To make referable to the processing contents of an electronic document from the history information on electronic document by displaying the processing contents of the electronic document to a corresponding history having the right to refer to the processing contents when a user is instructed, from the history of the electronic document, to refer to the processing contents of the document.

A circulation processing part 106 transfers an applied electronic document or a requested electronic document to be transferred to the next circulating destination in response to the contents of a workflow definition storage part 107. A processing history retrieval part 105 retrieves a matter ID after receiving a mater history reference request from an electronic document circulating device 102 and checks whether the history reference right is allowed for the number of history matters. If the history reference right is allowed, the matter histories are displayed. When a processing data display request is given from the device 102, it is checked whether the contents reference right is allowed when the processing data contents are displayed. If the contents reference right is allowed, a processing data storage part 104 is retrieved from a processing data number of a processing history storage part 103 and the contents of processing data are displayed.