わが国における信用組合思想の導入とその立法過程 : 明治二四年の信用組合法案を中心に

Through both prewar and postwar days, many studies have been published about "the Bill of Credit Associations" which was brought before the Second Imperial Diet. Accoding to the new materials which I have collected recently, there is still room for further study on the following questions. (l) There are a variety of views about the reason for the presentation of this bill, including strengthening local autonomy, lightening farmers' debt, and preventing the occurrence of social problems. The last view, among the above three. seems the most reliable. In Japan, not like in Germany, the social problem could arise without the premise of tlae growth of the working class, The man who brought in the bill intended to introduce it in abvance especially as the preventive social policy, on the basis of the new historical school economics. His intention was to prevent differentiation of peasantry and to stop the gap between rich and poor from increasing. (2) It is doubtful whether Tosuke Hirata, the drafter of the bill, adhered to the principle of Credit Associations of Schulze system. In this connection, we must consider, besides the usual views, the influence from Roscher W. G. H., the former teacher of Hirata and Kohei Sugiyama who had emphasized the necessity of credit associations since the 23rd year of Meiji (1890) when he came home from Germany. (3) There is a view that this bill was the uncritical adoption from "Gesetz betreffend die Ereverbs-und Wirtschafts-genossenschaften (1889)". But the view is not right. Hirata accepted Roscher' s Wirtschaftsentwieklungsstufen-theorie and tried to find out the pattern in the German Association Law. And he groped for the concrete image of credit associations that Japan should adopt for the present. (4) At the end of 24th year of Meiji, criticisms from all quarters attacked this bill. But that of the Agricultural Institution alone has been taken up so far. This criticism is undoubtedly convincing so far as the organization and the form of associations are concerned. But there is a more important view as to whether associations can be settled and well developed. In fact, "Tokyo Economic Magazine" and the newspapers connected with the people's party commented that associations could not be established yet. For, as a matter of fact, the conditions of the growth of credit associations are not given until the government puts them to use as means of the social polisy so as to cope with the full scale social problem at the stage of monopoly capitalism.