The author discusses the right to use natural resources by the Mongolian banners in the Qing Empire by interpreting the Mongolian banner’s effort to sell the salt to Chinese merchants and the controversy about a salt lake called Qaljan toli, which is located in Western Inner Mongolia, between the banners of Alaša and Urad. The results of this study revealed the following facts: 1. The central government gave the Alaša banner permission to sell salt to the market of the Inner Provinces if it was profitable for the banner and did not cause any trouble between the different banners and the Chinese merchants. The Qing then tried to control the amount of salt exported by the banner. 2. The task of the imperial envoy Fude was to resolve the feud between the banners of Alaša and Urad in 1734, and to determine to which banner the salt lake belonged. He did not show any intention of enforcing the salt monopoly of the Qing and did not attempt to remove the salt lake from Mongolian banners and put it under the direct control of the central government.

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This paper examined the process of establishing some oboos, which showed the pastureland’s border in Outer Mongolia during the Qing Period, and their role, using historical documents preserved in the National Central Archives of Mongolia. The following results were obtained. First, in Outer Mongolia during the Qing Period, specific procedures were necessary to establish the oboo, from the first step of preparing some stones and a piece of wood that is 2 m in height and 16 cm in width, to the final step of putting the wood in the stacked stones. Second, for the nomads, the oboos had two different aspects: if there were no negative effects on pastureland use, oboos were just stones and wood; however, if there were negative effects on pastureland use, nomads tried to expand their pastureland by moving or breaking the oboos, thus enforcing the nature of the oboo as a border. In other words, in Outer Mongolia during the Qing Period, the nomads recognized the border that was shown by oboos, and the oboo that appeared in the Mongolian nomadic society for the first time played a role in visualizing the pastureland’s border. The matter of moving or breaking oboos was then severely punished, based on Lifanyuan zeli『理藩院則例』or Da Qing lüli『大清律例』. All broken oboos were re-established, and it was revealed that oboos were closely watched by the government.

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