Vol. 71, No. 1

Makiko MATSUI
The development of mail-coach services during the British Industrial Revolution

The purpose of this paper is to examine mail-coach services during the British Industrial Revolution and to consider their role in the integration of regional economies.

The first section of the paper investigates postal services before the introduction of mail coaches in 1784. Since the end of the 17th century, when a wider market began to emerge, the post had been playing an important role in transmitting business correspondence and bills to distant places, thus enabling companies to expand the sphere of their activities nationwide. The quality of postal services was, however, quite poor because their operations were monopolized by the government.

The second section of the paper examines the development of the mail-coach network and changes in postal services. Examination of manuscripts of the General Post Office and commercial directories indicate that a close-knit and extensive network was established by the 1820s and that speed, reliability, and safety of the postal services were substantially improved.

In conclusion, the significance of mail-coach services was that by transmitting intelligence and money, difficulties posed by time and distance were overcome and the basis for the integration of regional economies was formed. It is noteworthy that the growth of the banking system paralleled the development of mail-coach services. Mail coaches also helped the social and cultural integration of regions as a medium for communication.

Takako MORINAGA
The interruption of Kiakhta trade and the Russian fur trade during the reign of Catherine II

The last interruption of Kiakhta trade, from 1785 to 1792, had serious effects on the Russian fur trade. In this article, the author tries to identify the structural changes in the Russian fur trade during this period by analysing the ‘Letter on the Kiakhta trade’, by A.N. RADISHCHEF, the Russian thinker-bureaucrat of the 18th century.

First, Kiakhta trade in the 18th century was the principal Russian overland trade and was as important as White Sea and Baltic Sea trade. Second, in the 18th century, Russian fur was exported mainly to China, not to Europe. Even during the interruption of Kiakhta trade, export of Russian fur to Europe did not increase to the level of export to China. Third, Siberian hunters did not quit hunting during the interruption of Kiakhta trade, but they were influenced by the change in fur prices. Fourth, trade between European Russia and Siberian cities including Irkutsk increased as a result of the interruption of Kiakhta trade. From these analyses, one can conclude that the last interruption of Kiakhta trade stimulated the integration of Russian fur enterprises and that this period prepared the way for the foundation of the Russian-American Company.

Yasukichi YASUBA
Real wages in the period of the Industrial Revolution in Japan: a comparative economic history approach

It is well known since the “standard of living controversy” that real wages of unskilled workers did not rise much (less than 1% per year) in Britain nor in the United States for a long time following the Industrial Revolution. It was believed that in Japan real wages of unskilled workers were also stagnant. The miserable life of female workers in the textile industries have often been cited, a situation for which capitalists and employers are condemned. In the literature of economic development, an unlimited supply of labor was believed to have existed before World War I.

In this paper, it is shown that the stagnation thesis has been “proven” by the wrong estimates of real wages, wrong mainly because they were deflated by inappropriate price indices. If the correct deflator is used, the rate of increase of female real wages is shown to have been as high as 2.5% per year and that for male workers 1.6% per year between 1885 and 1915. In the latter half of the Meiji period, the standard of living of the masses was low, but it was rising rapidly.

It is asserted that the nearly free trade under the “Unequal Treaties” and the hands-off attitude of the government, except in infrastructure, education, and the importation of foreign knowledge, led to an almost neoclassical growth centering in labor-intensive industries according to the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem.

<Conference Report>
Mario OSHIMA
Land scarcity and industrious revolutions: a comparative study of early modern economies

The 73rd annual meeting of the Socio-Economic History Society was held at Osaka City University on May 29 and 30, 2004. The general session was organized by Mario OSHIMA under the title shown above. The speakers took different approaches from those adopted in Japan so far to describe early modern economic history. They focused their views on the scarcity of land used for agriculture as a factor existing nearly everywhere in the world during this era. Industrious revolution, the term coined by Akira HAYAMI three decades ago, can be understood as farmers’ efforts to overcome this resource constraint in rural Japan during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Atsushi AOKI presented detailed research on four-character words representing land scarcity in formal Chinese histories and agricultural advisory documents issued by local governments, finding the constraint intensified already in the 11th and 12th centuries. Akihiko ETO presented evidence showing that 17th-century Japan still had land available for rice cultivation, which was much needed because of the big spurt of castle-town construction and the development of silver/gold mines aimed at obtaining foreign exchange; however, the country faced resource constraints during the latter half of the century. Takashi IIDA, basing his detailed study on Mark Brandenburg, pointed out that the sharp division between the full farmer class and cottagers in 18th-century eastern Elbe, Germany, intensified as population and agricultural production grew. Tsuneyuki DOHI and Atsuko OHASHI presented comments from the Russian and East Asian perspectives, respectively.