Vol.
72, No.5
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Keishi SHIRATORI
Open-market operations by the Bank of Japan and regional banks
during World War II
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This article is an attempt to analyze the relationship between the
Bank of Japan’s open-market operations and regional banks. To
that end, I offer a critique of the academic perspective that suggests
a ‘peacetime logic in financial policy’ in the open-market
operations of BOJ during World War II. In addition, the article emphasizes
the point that BOJ was forced to accept a role subordinate to that
of the financial operations of the military government.
During the war, BOJ deemed
the selling of government bonds as the optimal policy for enabling
the government to efficiently procure funds sufficient to cover its
war expenditure. In order to prevent the collapse of the total war
system, BOJ actively implemented this policy from the time of Japan’s
invasive war on China.
When it became impossible
for city banks to buy bonds from BOJ from 1940, BOJ looked to regional
banks as the most important substitute buyer of the bonds. As a result,
BOJ’s decision to leave regional
banks intact as a group lingered. However, in 1944 it also became impossible
for regional banks to buy the bonds. This is one of the important reasons
for the collapse of the comprehensive war system in Japan.
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Yoshiyuki AIHARA
The distribution mechanism of timber in southeastern Guizhou
Qingshui-jiang valley during the mid-Qing period: analysis of Caiyun
Huangmu Andu
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In the 18th century, the Miao in southeastern Guizhou began to produce
shanmu timber [Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.] in great abundance.
The timber used for the construction of the palace in Beijing was procured
from this region. Every year, a bureaucrat from Hunan province traveled
to southeastern Guizhou to procure the timber. In this article, the
author examines the distribution mechanism of timber in this area,
using the historical records Caiyun Huangmu Andu [Archives on felling
and transporting imperial timber], written by a lower bureaucrat who
was in charge of the procurement in the years 1777 and 1781.
Two things made it difficult
for the bureaucrat to procure the timber. First, large-size timber
was rare and valuable. Second, the actual cost of the timber far
exceeded the legal statutory budget. Under these circumstances, the
bureaucrat had to carry out a smooth procurement while saving on
costs and also managing to gain private profit for himself. At times,
the bureaucrat conflicted with the local middleman, and at times
he cooperated with him; and he also cooperated with the merchants
from the lower area of Yangtze valley, e.g., Huizhou merchants. The
manager of the forest, meanwhile, sold timber when the price was
high and thus earned capital for reforestation.
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Hisao
KOKUBU
The social impact of tramway construction in the suburbs
of Marseille: the case of les Camoins (1872-1931)
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A characteristic feature
of the urbanization of France from the end of the 19th century to the
beginning of the 1930s was the process by which tramway networks were
established in cities and, in particular, by which suburbs developed.
Based on the examination of two main historical sources, the manuscript
census registers and materials of the tramway management, this paper
studies the social impact of tramway construction in the suburbs of
Marseille by focusing on families and individuals.
The quarter of les Camoins,
located in a farming area approximately 13 kilometers from the city
center, suffered from a population drain to urban areas in the mid-19th
century. However, this quarter began to be reactivated when large-scale
plants moved out to the suburbs and with the diffusion of urban-type
agriculture from the end of the century. Although conflicting interests
caused considerable delay in tramway construction, the opening of
tramway traffic in 1907 accelerated reactivation of the area.
Les Camoins as a health
resort first gained strength in 1911, and in 1931, with the coming
of the tram age, the quarter was transformed into a true residential
area. Furthermore, local people began to settle there permanently,
and people from other areas and other countries (mainly Italy) increased,
lending a Mediterranean character to les Camoins and thus transforming
a suburban quarter of a large city.
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Masahiko SAKAGUCHI
Organization and dissolution of sericultural cooperative
in Shimoina, Nagano Prefecture
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This paper examines the
postwar reform movements that aimed to organize sericultural cooperatives,
particularly the establishment and management of all silkworm-raising
cooperatives in Shimoina area, Nagano Prefecture. Few case studies
have been made on this topic. I attempt to identify the characteristics
of postwar agrarian society based on an analysis of the existing
social and economic conditions of sericultural cooperatives and the
cooperatives themselves. The movement to organize sericultural cooperatives
in the Shimoina area was centered around Tenryusha, a silk-reeling
cooperative. No less than 72 cooperatives were organized, but most
of them were dissolved from 1949 to the middle of 1950s. This was
caused by government regulation, the decline of the sericultural
industry and, above all, the shift from sericultural cooperatives
to general agricultural cooperatives in Tenryusha.
But Shimohisakata Sericultural
Cooperative continued to exist for an exceptionally long time. This
is mainly attributed to the dependence of the area on the sericultural
industry and the leadership of Naoto AOSHIMA, a sericulturist. I
discuss the major role that he played as a typical technocrat in
the postwar agrarian society.
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Jun FUKUSHI
The 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition and Canada
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This article considers
the significance of the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition held
in London from a Canadian perspective. Although it has received little
attention in past historiography, this exhibition aimed to strengthen
economic relations within the British Empire as advocated by the
Royal Commission, the exhibition’s organizer. Canada approved
this vision and participated in the exhibition.
Canada’s stand on
economic unity, however, differed from that of the Royal Commission.
Canada saw itself not only as a staple export country but also as
the second largest industrial presence within the Empire after Britain.
Canada was attempting to strengthen its economy through manufacturing
exports as well as agricultural exports. The Royal Commission, in
contrast, represented a self-sufficient Empire that consisted solely
of Britain as its industrial centre, with the other colonies and
dependencies serving as natural resource suppliers.
This article concludes
that, despite their consensus as to the objective of this exhibition,
Canada and the Royal Commission were seriously divided regarding
the economic unity of the Empire. Through its participation in this
exhibition, Canada illustrated the dual roles that it intended to
play within the Empire after the turn of the century.
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