Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/168

 loss, the value which an article bore at the time of lending it should be taken as a basis, independently of all subsequent fluctuations. Probity in commercial transactions was obviously deemed essential, for an enactment provided that no contract containing an erroneous statement should have binding force. As for vicarious responsibility, a surety was held liable if a principal absconded or died, but neither the parents, the wife, nor the children of a deceased debtor were saddled with any obligations if they could show that the debts had been contracted without their knowledge. It must be remembered that at the time here under consideration—the eighth century—wives had not yet begun to live in their husbands' houses. A man might have two or even more families who were absolute strangers to each other, and under such circumstances to hold the wives or children responsible for his debts would have been plainly an injustice.

The system of pledges was simple. An article given as security for a debt might not be sold, without the consent of the owner, until the accumulated interest equalled the sum lent, when failure to discharge the debt entitled the holder to sell. The sale must be preceded, however, by due notice to the authorities, and any surplus realised had to be paid to the debtor. For the rest, all regulations referring to articles lent applied with equal force to articles pledged.

In this system, remarkably intelligent consider-