問題提起 (<社会経済史学会近畿部会サマー・シムポジウム>明治期における会社企業の発達)

The Symposium was held on August 21st 1968, with the Faculty of Economics of Osaka University acting as a host. As our choice of the above topic indicates, we attempted to understand the development of Japanese capitalism, particularly its rapid growth after the Meiji period, by focusing on the ways in which evolving company enterprise made this growth possible. Illuminating this theme, first it would seem necessary to integrate our knowledge of family enterprise and co-operative business associations of the Tokugawa period and company enterprise of the Meiji period. A focus of enterprise history should be the relationship involved in the above development. It is a problem of the continuities and discontinuities of business enterprise. In the transitional period from feudalism to capitalism, what was discarded and what was retained? These questions demand attention. We know that the capital assets which had been accumulated in the Tokugawa period were socially integrated in the Meiji period. The company system-an institution imported from more advanced countries-had some role in the use of these resources. How the company organizations transformed these assets is also a matter of interest for us. This is a way to establish the role of company enterprise in the Meiji period industrialization. It is also certainly necessary that we understand the mechanism by which company enterprise fostered the social integration of capital. Our first report was given by Manabu Yunoki. He dealt with the Hyogo Company. The evolution-Domestic Products Association (Kokusan Kaisho)→ Hyogo Company (Hyogo Shosha)→Commercial Management and Enterprise Association (Shohoshi-Shohokaisho)→Kobe Exchange Company (Kobe Kawase Kaisha)-was traced. The movement of Nadagogo sake brewers' caapital into this company was also clearly shown. Yunoki's report strongly supports the view that the formation of company enterprise is an instance of the modernization from above. The second report by Kyuichi Takahashi examined the circumstances of the Hikone Finance Company (Hikone Yuzu Kaisha) and the Sanriku Produce Company (Sanriku Shosha). In the formation and management of these regional firms we see concrete examples of the growth of Tokugawa co-operative firms into Meiji co-porative enterprise and the modernization of regional produce companies into national banks. From Takahashi's report we see that he is at odds with Yunoki. It is his appraisal that the modernization came from below. The third report of Toshimitsu Imuta concentrated on the structure of joint stock companies around Meiji 20. Using data taken from Teikoku Tokei Nenkan. and Noshomusho Tokei Hyo, he elucidated the pattern of corporale enterprise. Such positive research made clear the mechanism by which funds had been supplied and capital procured. It also clarified quantitatively the role of the corporate framework in the modernization of the Japanese economy. Modernization examined from the vantage point of a particular firm is the subject of our fourth report given by Shigeaki Yasuoka. Until the establishment of the Mitsui Gomei Gaisha (unlimited partnership) in Meiji 42, the Mitsui interests were organized on a family basis. Yasuoka investigated how the operations of this family enterprise changed, and what character of capital and what style of management were passed along. For our Symposium Shuichi Yasuzawa, Yasukichi Yasuba and Toshimaru Harada acted as chairmen ; Hiroshi Shimbo acted as rapporteur for the discussion while Tadakatsu Inoue, Shinzo Kurita, and Masaji Arai commented on the reports.