 The earliest record of a "toi-otoko" (問男) may be one from 1175, in which a number of Court officials hire an outside boatsman to transport them down the Yodo River.As he was not a servant or agent of the Court, or any manor, but rather a man hired out privately, this represents the emergence of the sorts of private enterprises which would come to dominate the economy centuries later.The "ton'ya" of the Edo period were little different, essentially acting as independent agents for specific elements of the domestic trade; most often they were shippers, but many were local handlers, middlemen, or warehousers.