Abstract: Based on archival sources and research by Japanese scholars, this article presents a detailed analysis of the use of contractors to open land in Eastern Mongolia by Mongolian Banners. This article reveals that the most noteworthy contractors were local landlords, merchants, usurers, and middle and lower level officials of the Mongolian Banners. Their major reason for contracting the land was to exploit their positions as middlemen. From the perspective of class relation, they represented an exploiting class and the majority of these contractors were local merchants or local merchants who also were secondary landlords