Abstract
The rapid expansion of the Tokyo urban zone after World War I accelerated the development of an agricultural zone in the neighboring prefectures. The neighboring agricultural zone extended far, and the very rapid increase of vegetable production caused the creation of consecutive markets in vegetable production areas separated from their distribution areas.
On the other hand, following promulgation of the central wholesale market law, the Saitama prefectural government established market regulations to control fresh foodstuff markets and to solve diverse problems. But neither the market regulations nor the market business conduct rules which would form the basis of the market policy took into account the concept of a market zone. For this reason, the lack of regulation for market zone became a weak point in the study of suburban agricultural history in Saitama prefecture.
Hereunder, this paper 1) summarizes the local particularities of the vegetable production area in the south part of Saitama prefecture and markets in that production area in the early Showa era, 2) I studies, in time series, the social and economic background of the establishment of numerous markets in production areas, mainly for the aspect of market opening and continuation, and 3) tries to clarify market zone regulation through considering the conflict between markets, mainly caused by market concentration and the strict application of market regulations and rules by the prefectural authorities. The results are summarized as follows:
1) The reason that markets organized by cooperatives were dominant in the south part of the Ohmiya plateau and individually organized markets were dominant in the lower basin of the Naka river is considered to be a difference in the time of market opening: the former basin was influenced by the fresh foodstuff market policy of the prefectural government and the economic selfregeneration movement in agricultural villages, while in the latter, numerous markets had already been opened in the earlier epoch of financial panic after 1929.
2) The development of evening markets indicates the remarkable development of this suburban agricultural zone.
3) The opening of markets' in production areas quite distant from Tokyo city market was stimulated by the extensive expansion of suburban agricultural zones, the separation of production work from transport, production concentration to compensate for sudden and sharp drops in prices, reduction of transportation fees to compete for products shipped from distant production areas, and other factors ; the establishment of shipment cooperatives as the basis of shipment control and the unification of standards to compete against the legislation of a modernized wholesale and distribution system is also considered a cause.
4) Market zone regulation based on the principle of one market per community, and enforced by the application of rules, involves such factors, size of the city, character of the market, competition among markets, market size, and so on.
