Vol. 69, No. 1

Yoshihiro SAKANE
The historical significance of the Rent Control Act of 1939

The purpose of this article is first to clarify the effect of Article 4 of the Rent Control Act (Kosakuryo tosei rei) by analyzing Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry records and official prefectural gazettes, and second to consider the historical significance of the act. Revision of tenant conditions was carried out on a national average of 20 per cent of all tenant land; however the percentage differed according to each prefecture, since it was the prefectures themselves which were responsible for the execution of the act.

In this article, attention is given to two points relating to the effect of the act. First, Article 4 led to the formation of collective landlord-tenant relations, and therefore brought about a transformation of the traditional landlord-tenant relationship. The second point concerns the possibility of using the reduction in rents to bring about an increase in food production. Because the government was not able to provide clear leadership in this direction, the act did not necessarily lead directly to any such increase. In addition, the relation between rice output and rent levels was analyzed according to the methods of rent theory through regression analysis.

Hidetoshi MIYACHI
Small-scale business in the porcelain industry of modern Japan: a case study of the Tono area

The Meiji (1868~1912) and Taisho (1912~1923) eras saw rapid growth in porcelain production in Japan. This was achieved in two ways: through an increase in factory size, and through an increase in the number of small-scale business concerns. It is on the second pattern that this paper will focus.
In addition to inheritance, the increase in small-scale concerns was mainly caused by skilled workers' becoming independent. These skilled workers tended to come from areas around porcelain-producing districts, and to have started work at a relatively young age. However, there is no clear link with the type of factory where they had been employed.

Conditions in the porcelain industry in the Tono area helped such workers. First, it was possible to obtain an advance of money from wholesale merchants. This has been seen as a form of extortion in previous research, but in this paper a more positive assessment will be made. Second, it was possible to postpone complete independence, and start with involvement in subcontracting or peripheral industries. Third, a worker of superior skills might be able to marry the daughter of his employer and set up a branch business, as a sub-type of the succession system.

Keishi OKABE
The role of competitive exhibitions and agricultural experiment stations in the development of the Japanese agricultural machine industry in the interwar period

Machines came to play a significant role in Japanese agriculture in the inter war period. Competitive exhibitions and agricultural experiment stations contributed to their diffusion, and to the general development of the agricultural machine industry, in a variety of ways.

The main purpose of competitive exhibitions was the display and evaluation of agricultural machines. In response to the nationwide diffusion of such machines, the competitive exhibitions of the 1920s upgraded their advertising function and refined their systems of evaluation. However, while the greater size of exhibitions increased the impact of their advertising function, the greater number of exhibits led to higher costs and impeded accurate evaluation.

In the 1930s, therefore, agricultural experiment stations came to replace competitive exhibitions. As permanent organizations, they were more effective in promoting and examining machines than ad hoc exhibitions which took place only once a year. Furthermore, the stations fostered the growth of human networks linking their engineers to technical advisors belonging to agricultural associations, farmers and manufacturers. These made an important contribution to the advancement of R&D, production, and sales of agricultural machines.

Hajime AKITOMI
The allied and imperial conferences and British trade policy plans during the First World War

This paper examines British trade policy plans during the First World War with special reference to the links with the Economic Conference of the Allies, the Imperial War Conference, and the Imperial War Cabinet.

As regards the former conference, the British government rejected the Clémentel plan to form an Allied economic bloc through the joint control of raw materials and preferential tariffs. Their alternative plan had two elements. One was the assumption that Britain could not discriminate against neutral countries because of the size and importance of trade links with them, by comparison to links with the Allies. The other was the protection of essential industries for which Britain had depended upon Germany before the war.

By the time the latter took place, international conditions had changed. The various governments of the British empire agreed to refuse preferential imperial tariffs for foodstuffs. Britain was therefore able to pursue non-discriminatory trade policies within the empire, and with both allied and neutral countries.

We can therefore conclude that the British government made wartime trade policy plans which were based on a 'third' path. This combined the protection of essential industries and open empire policy, instead of the 'Imperial Expansion' or 'Imperial Zollverein' line.