Abstract
In previous ie studies, merchant houses have been conceptualized as units of genealogical federations and ie enterprises. This phenomenon was common in ordinary merchant houses before the Meiji Era. However, under this conceptualization, we cannot grasp the ie of large merchant houses which became bigger, particularly in the Meiji Era, and became bureaucratized commercial corporations. In these houses, these two components of genealogical federations and ie enterprises were divided. Through the analysis of the constitution of the family, as defined by each family, I would like to show that people in these classes thought of their whole enterprises as ie, even though the managers of enterprises were not always the members of genealogical federations.
As a conclusion, I will point out that members of genealogical federations were able to combine ie and enterprises by monopolizing the capital available to them. The concept of property being owned by individuals was introduced in the Meiji Era by the state. But these houses did not adopt this new concept into their family constitutions. They prescribed that the capital was not owned by individuals but by members of genealogical federations jointly so as to maintain their ie property.
