Vol. 75, No. 5

Mitsuru HAGIWARA
The steel industry of Nationalist China in the postwar period, 1945-1949: an analysis of the reconstruction of Tayeh plant

As is generally known, construction of the steel industry was an important factor in the economic reconstruction during the early period of the People’s Republic of China. However, it is not known that construction of a steel industry was also advocated by postwar Nationalist China. This paper analyses the steel industry of this period from the following three viewpoints. The first considers the location of the construction site at the planning stage. The second examines the distribution of financial funds and foreign relations when the plan was implemented in the postwar period. The third studies the difficulties of the construction process.

Through this analysis, it became clear that the Nationalist government had made a point of reconstructing Tayeh plant in central China. The intent of the policymakers was to prepare the economy for adaption to the open economic system of the postwar world. However, they could neither acquire a loan from the United States nor compensation from Japan, which was essential for the implementation of their policy. Therefore they turned to reopening existing plants in north and northeast China, which were occupied by communist forces soon thereafter. As a result, Nationalist China lost its steel industry much earlier than it had expected.

Wataru HIURA
Irish Home Rule and financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland in the late 19th century

The introduction of the Home Rule bills in 1886 and 1893 is said to be a turning point, for the Irish demand for Home Rule was accepted and promoted by the British government. However, the schemes of the Liberals and the Nationalists were different on important matters, especially finance, and it cannot be simply said that the Liberal government advanced the Irish national interest. This article examines the financial clauses and the debates about them to understand the particular scheme of theLiberals. The Irish contribution to the Imperial expenditure had been an important factor for Britain but was difficult to maintain because of increasing expenditure in Ireland at that time. The bills were designed to secure the contribution in the British interest. In spite of this tributary system, the unity of the two countries was expected to be maintained or even strengthened by the partial introduction of the federal system and the conversion of the suppressive formal nexus to a voluntary informal one. From that point, the scheme was not a simple acceptance of the Irish national request, but the maintenance of Irish financial dependence and the restoration of unity in the face of threatened dissolution.

Shuichi KUROSAKI
Medical authority and state intervention in 19th-century Britain

This article examines the process of establishing medical authority in 19th-century Britain. During this period, medical professionals attempted to standardise qualifications required to practice medicine. The unification of medical qualifications, a typical example of professionalisation, contributed towards establishing medical authority.

However, medical authority depended on professionalisation as well as patronage from the government and local elites. In particular, medical professionals managing the self-governed system for medical qualification were apprehensive that they had a more tenuous relationship with the state than did other professions, especially lawyers and priests. They therefore hoped to develop a closer relationship with the state through the foundation of a medical council under the supervision of the government to examine medical qualifications.

Medical professionals, however, conflicted over the appointment of members of the medical council. Some public-health reformers, who sought reorganisation of the central health administration, proposed that all members of the medical council be appointed by the government. Others regarded self-government as an essential element of medical authority and insisted that some council members be elected by the medical professionals themselves. Medical authority was thus established by seeking a balance between self-government and state intervention and was influenced by social situations, including public-health reform.

Ryota WATANABE
Local self-governmental activities and the economic background of the German Social Democrats in interwar Czechoslovakia

This paper aims to show the local self-governmental activities of German Social Democrats in interwar Czechoslovakia and to place them in the country’s economic context, and then to consider their underlying financial thought.

In interwar Czechoslovakia, the German Social Democratic Workers’ Party (DSAP) administered many communes and districts mainly in northern and northwestern Bohemia, and successfully undertook welfare projects for working people. The main resources of the local bodies were additions (surtaxes) to direct state taxes, which were imposed on the propertied classes. Consequently, the above-mentioned activities suffered a setback when the law of 1927 set a limit on additional rates. Upon examining the economic situation in the Bohemian lands, it is apparent that in northern and northwestern Bohemia, where self-governing bodies depended heavily on surtaxes, their burden was too heavy for taxpayers because the key regional industries were stagnant. On the other hand, in southern and western Bohemia, local bodies depended less on surtaxes. Considering these circumstances, interregional financial equalisation was required. But most of the local DSAP activists persisted in an unlimited right to levy surtaxes.