Vol. 73, No.5
Jun SATO
Financial system reform of the Argentine Republic in the 1930s: the role of the Bank of England in creating central banks in peripheral countries

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the role of the Bank of England in the reform of the financial system of the Argentine Republic in the 1930s. At the end of the year 1931, the Bank of England dispatched Otto Niemeyer to the Argentine government to submit a report that was composed of two parts: an analysis of the financial situation of the country at the time and a draft of the Central Banking Law. Then, following the establishment of the Central Bank, the private banking sector was completely reorganized, purportedly under the guidance of F.F.J. Powell, a technical advisor of the Bank of England.

Although little is known about the actual role of these advisors, previous studies have indicated that the Bank of England played a key role in the reform of the Argentinian financial system. In order to reconsider the validity of such interpretations, this paper will clarify whether or not Niemeyer’s and Powell’s recommendations were adopted and implemented.

Asuka YAMAGUCHI
The role of timber in the prewar Japanese coal-mining industry

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the environment and industrialization in prewar Japan by analyzing the supply and demand of timber. Since timber played a role in various industries, both as an energy resource and as construction material, it was important to secure stable supplies. This paper focuses on the demand for timber as pit props in Kyushu, which was the center of the Japanese coal-mining industry.
As various mining companies became involved in the development of the Chikuho coalfield in northern Kyushu from the late 1890s, competition for timber began and was exacerbated by the increase in coal production during World War I. In an attempt to address this situation, the mining companies sought to centralize delivery of timber and established an organization to discuss timber transactions. From 1920, the companies reduced their expenditures for timber through rationalization. But after 1933, coal production increased rapidly, leading to a serious shortage in timber supplies. The companies tried various measures to solve to this problem but were ultimately unsuccessful. As a result, the shortage in the supply for timber restricted the development of the coal-mining industry.

Tadayoshi TANIGUCHI
Why was the survey on ports and harbors taken in 1906? a turning point in the administration of the Bureau of Civil Works

The survey on ports and harbors has been taken annually in Japan since 1906 in order to obtain comprehensive information. The results of these surveys were used by the Committee on Ports and Harbors to divide ports and harbors into three classes according to port management and subsidization, not by their function as had been previously done. This paper aims to clarify why the Bureau of Civil Works in the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to conduct surveys at that time, although it had had jurisdiction over ports and harbors since 1874.

The conclusions of this paper are as follows: First, Internal Affairs Minister HARA Kei exercised leadership to form a long-term policy on ports and harbors and recognized the importance of comprehensive surveys.

Second, due to its preoccupation with river control, road construction, and other projects, the Bureau of Civil Works was unable to pay sufficient attention to or allocate enough in its budget to manage and repair the ports and harbors.

Third, in order to assist economic development, it was necessary that not only the trunk-line railway network but also the hub ports and harbors in each region should be developed to attain the long-term goal of efficient product distribution.

Yutaka ARIMOTO and Yoshihiro SAKANE
A prefecture-level panel data analysis of tenancy disputes: labor market and restructuring of the agricultural sector in Japan, 1915-1929

The purpose of this paper is to examine quantitatively the causes of tenancy disputes that occurred in Japan after World War I. We consider reallocation of labor and land in the agricultural sector, triggered by the expansion of non-farm employment opportunities, as the major cause of tenancy disputes. By using prefecture-level panel data, we found that expansion of a non-farm labor market lead to (1) a decline in rice cultivation rate, (2) an outbreak of tenancy disputes, and (3) a decline in rents. These findings suggest that the expansion of the non-farm labor market raised opportunity costs in farming and therefore fostered outflow of agricultural labor, decreased demand for land, and, hence, pressed rent downwards. The friction in the adjustment process of rents resulted in tenancy disputes, but in the long run, land was reallocated due to the decline in rent, thus restructuring the agricultural sector to attain a ‘medium farm standardization’ and increase full-time owner farmers. The contribution of the paper is twofold: we have (1) examined the relationship between the labor market and tenancy disputes, which have been indicated previously based on descriptive/historical evidence with quantitative evidence, and (2) proposed a unified framework to understand tenancy disputes with regard to the labor market and restructuring of the agricultural sector (especially ‘medium farm standardization’).