Rice Exchange (TWS2)
| Rice Exchange (TWS2) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chain | Market Type |
| Requires | Buildings: |
| Enables | Buildings: |
| Spawned Defence Forces | - |
| Basic Building Statistics | |
| Clan Effects | |
| See main article; FotS Buildings | |
Description
There is much to be learned from the prattle of merchants.
A rice exchange significantly improves a province’s wealth and growth. Rather than each village relying on its own crops and living from harvest to harvest, an exchange allows merchants to buy up rice crops, and ship them to market as needed. Overall, the effect is to even out the good and bad harvests at some cost to the peasants, who may not always be able to afford the food they have grown.
Merchants were part of the social class of chonin, or townsmen. This gave them few privileges compared to the samurai warrior class. However, they were able to amass considerable wealth. This helped them survive the transition from an age of warfare to an age of enforced peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. Business went on as usual and, if anything, improved. In the long run, the samurai were not so fortunate: their social caste meant that they could not work and retain their honour as samurai. The strict social edicts of the Tokugawas didn’t help either, and many samurai were reduced to penury when there was no longer constant warfare.
Other Information
This building is rarely worth it. Compared to the Market it provides +5 to Town Wealth per turn and +300 to region wealth, but because it consumes 1 food it provides -1 to Town Wealth per turn to ALL provinces. If you are trying to increase Town Wealth in your Empire (as opposed Taxing it heavily for short term gain) you might even want to burn down Rice Exchanges when you capture regions with them.
If you want it anyways, try to find a province that good wealth potential (Fertile/Very Fertile Soil, Nanban Port, Goldmine, etc), and/or has the Intellectual Chain for superior Metsukes. Build it there and leave a good Metsuke in the province to increase taxation in the region. In a very rich providence with a Metsuke who increases Tax Income getting extra Wealth can be worth the food loss elsewhere, particularly if you upgrade it to a Kabunakama eventually.
