2025 Volume 71 Issue 2 Pages 57-75
More and more attention is paid to roles of intermediate organizations in Marshallian agglomerations. The policy for small and medium-sized enterprises of prewar Japan has been thought to have based itself on the trade association policy since the 1890s and shifted to the manufacturing association policy in the 1920s. At present, however, geographical attention is fixed exclusively on trade associations, completely independent of industrial and manufacturing associations. This paper, therefore, intends to discuss their institutional characteristics and their mutual relationships.
The trade association and the industrial association symbolized liberal economy. The former was a self-management organization designed for the restriction against mass production of inferior goods, and for the expansion of market transactions, by means of competitive and efficient market mechanism; the latter was a cooperative organization designed for joint ventures. In contrast, the manufacturing association symbolized controlled economy. This association was a cooperative organization designed for the prevention of market collapse by means of production adjustment and price agreement.
