And moreover, he implemented various reforms, such as renewing Edo city through establishing local fire brigades and Koishikawa Hospital, mitigating prohibition of Western knowledge through various measures (lifting an embargo on the import of Western books translated into Chinese characters, permitting cultivation of sweet potatoes, and so on), and handling matters about merchants (issuing Mutual Settlement Decree on money matters, permitting kabu nakama [a kind of cartel formed by wholesalers and other merchants], and so on).