Vol. 78, No. 2

Izumi SHIRAI
How an agricultural cooperative in modern Japan controlled its stakeholders: the case of the Takedate Cooperative

This study aims to shed light on the famous Takedate Cooperative’s production and marketing activities from 1907 to the 1930s. Established in Aomori prefecture, one of the backward agricultural areas of the northeast, the Takedate Cooperative supported member’s production activities, and introduced standardization and trademarking in the apple trade, creating the ‘Takedate Apple’ brand. Its high-quality products fostered trust among clients and built relationships with powerful merchants in big cities across the country, allowing Takedate apples to trade at relatively higher prices. However, because the cooperative was organized across villages, managers could not control members’ behaviour through village community norms, and some members did not play by the cooperative rules, selling apples independently in the market to merchants not specified by the cooperative. It was difficult to rein in such members. With the poor business conditions after World War I, this tendency grew stronger, and many members withdrew their memberships. By World War II, the cooperative had no choice but to allow members to sell their apples freely in the market. The cooperative eventually produced the economically rational peasant not bound by rule and norm. This, then, is the focus of this study.

Yuta KIKUCHI
Hamburg’s overland trade 1630-1806: commodity distribution to the inland and the Baltic Sea region

Studies on European economic history in the early modern period acknowledged the importance of Hamburg’s overland trade, which served a vast hinterland stretching over inland Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and the Baltic Sea region. However, no monograph has appeared to investigate the entire picture of this trade. This paper, based on quantitative materials collected from custom registers which have not been previously fully explored, analyzes exports from Hamburg to its hinterland and traces long-term processes in the trade. Worth noting are the commercial relations with Lübeck in the 17th century and with Berlin in the 18th century. Thus, Hamburg’s function as a hub between the European overseas trade and the inland markets is clarified. Through a careful observation of individual transactions, we show that trade routes and destinations were selectively chosen according to various commercial conditions like safety of travel, trade policies, demand, transport means and costs, seasons, and other such conditions. Such conditions affected the distribution of each commodity, thus indicating regional specialization. It is also an important finding that the Baltic Sea region was a considerable part of Hamburg’s hinterland.

Keishi SHIRATORI
The early history of the Yokohama Specie Bank

The Yokohama Specie Bank was founded in 1880 as a collaborative effort of private individuals and the Japanese Government. In the early days, the bank’s managers were drawn from the private investors, while bureaucrats appointed by the Okura-sho (Finance Ministry) tried to exercise control. Since the bank’s managers did not provide sufficient information to the bureaucrats, this system of control failed, and the bank accumulated bad loans.

To deal with this situation, in 1882 the Finance Ministry appointed Hara Rokuro, a professional bank manager experienced in foreign exchange transaction, as the president of the Bank. Hara’s fundamental reform of the Bank’s management became the most important prerequisite for the management Reform of 1887, which followed Hara’s reform and put the management of the Bank on a sound footing.

Masahiko SAKAGUCHI
How rural communities functioned in executing administrative policies in pre-war Japan: a case study of Shimohisakata village, Shimoina district, Nagano prefecture

This paper examines how administrative villages and their sub units, rural communities, functioned in executing various policies during the pre-war years of the Showa period. The focus is on understanding the conditions which affected decision making by administrative villages and their sub units This case study, using materials from Shimohisakata village, Shimoina district, Nagano prefecture, shows that rural communities in that village functioned successfully in cases that involved adjusting the villagers’ interests with regard to road improvement and deciding resident taxes. On the other hand, the sub communities were not effective in promoting the rural economic regeneration movement and in cases of tax delinquency.

The final section of this paper involves a comparative study of the rural economic regeneration movement in different villages in Shimoina district. The villages can be classified into three types: model villages; cooperative villages; and villages that were difficult to administer. In promoting the economic regeneration movement, the administrative villages led efforts in the model villages, while the prefectural government played a central role in the case of villages that were classified as difficult to administer. Shimohisakata village fell in the intermediate category. This paper examines the different patterns of community and the three strategies for control.

Narumi IMAI
The match industry in 1930s China and Japan: struggles over the formation of cartels

This paper analyzes the process of the formation of production and sales cartels in the match industry in 1930s China at a time when the Japan-China relationship was deteriorating and Chinese companies were experiencing a growing sense of alarm toward the economic activities of Japanese competitors. But people in the match industry in China, moving against this general trend, called for the participation of Japanese capital and explored the formation of Sino-Japanese cartels.

However, as the parties took steps to form cartels, conflicts emerged between two groups of Chinese-owned companies. One group, led by Liu Hongsheng, was comprised of larger companies with bases in Jiangnan. This group, operating under instructions of the Nationalist government, strove to form partnerships with Japanese-owned companies and run cartels. The other group, comprised of micro-enterprises located in Shandong and Hebei, opposed the proposed method for calculation of production quotas which was based on concessions to Japanese firms, partly because they were involved in fierce competition with Japanese capital. The problem of the evasion of the consolidated tax was also in the background to the complex disputes between the two groups. Due to these conflicts the cartels were not very effective.