The Development of Loan Certificates in the Middle Ages and "Shichiken no Ho"(質券の法)

Abstract

Loan certificates in the middle ages were coupled with shichiken (pledge certificates 質券) or nagashibumi (pledge forfeiture certificates 流文) and were passed on from generation to generation as kugen (official certificates 公験) and tetsugi (documents certifying transfer of real estate 手継). In content, they had the compound function of loan contracts and at the same time shichiken or shichinagarejo (pledge forfeiture certificates 質流状). The origin is evident in the shakusenge (loan certificates 借銭解) preserved in the Shoso-In repository, though there were two formats, one with and one without the original signature of the debtor. Loan certificates did not exist in the 8^<th>, 9^<th> and 10^<th> centuries, when shisuiko (private usury 私出挙) real estate pledges and trade in pledged goods were prohibited-but they were revived during the Insei (Cloistered Emperor) Period. The kaihotsubumi (開発文) or shichiken, appended as document pledge, as well as nagashibumi, watashibumi (渡文) and hanachibumi (放文), which certified the transfer of real rights, were considered to be important as tategami (independent formal documents 竪紙) and, in combination with the loan certificate, were treated as tetsugi documents certifying transfer of real estate, as the honken (actual certificate 本券) and honkugen (actual official certificate 本公験), and were kept in safekeeping and passed on to later generations. An examination of the function of such loan certificates as shichiken and nagashijichi mongon (流質文言) shows that, in actual practice, pledges were not forfeited when the deadline passed and loan certificates themselves did not demonstrate binding force like nagashibumi. There was a local law dealing with pledge certificate, called as "shichiken no ho" and, as long as debtors had the intention to repay an obligation or make redemption, the creditor had the obligation to return the pledged item, hostage or pledge certificate. This law also applied to warrior law and became incorporated in the law of the imperial court that obestate proprietors. Furthermore, the common custom that "laws of property inheritance do not apply to pledged land" also functioned and, in the middle ages, pledged articls were not forfeited contrary to the wishes of the debtor. The right of pledge redemption, even for items that were forfeited based on the ichibai (double payback一倍法) law, continued on for a long time. It could be said that loan forfeiture certificates in the middle ages were simple security documents that did not in themselves automatically demonstrate the binding force of pledge forfeitures.