A Research On The System Of Credit Sale In The Song Dynasty

Credit sale is a credit came up between the buyer and saller in the merchandisetransaction .It is a kind of credit sale in which the saller transfer the ownership to thebuyer first, and the buyer delay in payment. This kind of credit sale had its embryonicform in Xi Zhou, and became more and more in the Han Dynasty, at last it reached itsmaturity in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty , credit sale had developed fromtransaction tradition to state law as a system. There are four parts in this paper. The first part makes an introduction of the records of credit sale before the SongDynasty. Through the history we have , it is easy to find that "buy on credit" alreadyexist long long ago. This part analysis the meaning of "buy on credit" and the recordsof credit sale before the Song Dynasty. So this part reached the conclusion that creditsale began first in Xi Zhou and had a large development in the Han Dynasty. It is alsoa preliminary of this paper. The second part elaborated the development of credit sale in the Song Dynasty.In the Song Dynasty, credit sale had developed from transaction tradition to state lawas a system. This part elaborated from two points. First is the tradition of credit sale isin prevail in the commodity economy of the Song Dynasty. Second is law norms ofcredit sale in the Song Dynasty . With the high development of the commodity economy, the rate of circulationand the speed of circulation increased a lot. Especially in the large number transaction,the payment could not be made in cash at the time .It was an obstacle in thetransaction. Credit sale solved the problem in some degree. It made large numbertransaction possible, and push the development of the commodity economy. Therewere lots of credit sale in private sale, and it also influenced the state sale. In the SongDynasty, the high development of credit sale forced the state law to do more in orderto regulate it. This paper also analyses the reason why credit sale was so prevalent in 43the Song Dynasty. Though credit sale accelerated the speed of circulation, it also brought manyquestions to be solved. Most important of them was how to reduce the seller's creditrisk in the credit sale. In order to protect the seller's interest in credit sale, the state lawbegan to forced the buyer to obey the merchandise tradition. There also manyimperial enactment issued to solved the questions came upon in credit sale in theSong Dynasty. The third part analyses the credit sale system from law norms and law relations. Firstly, this part analyses the credit sale system from four points. The first pointis the principle of credit sale. The principle encourages cash transaction. Only in thenecessary time could the seller do the transaction in credit. In this way, the seller'sinterest in credit sale was protected, and also push the credit sale to develop in theright way. From the second point, the credit sale must conclude a written contract,and the written contract must including essential terms which put down by the law.The end of the contract is to insure the buyer could pay the due price in time. So theessential terms always include when and where the contract was set, the price, thedue time and the insurance liability, also the interest if the buyer delayed in pay. Thethird point put emphasis on the insurance liability of credit sale. The norms of law inthe Song Dynasty put emphasis on the credit insurance, it lay down compulsoryterms on the credit insurance. In credit sale, the buyer must has 3-5 guarantor who hasenough property to mortgage could the credit sale be set down. In the South SongDynasty, the law forced the buyer in credit sale to insure the interest flaw. And theforth point is about the liability. When the sale is in argue, there are always threeliabilities: the seller's, the buyer's and the broker's. Secondly, this part analyses the law relation in the credit sal...