Legal History Review

According to the Laws of Manu, trade was the occupation of Vaisya only. In the Laws of Manu, I find many kinds of contracts, and also I find many commodities. Money is also used. Manu provides for the cases where contract is null and void. Those are; contract by a person without legal capacity, contract against public policy or good morals, ." contract by fraud, contract by one who is under the authority of someone and contract by enforcement.
In the Manu, I find rules of exchange of goods. I think that the legal effect is the same as that of sale.
Manu says, a gift or sale, made by anybody else but the owner, must be considered as null and void. When a man buys something which is stolen from someone, Manu says, "He who obtains a chattel in the market before a number of witnesses, acquires that chattel with a clear legal title of purchase." Dissolution of the sale must be done in ten days after that bargain.
About the gift, Manu says, when money is given by one man to another, but the recipient does not use that money within manner promised, the gift shall be void. I find in the Manu, gift of man or gift of all kinds of property for pious purpose etc.
I would like to study other contracts hereafter.

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Through the Boshin (_??__??_) War of 1868, the Meiji Government tried to defeat the remaining Shogunate powers by the military force, and to build up a new centralized State of the Emperor's rule with the 8th Century Ritsuryo(_??__??_). The mobilization of military powers took the form of dispatching the Chinbushi (Suppressor), and resulted in the forming of the judicial court which actually was none other than the suppressor's office combined with the civil administration, and further in the establishment of Fu (_??_) as one of the three new administrative district divisions of Fu (_??_), Han (_??_), and Ken (_??_).
Hakodate-Fu (Prefectural Government at the District of Hakodate) was established as an executive organization of civil administration for the development of Ezochi (or Hokkaido). But when it was captured by the remaining Shogunate naval force, the Meiji Government mobilized the military power of the Aomoriguchi Suppressor, and succeeded in uniting and strengthening the military powers of the new Government at the district of Hakodate by the decisive victory of the Boshin War.
In order to clarify the historical significance of the establishment of the Hakodate-Fu prefectural government, the present author has studied the Shimizudani Kinkô Monjo (or the Diary and Notes of Mr. Kinkô Shimizudani, who was the prefectural governor of Hakodate-Fu) (in the National Diet Library, at the branch of the documents of Constitutional Government), and discussed the process from the Ansei period to the new Meiji Era, around the years 1854-1869.

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As the central administrative government office, there were 9 Si (_??_) and 5 Jian (_??_) in the Táng (_??_), 9 Si (_??_) and 6 Jian (_??_) in the Sòng (_??_), 8 Si (_??_) and 7 Jian (_??_) in the South Office of the Liáo (_??_), and 11 Yuàn (_??_), 2 Si (_??_), 6 Jian (_??_) and 3 Si (_??_) in the Jin (_??_) dynasty.
On the other hand, the Yuán (_??_) dynasty had 14 Yuàn (_??_), 10 Si (_??_), 12 Jian (_??_), 3 Si (_??_) and 5 Fu (_??_), except Zhongshusheng (_??__??__??_) and Liùbù (_??__??_).
It becomes clear that there is an analogy among the institutions in the Táng (_??_), the Sòng (_??_) and the Liáo (_??_) dynasty, and that the system in the Yuán (_??_) was built up under the influence of the Jin (_??_) dynasty.
The followings are the special characters of Jian (_??_) in the Yuán (_??_) period.
(1) It is very large in number.
(2) The subordination among the offices is very much complicated.
(3) It has, as a rule, the plural chief officers, and it has 8 chiefs at some offices.
(4) Quite a number of the government officials worked in their offiices.
(5) Generally, the official rank is very high, and the rank of the chief officer is the upper in no. 3 class.
(6) The government organization was reformed frequently; the changing of the name, the ups and downs of the rank, and the separation and annexation of the office were held several times.
(7) The number of the government men was often increased or decreased, too. These aforesaid special characters came from the next circumstances.
(1) The Yuán (_??_) dynasty gave preferential treatment to the Mongolians, and the government system in this period introduced the Mongolians' own customs, such as the council system and the shift system.
(2) The complicated subordination was due to the nomadic Mongolians' loose thought rather than to their incompetence.
In short, the government system in the Yuán (_??_) dynasty is the fixed style of the military administration by the Mongolian conquerors.

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