Even though it was hard to acquire advanced technologies without scientific knowledges and industries, people could have builtwere able to create excellent architectures with enormous efforts such as Pthe pyramids or Parthenon, and complicated systems including tradinge economics.

I was surprised to knowdiscover that information about the price of rice iwas conveyed between Osaka and Tokyo within 8 hours in the eighteen18th century.

The distance is about 400 kilometers so that ithe delivery time can be considered as fast as athat made by bus or train.

Considering there were many mountain passes and unbridged riverrivers without bridges along the way, it was an incredible speed.

Furthermore, it didn't take overnever took more than 5 minutes between Osaka and Kyoto, which means that the speed is morewas faster than 500 km/h.

How could they pass the information so fastquickly?

For a long time, rice had been treated likeas currency in Japan.

Taxes were paid with rice, and the economic strength of thea region (i.e, the feudal lords) was expressed in terms of the amount of rice production capability.

The large demand for rice created the Dojima Rice Exchange in Osaka.

In this market, "Ffutures trading" had already been availableinvented.

わー！

People awere eager to know the price as soon as possible to makein order to turn a profits.

Flag signals and express messengers were used in order to fulfill the desire.

One person sends a signal at the top of a mountain and the while another reads the signal from as far away as possible and then relays it to a messenger.

The signal had become complicateds evolved in complexity in order to avoid having the information stolen.

頭がいいですね。

We tend to think that technology ofrom centuries ago was far inferior to that of today.

(or: "think that _the_ technology of centuries ago")

Even though it wais hard to acquire advanced technologies without scientific knowledges and industries, people could have built excellent architectures with enormous efforts such as Pyramids or Parthenon, and created complicated systems, including trading economics.

I was surprised to know that information about the price of rice iwas conveyed between Osaka and Tokyo within 8 hours in the eighteenth century.

The distance is about 400 kilometers so thatres, so it can be considered as fast as a bus or train.

Considering there were many mountain passes and unbridged rivers along the way, it was an incredible speed.

Furthermore, it didn't take overmore than 5 minutes between Osaka and Kyoto, which means that the speed iwas more than 500 km/h.

Taxes were paid with rice, and the economic strength of the region (the feudal lords) was expressed in terms of the amount of rice production capability.

The large demand for rice created the Dojima Rice Exchange in Osaka.

In this market, "Futures trading" had already been availablecome established.

People awere eager to know the price as soon as possible, to make profits.

The signal had becomwas made complicated to avoid having information stolen.

(Alternatively - the signal was encrypted to avoid having information stolen.)