This study aims to examine changes in fiscal management during the urbanization of the country towns in the late Tokugawa period. Country towns were not capitals of the Shogunate or domains (han). Since these country towns were governed not as castle towns but as villages, the residents, including merchants and craftsmen, were legally classified as peasants (hyakusho). Additionally, the Kokudaka system (tax system based on assessed rice yield) applied to these country towns. On the other hand, in country towns, when the population and economy grew during the late Tokugawa period, most of the farmland was converted to housing or commercial land to build and rent houses or stores. However, this land development did not affect the Kokudaka system. Therefore, there was a conflict between the Kokudaka system and urbanization based on the economic growth in these country towns. Consequently, a new public policy was developed to solve this conflict. After surveying how much of the farmland had been converted to housing or commercial land in 64 country towns, this study discusses the above-mentioned conflict and its resolution in the case of Sawara. The discussed facts are as follows. (1) In many country towns, housing or commercial land had increased by about 50% or 300% from the late 17th to late 19th century due to the conversion of farmland to housing or commercial land. (2) Due to increasing profits from housing or commercial land, wealthier people, such as merchants and landowners, began acquiring housing or commercial land instead of farmland. Assessing their capacity to pay taxes, the tax basis for housing or commercial land, established by lords, was fixed at a relatively low rate. (3) Therefore, country towns set their own tax rate for housing or commercial lands higher than that for farmlands. This change in fiscal management reduced imbalances in the tax burden between housing or commercial land and farmland. (4) On the other hand, in the resident register, there were much confusion and many mistakes. This was because more detailed field investigations were required in the resident register due to the land conversion. (5) Accordingly, country town officials made neighborhoods conduct field investigations and register residents on their behalf. Consequently, the confusion was also resolved.

In the late Edo period, during a period when the local market was growing, local merchants played important roles in the development of both the local economy and local autonomy. Some of the merchants who assisted with local management became involved in the financial administration of the feudal lords, especially hatamoto. This paper examines the ways in which their participation changed the financial system of the hatamoto lord, and the role of the hatamoto lord's finance in the local community. The key finding of this paper is that a budget surplus, known as the "betsukado tsumioki kin", was created and used, not for the lord's own family, but to support local economic development and infrastructure improvement. This paper also shows that repayment to local creditors took precedence over repayment to metropolitan creditors. Furthermore, a deposit of ten percent per annum was set aside for the lord's household and military expenditure, and these funds could not be used for local administration. From this we can see the incentives for local merchants to block cash outflow from the local area and accumulate wealth within. That is to say, their participation changed the hatamoto lord's finances to local public finance.

This article is an attempt to clarify the characteristics of Japanese urban communities known as zaikata-machi 在方町, which differed from the three metropolises of Edo, Osaka and Kyoto or other castle towns. Many of these towns unaffiliated to castles, which were composed of residents with the status of hyakusho 百姓 (commoner) and consisted of several basic township units (cho 町 neighborhoods), prospered economically (especially in the Kanto region) beginning in the late 18th century. In this article, the author discusses and analyzes the by-laws indigenous to each cho of two Kanto region zaikata-machi, Chichibu and Sawara, in order to reveal some interesting characteristics and functions of these cho neighborhoods, contrasting them to their counterparts in the three metropolises and other castle towns. To begin with, the provisions in the law regarding cho membership were extremely few in number and simple in content. Furthermore, there were no provisions delineating special requirements for membership, regulating how residents disposed of their houses and the lots on which they were built or restricting their occupations. Secondly, the resident members of cho neighborhoods were composed of not only house-and-lot owners, but also many tenants renting houses or lots. Tenants were also eligible to hold representative and administrative positions in their cho neighborhoods. Based on these facts, the author comes to the conclusion that cho neighborhoods in zaikata-machi should be considered as organizations through which residents cooperated with one another for their livelihoods and self-defense, on the sole condition of living in a commonly shared space. In this sense, it is possible to argue that zaikata-machi were far less restricted and more open to new owners and tenants occupying available houses or lots than the three metropolises or other castle towns.

identifier:19 identifier:KJ00005046484