merchant greed east farmers moral confucianism east asian japan china samurai

The position of merchants and artisans as morally, as well as socially, below farmers was derived from Chinese Confucian thought that devalued money and greed that inspired the acquisition of wealth. Confucianists considered successful agriculture basic to a well-ordered society. This orientation in viewing merchants as morally inferior also became an abiding concept of samurai Confucianism. In their writings, as Jeffersonian democracy in the early United States, there was an emphasis on the agrarian basis of a just society. The monetary power acquired by merchants and traders was to remain suspect.