「満洲国」の綿業統制と土着資本

抄録

This paper examines movements in local capital in order to elucidate the impact of economic controls on the wartime economy (1937‒45) of Manchuguo. The focus is on local capital and cotton industry controls, because the controls had a strong impact on the wartime cotton industry's development; and also because local capital played a leading role in the local economy, and its study is therefore essential to any investigation of the local impact of control policies. Two conclusions emerge from this study.

First, when cotton industry control began in 1939, local textile factories were not included in the Production Control Association, centered on the Cotton Industry Federation. As members of the Textile Manufacturing Trade Association, local factories, though subject to supply regulations, obtained raw materials (cotton yarn) from the Cotton Industry Federation. They also had a certain degree of freedom, because direct transactions with local merchants were permitted in practice. With tightened controls from the summer of 1941, however, local textile operators were formed into a Control Union and became subject to consolidation. Combined with the difficulty of procuring yarn and other factors, local capital's market share in cotton cloth production dropped by over half, and a string of businesses left the Union. Toward the end of the control period, many local textile businesses were either idle or had closed. Control Union member factories were subject to control and forced to operate at a fraction of capacity. Factories outside the Control Union operated with shadow-market materials to generate income.

Second, the controls on supply resulted in streamlined distribution channels. Policies were implemented to eliminate wholesalers (chiefly local merchants), and a number of local traders went out of business. Many factories shifted to capital sources outside the control regime by becoming small- or micro-scale enterprises, in order to stay in business. Local traders also slipped through the cracks of the controls by hanging “closed for business” signs while continuing to operate; their shadow transactions engendered a boom in the shadow market. Thus, the measures for eliminating wholesalers were not wholly effective, and actually caused considerable market turmoil. The Manchuguo government eventually aimed to rectify the situation with new plans to make use of local capital and rely again on the old framework, but the war ended three months later and the plans were never implemented.