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7 The Middleman and the Role of the Community in Land Transactions The Middleman Almost all the deeds transcribed in Part 3 of this book show that the transaction which underlay the deed was undertaken with a middleman (作中人). The deeds do not discuss the role of the middleman in any detail, but there are sufÀcient hints scattered through them to make his duties clear. Effectively, the only transactions which routinely did not require a middleman were either those involving very close relatives,1 or else were loans of cash, which clearly did not require a middleman under the Customary Land Law, even if land was put up as collateral for the loan. In the case of a loan, the deeds usually state that the borrower “himself went” to the lender to seek assistance.2 Although these types of transaction clearly did not generally require middlemen, a few deeds relating to loans3 and some deeds for transactions between close relatives still used middlemen, probably because of differing traditions between village and village.4 Redeemable sales and foreclosures usually required middlemen.5 Otherwise, almost the only deeds of sale without middlemen are deeds relating to sales of hillslopes (fuel-bearing hills or pineapple plantations) and squatter huts in Tsuen Wan or the urban area, dating from 1936 or later.6 By 1936, Tsuen Wan was already on the edge of the City, and perhaps in this area and in the City, at this date and later, for plots of land only recently opened, like these, or squatter huts, the Customary Land Law was not being followed in its entirety. It is widely assumed that the middleman was a mere facilitator or introducer, introducing potential purchasers to men desiring to sell, and that the main aim of the middleman was to avoid the vendor having to face embarrassment by offering his land and having the offer rejected by potential purchasers; in short, that the middleman was there to keep vendor and purchaser apart until an agreement had 144 The Customary Land Law and Transactions in Land been made, to avoid either party losing face by having their proffer rejected. The deeds make it clear that this is entirely inadequate as an explanation of the role of the middleman.7 The deeds strongly suggest that the essential role of the middleman was to represent the interests of the community in any land transaction and to ensure fairness between the parties. Thus, the deeds make it clear that negotiations on the purchase price of any land sold did not involve only vendor and purchaser: unless the middleman was prepared to certify the sum as fair, the deal could not be struck. Money paid out by the purchaser was not handed over to the vendor, but to the middleman, who had to check it as being a full and fair payment: it was the middleman who handed the sum to the vendor. The middleman had to explain the sale to the community of the village, showing how the requirements of the Customary Land Law had been met in the transaction in question. It was the middleman who orchestrated the rituals of the actual transfer of land. Finally, it was the middleman who had to warrant the sale to the purchaser. The middleman checked the draft deed (he had to sign it or place his mark on it to certify that it was acceptable). He had to check that the statements in the deed referring to the absence of fraud and the nature of the vendor’s title were true. He also had to check the statements about the family council, the agreement of the next heir, the offer of Àrst refusal to the close relatives, their statement that they were not interested in acquiring it, and the statement that sale was indeed the only way out for the vendor’s family, and he had to be able to demonstrate that all these were bona Àde to the village community and the purchaser. The middleman had to check that the land being sold was the vendor’s own, and that no one else had any immediate interest in it (that there were, for instance, no outstanding mortgages or other encumbrances on the land, and that the land was not trust property or land where the vendor had only a part-share of the ownership). He had to be willing to guarantee to the purchaser that the transaction was, indeed, fair. Almost all the land transactions in...

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