Vol. 67, No. 4

Shaw Herng HUANG
The Japanese acquisition of Taiwan and the unequal treaties: camphor and international relations after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)

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.

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

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.

Takumi ORIHARA
Some problems regarding interstate commerce in nineteenth century America: a reconsideration of the expansion of the national market of the United States

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.

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

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.