Today few scholars would dispute that archaeological evidence is indispensable for the study of Roman agriculture ; most would also accept the validity of comparisons between literary and archaeological evidence. However, the ambiguity of much archaeological evidence, especially from field survey, has meant that so far there are no agreed criteria for interpreting this material. The present paper offers a new methodology for interpreting survey evidence, and in doing so will aim to demonstrate the potential value of an archaeological approach to Roman agrarian history. Section 1 presents a hypothesis based on literary evidence about the decline of 'SMP (the slave mode of production)'. The importance of free casual labour for a slavestaffed villa, in terms of economic efficiency, is widely accepted, and the source of the free labour is usually considered to be the free peasants living near the villa. Thus it is assumed that villas and small farms had a mutually complementary relationship. However, inhabitants=@of a city within easy reach (approximately within 6km) of the villa should also be taken into consideration as a source of free labour. In either case, there is a possible correlation between a decline in these sources of labour and the loss of economic viability of SMP. Section 2 presents a basic working method, using field survey data, for proving the decrease of free peasants, and thereby for verifying the above hypothesis. All sites of each survey area are separated into three classes (Class V [villa], Class F [farm], and Class H [hut], basically according to Potter's classification) and the diachronic trends such as accumulation of lands can be seen by comparing the fluctuation of the number of V-sites with that of F-sites. In addition, some serious problems involved in using archaeological evidence, such as the dating of sites by domestic pottery, are noted, and some methods to overcome them are suggested. Section 3, based on this methodology, treats four survey areas in Italy and tries to analyse the agricultural structure of each, incorporating literary evidence. The results of each analysis are compared with one another, yielding the following points : 1) In the ager Cosanus, the decrease of small farms in the late Republican and the early Imperial period was proved, and the hypothesis thus receives some corroboration. The coexistence of villas and farms, however, enabled the conversion from SMP to tenancy after the '1C crisis' (of Rostovtzeff). 2) In the Biferno Valley in Molise, the diversification of agriculture (mixed farming and polyculture) not only lessened the shock of the crisis, but also enabled the shift from cultivation of grapes and olives to pasturage. 3) At the piedmont of Massico in northern Campania, the interdependence of slavestaffed villas and a port city, established after the villas drove out the small farms, was inflexible and vulnerable to the crisis. The vicious circle of the decrease of wine exports and the decreasing population of the city seems to have been the main cause of the rapid decline of the area's economy. Besides, monoculture of vine-cultivation made the conversion to other types of land use extremely difficult. 4) In south Etruria, agriculture was wholly dependent on the city of Rome. A pattern of suburban agriculture including such phenomena as pastiones villaticae developed ; there was a constant influx of population from the city. Thus the fluctuation of the number of sites in south Etruria reflects the rise and fall of the city of Rome.

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Munabetsusen (棟別銭 : ridge beam tax) instituted in medieval Japan was levied on individual houses in certain neighborhoods at a fixed rate. It was essentially an unscheduled tax levied during the Muromachi era and became an important source of revenue for the Muromachi Bakufu's descendants, the Sengoku daimyo. However, munabetsu-sen has seldom been studied as a topic in itself, and thus has yet to be examined on an empirical level. In the present paper, the author attempts to view munabetsu-sen within the broad context of medieval society, beginning with an investigation of the institution during the Kamakura and Muromachi eras. Munabetsu-sen originated as a method of raising funds to cover the repair of temples an shrines and was collected during those eras mainly on such a pretext. What is interesting, however, its that munabetsu-sen was not incorporated into the Muromachi Bakufu's system of taxation, but remained as a provisional tax earmarked for religious purposes. Turning to the fate of munabetsu-sen within the fiscal affairs of the Sengoku Daimyo, the Takeda Clan of Kai Province made it its main source of revenue, while at the same time collecting munbetsu-sen to cover the construction costs of Daizenji temple. However, the construction of this temple was a measure related to the Takeda family's munabetsu-sen fiscal structure, in the sense that temple construction was carried out in order to generalize the purpose of a tax originally earmarked for religious purposes. In additin, as an unscheduled tax, munabetsu-sen became involved in edicts for the remission of debts (tokusei-rei 徳政令). That is to say, in contrast to a similar tax knows as tansen 段銭 levied on land to pay for coronations, road construction, etc., munabetsu-sen did not easily adapt or change in accordance with the development of medieval taxation, maintaining its unscheduled, religious character even during the Sengoku era.

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In order to explore the nature of how the local self-government in late Imperial China was implemented, the author analyzes an anti-Self-Government incident that occurred in Chuansha just before the 1911 Revolution and focuses on the change in relationships among interest groups in local society. Part one looks at local society in Chuansha, highlighting government sub-bureaucrats (書吏), gentry, and a lay Buddhist vegetarian sect called Sudang (素党), in order to show that each of interest group played a certain role and that the gentry was not the most prevailing force. Parts two through four examine regulations passed by newly established assemblies, trace the development of the Chuansha incident itself, and analyze the role of the gentry, government sub-bureaucrats, the leaders of Sudang and the common people. It is obvious that the reason for this mass protest cannot be attributed to the gentry's deterioration, an aften quoted cause, but rather to regulations passed by the assemblies related to the abolishment of superstition, elimination of government sub-bureaucrats, and the local self-government tax collection, all of which hurt the interests of local people in one way or another. Unlike most of the studies on local Self-Government in late Imperial China which put emphasis on the attitudes of the local elite toward the state, whether hostile or cooperative, the author maintains that local Self-Government was implemented within traditionally loose relationships between the state and society. By presenting a complex picture of local Self-Government involving all local interest groups, this study also asserts that its implementation destroyed the previous power balance in local society, causing many problems for the local authorities (自治公所).

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