明治期における土地買戻慣行の成立と展開

概要

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There was a practice in the Meiji era (1868-1912), which saw land sellers repurchase lands from their buyers after refunding money, and it was systemized as "land repurchasing" under the civil law. Though a lot of studies on pawn broking that closely resembles this repurchasing practice have been done, little attention has been paid to this practice of repurchasing. The preceding studies established the following doctrine and no further studies have been carried on since; "Land repurchasing was exploited to obtain foreclosed guarantees by usurers. After the prohibition of foreclosure of mortgaged or pawned land, they exploited another guarantee-requiring practice in which debtors deposited the land certificates with creditors as guarantee. After the abolition of the land certificate system, the system of land repurchasing was established and widely prevailed, and farm lands were thus plundered during the depression between the Taisho and Showa eras (1912-l945)." Having doubts about this doctrine, the author contemplates the conditions and history under which the practice of repurchasing was established with case studies of landowners (The Kato family who owned 60ha-land in Tochigi prefecture and the Kawasaki family who owned 55ha-land in Yamaguchi prefecture, and so on). The land repurchasing practice established in the Meiji era consisted of two motives; one was formed to rely on the buyers' leniency and the other was to exploit high interest out of the sellers. In the former case, the debtors who were forced to sell irredeemable pawned or mortgaged lands, or the sellers who sold lands for cash had the senses of inheriting family estates that had been formed in the early modern age, so they asked the buyers to resell land to them for honor. This kind of repurchasing in which main buyers were the landowners coming from prosperous farmers was highly possible when the guarantee foreclosing intensified in the late 10s of the Meiji era (mid-1880s), but started to decline from the 20s of the Meiji era (1887-96) on, as the significance of leniency faded and the buyers' desires for private land ownership strengthened. In the latter case, regardless of leniency, the creditors exploited high interest with refundable deals. This kind of repurchasing remained alive even after the decline of the lenient repurchasing, in response to the debtors who wanted to inherit family estates. The land repurchasing practice had a basis to be established after the approval of purchases and sales of land in the 5^<th> year of the Meiji era (1872), and had been established as the alternative guarantee to pawn broking or mortgaging, or as the second attempt of these guarantees. From the start of this practice, the sellers booked the buyers to resell lands by giving the signed deeds, not depositing the land certificates as guarantee. As the preceding study indicates, it is believed that the land repurchasing practice was exploited to obtain foreclosed guarantees by usurers, giving rise to the land plundering under the depression from the Taisho to Showa eras. However this phenomenon was no more than an aspect of the historical development of this practice that consisted of two motives.
2012-07-30

著者

大栗行昭
宇都宮大学

明治期における土地買戻慣行の成立と展開

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