Every domain had faced serious financial difficulties since the middle of Edo period, and barely survived by borrowing money from leading merchants in Osaka etc, so-called "daimyo-gashi" (lending money to daimyo), or collecting goyokin (money temporarily charged on farmers and merchants) from the people of the domain.
既に江戸時代中期頃から各藩ともに深刻な財政難を抱えており、大坂などの有力商人からいわゆる「大名貸」を受けたり領民から御用金を徴収するなどして辛うじて凌いでいた。