2024 Volume 41 Pages 16-36
In this article, I summarize the history of research on private financing in early modern Japan. In particular, I focus on “house and grounds-collateralized financing” (kajichi kin’yū), which was the representative approach to getting financing in urban areas, and “farmland-collateralized financing” (shichichi kin’yū), which was the representative approach for obtaining financing in farm villages. “House and grounds-collateralized financing” entailed cash lending and borrowing with a home or estate serving as collateral, while “farmland-collateralized financing” entailed cash lending and borrowing farmlands (farm village real estate) serving as collateral. In early modern Japan, both were employed as relatively safe financial transactions; they have attracted the attention of scholars studying legal history and also those studying economic history. However, the dialogue between the legal historians and the economic historians has to date been inadequate. It would be safe to say that the research has accumulated in their separate fields. Accordingly, in this article, we explain the regional differences with regard to the legal system in early modern Japan as well as “superior vs. inferior” in terms of claim protections (saiken hogo). Based on a deepening of our understanding of claim protections with regard to house and grounds-collateralized financing and farmland-collateralized financing, we will consider the degree of impact that debt protections had on interest rates.
