明治時代前半における洋釘の普及と和釘併用の背景

抄録

 The author has so far considered the spread of the Western nails in the Meiji era from the viewpoint of the price. As a result, it has already shown that it was the price of a 1.5 inch long nail is 1/21 in 1885, 1/50 at the end of the Meiji period, compared to the same length of the Japanese nails in 1875. By the way, the question remains as to how the nails spread before 1885. Although the authors have already reported that the Japanese nails -square nails- and the Western nails - round nails- were used together from the late Meiji 10s to the Meiji 20s, in spite of such a price difference, the reason why square nails and round nails are used together cannot be clearly shown. Therefore, this article aims to clarify the background of the combined use of square nails and round nails by examining the spread of the Western nails in the first half of the Meiji era according to the actual situation of imports.

 Based on the description of the business situation in Yokohama published in “Chugai-bukka-shimpo” and “Chugai-syogyo-shimpo” (hereinafter referred to as “Chugai”), I considered the spread of the Western nails in the first half of the Meiji period. From the Meiji 10s to the mid-Meiji 20s, “kugi-tetu”: nail iron, “kugi-sao” and “tetu-kugi” : iron nail were confirmed as nails based on the descriptions of nails published in the Yokohama business situation of “Chugai” papers. Of these, it was confirmed that round nails were imported at least twice in Meiji 10 for "iron nails". It can be judged that “kugi-sao” were considered to be “nail-rod” in English paper of the same era, and it was considered that round nails, the round nail made of the nail-rod as the material, the Japanese-made round nail was manufactured by Western Iron. The number of “nail irons” has increased dramatically since 1879, and Japanese nail was produced in Japan using this as the raw material. The distribution of nails during this period can be considered as follows. In the first half of the Meiji 10s, there was a reduction in prices due to the expansion of the Japanese nail production using Western iron. In addition, since the import of the Western nails, or round nails, increased sharply in the late Meiji 10s, Japanese nails and the Western nails were used together.