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Socio-Economic History

Vol. 78, No. 4

Sou MIURA
Mining capital and local industrialization in interwar Japan: a case study of the investment activities of the stockholders in the Ube area of Yamaguchi prefecture


This paper examines the investment activities of mining capital in the Ube region in the interwar years as a vehicle for understanding the special characteristics of local industrialization. Most of the investors in the Ube coal mine and manufacturing industries were related to retainers of the Fukuhara clan. In order to promote reinvestment of profits from their commonly held property in the coal mine, stocks were distributed among the group through marriage and family connections. The motivation for investment grew out of a shared understanding that sub-soil resources were common property that should be collectively managed, as well as strong ties that came from native place and family connections. We can also see “collective compulsion” in the pressure on mine shareholders to invest in manufacturing industry. Expansion of business and acquisition of profits jointly inspired investment in Ube society. At the same time, the “desire to contribute” to the community was also an important factor. My analysis of the income structure of the mining industrial capitalists shows that their investment was concentrated in local stocks, and that local stocks maintained a higher yield than central stocks; this relationship was particularly marked in the yield and total profit in the coal mining industry. These financial funds were the main source of development in regional industry.

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Hisao KOKUBU
Urban public transportation service in major regional cities in France: focusing on the case of Marseille (1870s–1930s)


From the 1870s, suburban public transportation grew in importance in major cities in France. Each municipality decided the mode of its construction and operation through a concession system. Under that system, urban public transportation in major French cities advanced technologically. However, the process of developing urban transportation facilities varied depending on the city. The capital city of Paris, while boasting a modern metro network, continued to use outdated means of ground transportation, such as omnibuses and horse-drawn trams, until 1913. Compared to large French regional cities where the electric tramway had been in common use since the beginning of the century, paradoxically Paris’s urban public transportation was in a backward state.
     After World War I, there were marked differences in major regional cities. For example, Lyon succeeded in downsizing its system; most lines were laid in densely populated areas, which was geographically favorable to management. By contrast, the Marseille transportation network, as a result of constructing a large number of unprofitable lines to remote suburbs, fell into chronic deficits, worse than before World War I. In Marseille, the influence peddling of politicians in their electoral bases, which was associated with the development of universal male suffrage, was particularly evident in the field of urban public transportation service.

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Yukiteru MAKI
Development of the Toyota Industrial Group in prewar and wartime Japan: a comparison with Zaibatsu and “New Konzern”

This article explores the development of the Toyoda Gyodan (Toyota Industrial Group) in prewar and wartime Japan, focusing on Toyoda Boshoku (Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Company). Toyoda Boshoku entered the heavy industrial sector during the interwar period using the high profits yielded from their textile business as a financial base. The most successful among all their heavy industrial investments at that time were investments in the automobile industry; however, this article shows that they also invested in aircraft manufacturing and chemicals and expanded their overseas business for efficient risk management. During the wartime, Toyoda Boshoku shifted its business resources from textiles to the automobile, aircraft, and armaments industries. In 1942, under the pressure of wartime corporate control measures, Toyoda Gyodan’s investments in the textile industry were consolidated in the Chuo Spinning Company; the Chuo Spinning Company then merged with the Toyota Motor Company in 1943, completing the transformation of the Toyoda Gyodan as a heavy industrial corporate group.
     The Toyoda Gyodan has a number of special characteristics—including its pattern of development, business structure, and family-controlled management structure—which set it apart from both other Zaibatsu and the “New Konzern” (emerging corporate groups). In other words, Toyoda Gyodan should be regarded as a third type of corporate group.

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Yusaku MATSUZAWA
The 1872 land title certificates and the village-based system of tribute levy

This paper reconsiders the meaning of the Jinshin land title certificates, which were issued from 1872 through 1873. The issuance of these Jinshin land title certificates is commonly interpreted as the first introduction of modern property rights, but this interpretation needs to be reconsidered in light of the fact that they were issued in the context of continuation of the village-based system of collective responsibility for land tax collection. This paper begins with an analysis of the policy making process. It examines the circumstances under which the Ministry of Finance avoided carrying out a new land survey, setting an inspection of the volume of rice to be harvested as its basic principle. This proposal met with sharp criticism from the Ministry of Popular Affairs. This process took place within the context of the abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures, and followed a proposal for the issuance of land title certificates which Takahira Kanda had proposed in 1869. The paper analyzes the records of the Miyamae village, Musashi province, in which land title certificates were actually issued. The analysis shows that there was no link between the results of the land survey and the issuing of land title certificates. The village continued to have a collective responsibility for payment of land taxes and the land areas stated on land title certificates were no more than an indication of the relative ratios of land area per village landowner.

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Hiroshi OKABE
Child labor regulations in France (1874-1914): the case of the department of Nord

French child labor regulation has been seen as the beginning of state intervention in the private sphere (factories and families). However, earlier studies have argued that failure to effectively enforce these regulations meant that they had very little practical effect. Consequently, there has been little study of the interventions by these regulations in the private sphere (especially, in the sphere of the family). Starting with this position in mind, this paper focuses on the enforcement of child labor regulation from 1874 to 1914 in the department of Nord, one of the French areas where child labor flourished. The conclusions of this paper are that French child labor regulations brought serious changes to the intervention of the state in the private sphere, and that those changes varied depending on local and national conditions (realities of child labor, attitude of locale notables, changes in national politics, etc.). This analysis proposes that the enforcement of child labor regulations had a more positive historical significance than historians have previously believed. Furthermore, these regulations can be considered as being an important factor in French labor policies for adult workers in the period leading up to World War I.

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Masakazu MURAKAMI
Leaders of groups of beggars in Beijing during the Qing period and social order

This article examines the leaders of groups of beggars in Beijing during the Qing and attempts to situate their presence within Beijing’s social order. Hitherto there have been no full-scale investigations of leaders of beggars in early modern China. One reason for this is the limitations of historical sources. This paper uses newly discovered administrative materials to discuss the organization of beggar groups, the type of people who became leaders of beggars, government responses, and other issues.
     I then consider the position of the leaders of beggars within Beijing’s social order. The relationships formed in Qing-period Beijing between residents and leaders of beggars can be understood in terms of individual reciprocal relationships (residents paying off leaders of beggars to avoid trouble) and contract relations (leaders of beggars being contracted to manage exchanges of cash between beggars and residents). The reciprocal relationships were similar to those with infantrymen in Beijing. Both reciprocal relationships and contract relationships are widely seen in Chinese society. Leaders of beggars may seem like special entities on the fringes of society, but the mechanisms of the formation of social order in Chinese society were the same.

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