<論説>日本中世の手形 : 新見荘の割符について

Abstract

一五世紀の日本では割符と呼ばれる手形が用いられていた。本稿は、備中国新見荘から京都の東寺に送られた割符を詳細に検討し、割符に関する理解を更新した。まず割符の様式について。割符は小さい紙に書かれ、金額や日付の部分に印もしくは判がある。これと同様の印・判は返抄と呼ばれる一一世紀の受領証にも見える。これらの印・判は文書の真正さを示すものであり、割符の印・判を割印・符丁であると解釈する通説は成り立たない。つぎに割符の機能について。割符は銭を元の所持者から第三者に移転するために用いられた。割符は畿内の問屋もしくは商人によって発行され、商人が地方で商品を買い付ける資金を入手するために用いられた。商人は割符と引き替えに、荘園から京都に送られる年貢銭を入手した。一方、商人から割符を入手した荘園の管理者は、割符を京都の領主に送り、領主は指定された問屋で割符を換金した。銭の所有者を位置付けることにより、割符の取引に関与した人々の立場と役割を従来よりも簡明に説明した。つぎに割符と商品輸送の関係について。従来の研究によると、ある割符の換金に充当される資金は、商人がその割符と引き替えに得た銭で購入して京都に運送した商品の売却代金である。しかし、それとは別に、商品の輸送と売却に関係なく、問屋が管理する商人の資産が割符の換金に充当されることがあり、これが問屋との取引が安定した規模の大きい商人が採用した割符の運用方法であった。

When local estates (shoen 荘園) sent money to landlords (ryoshu 領主) in Kyoto during the 14th and 15th century in Japan, a variety of promissory notes or bills of exchange, called a saifu 割符, was used. There are few primary sources dealing with the saifu, but in documents which have ended up in Toji-Temple we can find some manuscript copies of 15th-century saifu sent from the Niimi-no-sho estate in the province of Bitchu to Toji in Kyoto and letters and records written by those who dealt with them. Many scholars have examined these documents, and in their arguments they have reached the following consensus. First, the saifu were used by merchants in the capital area to obtain money in local areas. The merchants received money in exchange for the saifu and purchased goods in local areas to send and sell in the capital area. Second, the saifu, which was exchanged for money, and the goods, which were bought with the money, had a one-to-one correspondence. So when the saifu was cashed, the proceeds of those goods were allotted. Third, because saifu and goods were exchanged on a one-to-one basis, to make that equivalence evident, tally impressions and individual stamps, known as wari'in 割印 and fucho 符丁, were recorded on the saifu. As a result of detailed examination of the saifu of Niimi-no-sho, I clarify in this paper that the first point is sound but the second cannot be applied to all saifu and thus the third point is unsustainable. First, a saifu was written on a small piece of paper that contained the amount of money and the date of issue over which a stamp (in 印) or a kind of signature (han 判) were imprinted. Because these stamps and signatures were considered tally impressions and individual stamps in previous scholarship, it was hypothesized that saifu and goods had a one-to-one correspondence, and the use of the saifu was explained as a complex process. However, this argument is unsustainable. Compared with the similar stamps and signatures which are seen in the 11th century receipts called hensho 返抄, those of saifu were not tally impressions and individual stamps but imprinted simply to attested the authenticity of saifu. Next, the saifu was used to transfer money from the original holder into the hands of a third party. In regard to the place and function of the people involved in the saifu trade, previous scholarship was confused, but this study succeeds in clearly explaining the use of the saifu based on a correct reading of the historical sources. There were two cases in which saifu were employed depending on the relationship between the possessor of the money and the merchant who used the saifu. The first case was when the possessor of the money was a merchant. The merchant would deposit money with a toiya 問屋 (a kind of warehouseman and additionally a wholesaler)in the capital region, receive a saifu from the toiya, and then in exchange for the saifu obtained money to purchase goods locally. The second case was when the merchant and the possessor of the money were not the same person. A merchant who was entrusted with money by the owner who wanted to use the funds would issue a saifu in a locality, and receive money to purchase goods. The common element in both cases is that in exchange for saifu the merchant received the tribute money (nengusen 年貢銭) to be sent to the capital from estates in a local areas. The managers of the estate who received a saifu would send the saifu to the landlord (ryoshu) in the capital The ryoshu who received the saifu exchanged it at the toiya for money. In the first case, it would be the toiya at which the merchant had deposited money, and in the second case, the merchant who issued the saifu specified the toiya who held on deposit the money of the owner. Next, I deal with the relationship between the saifu and transport of goods. In earlier studies it was not realized that the manner of use of a saifu varied according to the size of the merchants' operations. For that reason, the funds allotted for the payment of a certain saifu were understood as the proceeds of goods that had been bought with the money obtained in exchange for the saifu. In fact, there were some saifu whose use was just as described above, but this was the case of small-scale merchants. In the case of large-scale merchants, the assets managed by the toiya were allotted for the exchange of saifu regardless of the state of the shipment or sale of the goods. When viewed formally, the role of the owner of the money was different in two cases. However, when viewed as a practical matter, in both cases these were regular transactions in which the toiya stored and sold the goods sent from local areas by the merchant, and it was the toiya that processed the exchange of money for saifu as part of a transaction.