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Huh, I'd never noticed that before. My first inclination would be that it's an error. Starting wealth is based primarily on how much junk a character needs at the beginning of the game (in particular, how spendy the armor they're likely to buy is.) Flavor also appears to play a small role in it, and the whole system turns out kind of dubious because basic ranged weapons are inexplicably more expensive than anything else. Flavor also plays a small role, but there's no part of the flavor of a samurai that suggests that he'd be especially poor compared to, like, a fighter.
Full BAB armored classes get 175 across the board, except for the barbarian, who I assume is being Arbitrarily Hosed By Flavor (TM). That the Samurai is poor to begin with for no clear reason strikes me as either an editing error, a mystifying flavor choice, or - this one's pretty unlikely - an assignment made without understanding of why starting wealth works the way it does.
It certainly isn't historically accurate. Samurai were often part of the ruling class.
The class that often got staked, stoned, drowned and burned by more than one society. The more nomadic the society, the more likely it was to have mystics. However, the more organized or secular the society the more those types of people were shunned.
Was an answer ever given for this?
Was an answer ever given for this?
It does not appear so.
It may be an attempt to balance the increased power of the samurai class over the cavalier at low levels when the teamwork abilities of the cavalier become useful.