tariff, crop tax, borrowing
租 centers on a levy on agricultural produce: a tax paid in crops, or more broadly a tariff. The borrowing sense is a separate, less common application.
租 combines 禾 (grain plant) with 且, which likely contributes the sound and may relate to a platform or offering, together suggesting a tax paid in grain.
The grain plant 禾 beside 且 looks like a pile of harvested crops being measured for the tax collector. Think of a farmer handing over a portion of the harvest as a crop tax.
For ソ, imagine a farmer sewing a bag of grain to pay the tax: sew -> ソ, and the grain 禾 is the tariff.
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taxes; taxation
lease (of territory)
rice tax (ritsuryō system); rice levy; tax on rice fields
land tax
Shanghai International Settlement
tax-exempt rice field (ritsuryō system)
tax exemption
tax-exempt land
public tax
taxes and public dues
foreign concession jointly administered by multiple countries (in China; e.g. the Shanghai International Settlement)
foreign concession administered by a single country (in China)
annual tax
farm tariff; rice field tax
leased territory; foreign concession
lease(hold)
corvee; taxes in kind or service (ritsuryō system)
(foreign) concession (in China); settlement
incidence of taxation; tax incidence
tax avoidance