Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/182

 recourse but to sell his person into servitude: no bankruptcy court existed to grant him a discharge. In one of the great fiefs, creditors were strictly forbidden to importune a debtor on market day, and any violation of this veto was severely punished. In another fief, the old law as to liability for the destruction of borrowed articles underwent intelligent modification. It assumed this form, that in the event of fire or robbery, if the borrower's property was destroyed or stolen simultaneously with that of the lender, no responsibility devolved on the former; but if only the goods lent were affected, compensation had to be made. The business of pawnbroking was very strictly controlled, maximum periods being fixed by law for different articles, and the pawnbroker being required to pay to the Government, by way of tax, ten per cent of the total loans issued by him. This heavy impost, taken in conjunction with the fact that twenty-four months was the maximum period for any article, is suggestive of the terms that a pawnbroker had to demand from his customers. He was also a conspicuous sufferer from the "benevolent system." Nominally the law granted him security against the operation of this system during the fixed terms of pledge; but in practice the exemption proved illusory, especially as pawnbrokers' stores always possessed special attractions for rioters who took violent advantage of a toku-sei proclamation.