With the development of distribution economy, water transport became active and large temples and shrines, which suffered from the decrease of nengu (land tax) from shoen, tried to collect sekisen (toll) from the ships to maintain the income.
流通経済の発達で国内の水運がさかんになると、荘園からの年貢減少に苦しむ大寺社ではその維持のために船から関銭を徴収することとした。