People in government and commerce responded to their eighteenth-century problems more effectively with the premises of kokueki thought than was possible with arguments from traditional modes of thought. Ideologies of service to one's superior gave little justification to avoid performance for the shogun. The bullionist concepts of kokueki thought, however, supported any tendency to restrict official expense outside of the domain, and the rhetoric of kokueki had nothing within it to condemn lack of service to the shogun. Policies of resistance to bakufu duty and Edo life reduced the need for excessive taxation. Emphasis on balance of trade encouraged the domain to choose its markets more freely and to decrease its dependence on Osaka loans. At the level of the individual person, kokueki thought condoned commoners' pursuing a variety of livelihoods or changing one profession for another that was more profitable. This was very unlike the concept of hongyō (“hereditary profession”), which encouraged preservation of the status quo in production arrangements. In this way, kokueki thought was used to argue for economic diversification. It also provided a rationale for protecting livelihoods in Tosa that had become inexorably tied into the export market. The government's involvement in activities to benefit the kokueki became a justification for the extension of its commercial and export tax system.