In the Japanese economy, merchants became more and more powerful and wealthy as commerce boomed. The most honorable classes of the daimyos and samurai were paid in a currency of rice, they relied heavily on banker and broker merchants, this ended up causing a disruption in the hierarchy since the samurai were at the mercy of the merchants. To prevent any more animosity between the classes, and to stop merchants from changing the value of rice to control the samurai, merchants were soon granted the same privileges that the samurai got to enjoy. With wealthy merchants enjoying the same rights as the samurai,they became the financial support of the theater, social life blossomed and the arts of japan grew ten-fold. as merchants became more wealthy booming industries and trading bays became prominent (such as the one above).