<Articles>Laws Curtailing Town Operating Costs and the Reaction of Towns in Kyoto during the Early-Modern Period

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  • <論説>近世京都における町入用節減令と町
  • 近世京都における町入用節減令と町
  • キンセイ キョウト ニ オケル マチ ニュウヨウ セツゲンレイ ト マチ

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Abstract

The operating costs of urban districts, or towns, machinyuyo 町入用, were borne collectively by the owners of houses in the towns, iemochi chonin 家持町人, commensurate with the scale of the property owned. However, with the development of a monetary economy in the later half of the seventeenth century and the expansion of public works within the towns, the operating costs (420) increased yearly. In response to the increase in the operating costs, the bakufu government 幕府 became apprehensive about the oppressive costs shouldered by the owners of houses in the towns and repeatedly issued orders to curtail maintenance expenses, machinyuyo sekkenrei 町入用節倹令. With the proclamation of these orders, many towns enacted or revised town law codes, choshikimoku 町式目, to include regulations curtailing expenses since laws curtailing operating costs coincided with proposals by the owners of houses in the towns. Furthermore, with the official proclamations many towns extended the idea of "economizing" to sales clerks and servants and used these curtailing orders as an excuse to prevent an increase of costs and wages. Economizing and curtailing were not limited to the home-owning chonin, and towns also sought these laws and rules be extended to those clerks and servants who were bound by employment relationships to the chonin. In this manner many towns used the curtailing laws as a means to enact or revise choshikimoku, and with the active incorporation of economizing and curtailing provisions within the choshikimoku, the town represented the interests of the home-owning chonin, whose family businesses were increasingly powerful and whose interests were thus reflected in the town law codes.

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 87 (3), 326-353, 2004-05-01

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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