After the Boxer uprising, the events turned out to be a profound shock to the Empress Dowager and her conservative advisors, giving them an urge to reform. An imperial edict issued at Sian on January 29, 1901 asked all higher metropolitan and provincial officials to submit proposals on reform. This edict made a turning point in the political situation. This reform called Kuang-hsu hsin-cheng(光緒新政) began with the modernization of educational and military systems. A few years later, it became unavoidable to conduct a constitutional monarchy. In order to establish a constitutional polity, the traditional Chinese ordinances had to be transformed into a modern law system. In 1907; the Ch'ing government decided the transformation of the ordinances into a modern law system and appointed Shen Chia-Pen (沈家本) to the Minister of Laws Revision named Hsiu-ting fa-lu ta-ch'en (修訂法律大臣). He proposed to research the local common laws and the conditions of the people in some local countries, and he was authorized to nominate to the researchers some lawyer; who had to be acquainted with the modern laws. The writer was of opinion that some local reports had been written by such researchers, and two handwritten documents which I found out several years ago at University of Tokyo and University of Kyoto convinced him of it. One is The first report on the common laws in Lung-yi hsien, 1909, which consists of two parts: "Some conditions of the people , one volume"and "The administerial common laws by the local genetry; one volume ". The other is "The report on civil common laws in Lung-yi hsien", which was probably written in 1910. These documents seem to have been written by the lawyer whom Shen Chia-pen nominated. It might be guessed that the researcher was Yu Shao.sung (余紹宋), who came of the most famous family in Lung-yi, Chekiang and had graduated from the Tokyo Semmon Gakko (later Waseda University). He was one of the best educated men in Lung-yi, and passed the Imperial Examination. He received the degree of Master of Law in 1910, which was called "Fa-k'-o Chu-jen (法科拳人)". He became a famous judical officer in the Republican China. These documents are very useful for studying a local community and a civil common law This paper gives a preliminary analysis of local gentry by means of "The report on administerial common laws by local gentry in Lung-yi hsien". In the report we can not find any fixed social classes called "Hsiang-shen (郷紳)" or "" Shen-shi (紳士)". The persons called "Shen-tung (紳董)" took part in the administerial business. They consisted of a group of people engaged in the administerial work; therefor their had their basis on their administerial function.

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The intention of this article is to review statistically the trends of Japan's coal export from the opening of Japan in 1859 to 1880 with special reference to the development of the Shanghai coal market. In the early Meiji era, the coal industry was one of the strategic industries for export for the industrialization of Japan. The rapid increase in the export of coal from Japan was closely connected with the increase of the number of steamers as the trade and transportation developed on the Chinese and Japanese coasts. Shanghai was one of the main coal stations in the Far East as well as Hongkong. It was after 1862 that the import of foreign coals to Shanghai increased on a stable basis. In 1865, over 50 per cennt of the total imported coal was from Britain. British coal, however, began to lose the relative supremacy at the Shanghai coal market in 1866 because of the increase of imported coals from Australia and Japan. The import of coal, especially from Japan and Formosa, in 1866 began to cause a structural change in the Shanghai coal market. In this sense the period from the late 1860's td the early 1870's is characterised as the transitional period from Britain's supremacy to Japan's supremacy in the Shanghai coal market. There was keen competition for the export of coals between Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan and Formosa during this period. Japanese coal gradually became an important factor ill the Shanghai coal market. It superseded British coal in 1870 and entered largely into competition with Australian coal. In 1873 Japanese coal gained the overwhelming advantage in the coal market and British coal was completely ousted from the market. The expulsion of British coal from the coal market reflected the fact that the shipment of coal from Britain could not meet the increasing demand for coal in the Far East and became disadvantageous and that the main destination of Britain's coal export in this area was changing from Shanghai to Hongkong. The Shanghai coal market, therefore, came to be supplied by regional countries, Australia, Japan and Formosa. Japanese coal ousted Australian coal from the market by the late 1870's and supplied 81 per cent of the coal imported to Shanghai in 1880. The main Japanese coal at the Shanghai coal market was Takashima coal which was said to be the best of Japanese coals for steamers. Mitsubishi purchased Takashima mine in connection with their shipping business. As shown in the Takashima mine, Japan's coal industry was developed by the introduction of Western mining technology in order to supply the increasing demand for steamers in the Far East, to export to Shanghai or to sell at Nagasaki, in the early Meiji era; The predominance of Japanese coal in the Shanghai coal market was due to its suitability for steamers, quantity and cheepness compared with foreign coals. After 1876 Miike coal, exported and sold throug Mitsui Trading Company played all important role in the increase of Japanese coal exported to Shanghai. As a whole, the development of the coal industry and coal export of Japan was closely connected with the formation of Zaibatsu during the industrializaticn of Japan.

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The plan of constructing the nationwide networks of railways took its concrete shape in the late 1880's. At that time Ukichi Taguchi, who was well known as a liberalistic economist in Japan, attached much imporance to the railway that would link the coast of the Japan Sea to that of the Pacific Ocean (from his treatise, "First of all the projects of all-Japan railway networks should be formed"published in 1889). His suggestion was furthered in the reports publiehed by Tokyo Economic Associationin in 1891, which carried the article "The future railway networks in Japan"written by Kazutsugu Saburi. On the other hand, Meiji Government also had already thought out the same projects as this from a militaristic point of view. Kyoto Railway Company whose line linked Kyoto to Maizuru and to Miyazu,; which were among the most important ports in the coast of Japan Sea, came to occupay an important position upon the whole railway systems in Japan. This article aims at bringing out a feature of the process of constructing nationwide railway networks through analyzing the tendency of that Company and the Government which they showed when the Kyoto Railway was constructed. Firstly, we try to analyze the economic bases of Kyoto Railway Company. According to the document entitled "The report of the investigation of Kyoto-Maizuru Railway" published by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce, this railway had mainly been used for conveying silk fabrics, raw silk and so forth. From this fact we can see that the economic bases for constructing Kyoto Railway was made up through the developmens of the textile industries in Tango province. Secondly, We attempt to analyze the composition of shareholders of Kyoto Railway Company. When this company was established, its shareholders were mostly composed of businessmen in Kyoto and the nobility in Tokyo. But they gradually disappeared from the list of its shareholders, which tells weak financial position of the shareholders in Kyoto. Thirdly, we refer to "the movement for early construction of the Kyoto railway" Kyototesudo sokusei Undo. This projects was encouraged by businessmen in Kyoto. This Company got down to business in 1889 with the 21.68 miles line from Kyoto to Sonobe. But thereafter the Company could not extend its railways at all because of the Meiji Government's railway policy which had been conditioned by a militaristic point of view. So we might conclude that in those days the construction of these rail-ways \+ad under the control of the Meiji Government's railway policy which was fixed for militaristic purposes.

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