family! This was not the way of the Osaka rice merchants. This was the second day.

Wednesday saw the process repeated. Homma buying, the others pointedly ignoring the new growers as their carts bought in the new bales. Today there were noticeably fewer bales arriving. The cartel, now openly scornful of Homma watched him again operating in his quiet way and still buying. Homma was not perturbed, he knew things that others didn't know because Homma had that most important of all market jewels.....Homma had an edge! His edge was that he knew things about the market that other traders and merchants did not know. In modern terms he had a huge competitive advantage.

At midday an exhausted horse and its disheveled rider clattered into the town square. The riderrushed to the leader of the Osaka merchants, crouched beside him and whispered fervently. The merchants' news service was catching up with reality. The rider from the north was the last leg of a relay to bring the awful news to the cartel of merchants. Late and unseasonal rains in the major growing areas were ruining the annual rice harvest! There would be no abundant crop this year and rice prices were going up and up as the commodity grew scarce.

Now the Osaka merchants moved with a real sense of urgency as they rushed to the growers. With no abundant supplies to come as the season wore on, they must buy what they could from the local supply. "So sorry" said the largest grower, "all of my rice