ABSTRACT

FROM THE ZA TO THE KABu.-We have already seen that the za system, as officially recognized in the Tokugawa period, was different in its organization, object, etc., from the system of the same name in the Middle Ages, and that the kumiai and the kabu system in the Tokugawa period in their organization, etc., were rather the same as the medireval za system. The term kabu was applied to exclusive trade rights, which, with the Government's recognition, became hereditary to a certain individual or a group of people, and no other persons were permitted to compete with, or interfere with, these rights. It may be said that the present term kabu originated in the hereditary kabu in the Tokugawa period, though without the same exclusive and monopolizing meaning. Of the za system, as operated in the Tokugawa period, there were four different categories :-

These za were mostly controlled by either individuals, or a group of individuals, related to the Tokugawa Shogunate, to whom the Shogunate granted the right of control, and these individuals, or groups of individuals, paid a tax or contribution either in a lump sum or every year.