ABSTRACT
A labor contract during the Tokugawa period was a guarantee of service, in which one or more people guaranteed that the employee would work for the employer and not cause any trouble. This chapter focuses on the conditions of the contract agreement, beginning with a survey of the various economic arrangements for labor found in the data sample and in society and how they changed over time. Although hereditary servants originally came from very poor families, the service relationship during the early modern period was often one of mutual benefits. Economic development during the early modern period ensured that other income sources were common. As the economy expanded with labor-intensive industries, wage service contracts and casual labor became alternative sources for income, particularly for hereditary servants. Land development and the expansion of cultivated fields also provided further opportunities for this group of people.
