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Vol.
67, No. 4
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Shaw Herng HUANG
The Japanese acquisition of Taiwan and the unequal treaties: camphor
and international relations after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)
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After its victory in the Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to revise
the provisions of the unequal treaties which it had been forced to sign
with the western powers in the 1850s, but was not able to achieve autonomy
immediately. As far as the latter were concerned, China's cession of
Taiwan to Japan was an agreement made by two 'unequal treaty countries',
and Japan would therefore have to negotiate over the status of western
rights in Taiwan. In the case of camphor, Japan agreed to recognize
the rights held by the western powers until the revised treaties came
into force in 1899. With regard to China, however, it implemented the
provisions of the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki, which it had imposed
after the Sino-Japanese War. In particular, the restrictions on the
entry of Chinese into the Taiwanese interior effectively ousted non-Japanese
capital from the island by stopping the commercial activities of foreign
firms, since they relied on Chinese compradors and purchasing agents
to carry out trade in camphor.
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Hitoshi TAMURA
The technological development of textile production centers in early
Meiji Japan (1870s to 1880s): a case study of the socio-economic impact
of the fashion for woollen textiles from western Europe
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In the years after the opening of the first treaty ports in 1859, large
scale imports of woollen textiles from Western Europe had a greater
role than cotton textile imports in influencing Japanese markets and
transforming the technology of the silk and cotton industries. This
paper investigates the socio-economic impact of these woollen textiles
in order to prove the hypothesis that powerful Japanese textile production
centers reacted positively to the popularity of foreign goods by developing
new fashions through the production of new textiles. Some of the oldest
and most powerful silk and cotton textile centers developed new silk-cotton
mixed weaves by adding foreign techniques to their accumulated tradition
of domestic technology.
The popularity of foreign woollen goods had a great influence on the
domestic fashion textiles market and encouraged the technological growth
of textile production centers while leading to the improvement of the
new silk-cotton mixed weaves. In addition, the high quality of the new
textiles with their fashionable designs was a necessary condition for
the development of the silk and cotton textile industries in Japan.
It was therefore possible for the domestic fashion textiles market of
early Meiji Japan to absorb the impact of imported woollen textiles.
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Takumi ORIHARA
Some problems regarding interstate commerce in nineteenth century America:
a reconsideration of the expansion of the national market of the United
States
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Up till now, it has been accepted that one factor sustaining the rapid
economic growth of the United States was the existence of section 1
of the U.S. Constitution prohibiting tariffs on interstate commerce.
The decision on Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) seems to be regarded as the
final settlement of the problem of tariffs on interstate commerce, but
in fact, although similar cases continued to appear frequently, they
have been ignored.
Despite the prohibition of tariffs, states continued to impose tariffs
on goods from other states even after Gibbons v.Ogden, in order to protect
their industries. This tendency grew even stronger after the Civil War,
when there was a rapid development in interstate commerce due to the
expansion of railroad traffic.
Each state could impose taxes upon out-of-state products by virtue of
the police power retained by the state government and acknowledged by
the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court gradually came to
interpret the constitution more strictly, and from the 1870s, increasingly
confined the extent of the use of police power. Finally, in a series
of cases between big business and individual states, it supported the
former by ruling that the use of police powers to restrict the entry
of out-of-state products was unconstitutional.
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Yoshihiro TSUJI
The rapeseed oil Industry in Yamashiro province during the transition
from the late Tokugawa period to the early Meiji period (1840s-1880s):
a case study of Tobaya
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The purpose of this paper
is to survey the rapeseed oil industry in the Nishioka district of the
city of Kyoto in Yamashiro province (now Kyoto prefecture) during the
transition from the late Tokugawa period to the early Meiji period,
through a case study of Tobaya. Tobaya, an oil manufacture (shibori
abura sho) in the Nishioka district, was engaged in producing rapeseed
oil and making oil cakes as a by-product from the oil seeds. Most of
the rapeseed oil was used in lamps by citizens in the city of Kyoto,
and most of the oil cakes were sold as fertilizer to the local peasants.
The income from both products was important to the running of Tobaya.
Tobaya belonged to an association of oil manufacturers known as Kyoto
narabini kinzai shibori abura nakama. Although the association was formally
abolished by the government in 1842, the influence of the association
on the manufacturers remained. Even so, during the period under consideration
manufacturers like Tobaya which continued to produce pressed oil and
oil cakes were very important to the rapeseed oil industry, not only
in Nishioka district but in Yamashiro province as a whole.
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