Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/269

 into the Korean peninsula resulted in the capture of numerous Koreans who, being carried to Japan, were drafted into the ranks of the semmin, and employed in various menial capacities. Probably sections of the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan suffered the same fate after subjugation by the invaders. With regard to debt as a source of serfdom, in very early eras its influence must have been considerable, for, at the close of the seventh century the sovereign found it necessary to impose restrictions. Proclamation was then made that where a creditor prescribed serfdom as a penalty for failure to discharge a monetary obligation, interest must not be charged. Later on, the first code—promulgated at the beginning of the eighth century—sanctioned the principle that an insolvent debtor's person might become the property of the creditor, but imposed legal limits of interest, namely, that interest payable every sixtieth day must not exceed one-eighth of the principal, and that, even though a period of four hundred and eighty days had elapsed without discharge of the debt, the interest must not aggregate a larger sum than the original obligation. The issue of serf parents remained a serf, but, by a curious stretch of liberality, an immigrant from a foreign land who had been a serf in his own country, acquired his freedom on touching Japanese soil, though, if he subsequently suffered degradation, any of his relatives following him to Japan shared his fate. The ab-