The purpose of this article is to analyze the mutual relation between national finance and the early "Seisho" (the business man with political affiliations dominant in the period of the original capital formation) from 1868 to 1874, which has been so far neglected, mainly in the case of the "Mitsuis, through the study of the form of the early "Seisho" in the organizations of the national treasury, the characteristics of the way they obtained much profit by utilizing the Government money, and the correspondence to that decree, from the point of the credit of public and the early "Seishos". The conclusion of my analysis are following. First. Being different from the West where the unity of the organizations of the national treasury was realized by the consolidation of funds (for example, in England, Consolidated Fund Act in 1787), in Japan, because of the fragility of the public credit, the first subject of unity of the organizations was the regulation of "Kawasegata" (a semiofficial organ dealing with the Government money) by giving commission and taking mortgage, and moreover the abolishment of it, in order to avoid the collapse of the national finance which the loss of the government money depositting in "Kawasegata" without enough mortgage might have brought about. Secondly. The fundamental characteristic of the early "Seisho" was that they subordinated the national finance to the practice of the feudal credit that the feudal big merchant such as "Ryogaesho" (a money-changer) had been used to lend all money (including the government money) on deposit without the reserve. So the favorable money-accumulation of the Mitsuis was only possible under the condition that the Mitsuis was able to use the government money with no interest without placing mortgage. Thirdly. The reason why only the Mitsuis survived that decree was that the Government had given tacit permission to the requests of the Mitsuis' not only to tide over the economic crisis brought about by the Onos' bankruptcy but to protect 'Japanese credit'. And the Government decided upon or was obliged to take the positive policy to form the original capital mainly through the national finance, especially the public credit, for the public credit surpassed the early "Seishos" credit because of the bankruptcy of the Onos.

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The object of this study is how the landlord acted in the former half of 1880's, the Matsukata deflation period and in Nagano Prefecture that was a region of the silk-reeling industries. The Yamada family that was in Ebe-mura Shimotakai-gun owned the arable land over 100 ha in 1878 and held its high social status, so its investment actions were decided by the economic primary factor (the returns of investment). Every year Ebe-mura and its environs were subject to frequent floods by the Chikuma, so their rice crops were unstable and there were no industries with a bright future, and the sum of money lent by the Yamadas was reduced according to the decrease of demand for it. Therefore in these regional and periodic environment the Yamadas invested the rest of money for the loan and the proceeds from the sale of the land, in stocks and bonds which were more profitable and more reliable. As everybody knows, Ueda Nineteenth National Bank (in Nagano Prefecture) contributed much to the development of the silk-reeling industries in Suwa area. Sometimes the Bank raised funds for financing from the other banks for the lack its own in the season of the silk production. At that time the Bank had to give bonds as the security to the other. On the other hand the Bank had been appointed as a Exchange Agency (Kawase-kata) of the Ministry of Finance, on condition to offering bonds as the security to the Authorities. The Bank was in need of much bonds for such two uses, but was short of them. The Bank could finance smoothly to the industries through borrowing bonds temporally from the Yamadas. For that reason, from the side of the Yamadas speaking this relation, we can say that the Yamadas made contribution indirectly to the development of the silk-reeling industries in Nagano Prefecture by means of lending bonds to the Bank.

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It is indisputable that many privileged towns in Germany fell into an economic crisis in the late 17th and 18th century, which was caused especially by the growth of various industries in the rural districts. It appears, however, that not a few of them succeeded in overcoming difficulties and getting back their prosperity after all. In order to study how the towns could pass through a serious crisis, we take the case of three towns in Sauerland-Altena, Ludenscheid and Iserlohn. Down to the middle of the 18th century these three towns owed their prosperity to the wiredrawer gilds, which were substantially under the controle of a small number of privileged mercantile enterpreneurs called "Reidemeister". The gilds saw, however, their existence menaced not only by the growth of the iron industry in the rural districts but also by the international competition on the European market, and tried in vain to regulate the wiredrawing trade for the purpose of saving themselves from a pressing danger of decline. As the result Altena had gone to decay with the gilds. Though in the other towns Ludenscheid and Iserlohn, on the contrary, a new industry, i.e. compound metal industry, which branched off from the iron industry, was developed by independent handicraftsmen and grew into the key industry of these towns, while some of the merchants, who had made a monoply of the wiredrawing trade before, turned to a needle manufacturing, others to a trade in products of new industries in and around the town. This process of urban reconstruction in Sauerland in an economic aspect, however, can not be necessarily regarded as transformation from traditional town community to a modern industrial city in the strict sense of the word, because the structure of the town community in a politico-social aspect had not yet lost its characteristic of an exclusive corporation. The urban reconstruction in Sauerland shows, therefore, an indistinct structural change of the town community in a transition period.

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