It is necessary to define the characteristics which were peculiar to the whole organization, especially to the process of dissolution, of the Tokugawa-Shogunate (Bakuhan-Sei), because the Meiji Restoration and subsequent Japan's history were much influenced by them. By examining the worsening financial circumstances of the Nagasawa Family, who were retainers (hatamoto) of the Bakufu, and the attempts made to solve the financial crisis, this article considers the weakening situation of the feudal order and several contradictions which were included in it on the eve of Restoration. The basic concept of the discussion is that the lord's finance represents the unification and contradiction of productive relations and, therefore, its deterioration indicates a critical condition within the productive system of a feudal society. For in a feudal society economic conflict arisis when the development of productive power results in a disharmony between productive power and productive relations.

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Although the most important result of French Revolution was the abolition without compensation of the feudal land tenure system, we have also to point out the importance of the fact that the industrial organization of the early ancien-regime, which is usually termed "early monopoly" (Shokidokuson), was dissolved completely in the course of Revolution. Which classes of the society led this dissolution? In which stages of Revolution it was carried out? Theses questions, unfortunately, have yet to be answered satisfactorily. After considering the process of dissolution of so-called "early monopoly", this article attempts to make clear what significance the Revolution had for the growth of bourgeois economy. The discussion tries to make clear that: first, as many historical facts show, the driving force by which monopolistic control over industry was dissolved came chiefly from the merchant manufactures of the cities and villages who were industrial as well as merchant capialists; and, secondly, if we examine how claims of merchant manufacturers of the day influenced to governmental policies, it will be seen that the monopolistic system of the early ancien regime was basically abolished at the period of Constitutional Assembly. (1789-91),

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