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.

One of the main aims of the Schuman Plan was to realize common control of production and price equalization under the supranational High Authority, particularly in the steel sector. This gave the West German steel industry the chance to achieve common carte-llike coordination. The industry, however, placed its priority on expanding production in response to growth in demand for steel. Because of the experience of the interwar period, however, when the international steel cartel's coordination of production hindered the ability of production to grow in response to demand growth, the West German steel industry favored restricting common cartel-like coordination to critical Community-level situations.

The Schuman Plan also aimed to create a European framework that would restrain the West German steel industry in order to safeguard France's ability to execute its own modernization plan. The West German steel industry was therefore all the more induced to secure broad freedoms in production, investment and prices.

Representatives of the West German steel industry took part in the subcommittee for iron and steel, which was one of the internal expert committees established by the West German government as a consultative committee for the Schuman Plan negotiations. The subcommittee and the steel industry therefore cooperated closely, strengthening the influence of the West German steel industry on the West German government. As a result, one of the basic policies of the West German government and delegation in the Schuman Plan negotiations was to limit supranational intervention by the High Authority to a necessary minimum.

This policy was also reflected in the agreement on issues of production, investment and prices, which would affect the elements that had been designed to ensure French modernization. Thus, from the perspective of the West German steel industry, the Paris treaty clauses on the production, investment and prices provided that common cartel-like coordination would be restricted to critical situations at the level of the Community and secure broad freedom for enterprises within the Community. The ECSC was accordingly founded, so far as interventions in production, investment and prices were concerned, as a system for securing freedom of management and exercising common cartel-like policies only as needed in critical situations affecting the entire Community.