Abstract
This article aims to examine the system and terms of silk export, which was a leading export trade during the later part of the Meiji Era. The silk industry was one of the the typical Zairal-Sangyo (indigenous industry) of the day and was encouraged greately by the government as the most important means of obtaining specie in order to develop the 1shoku-Sangyo (transplanted industry). What was the relationship between this and the system and terms of silk export ? Before the abolishment of the special trade concessions in 1899, silk export was characterised as Kyoryuchi-boeki (concession trade) under which the export was controlled by foreign firms. Under this system, the middlemen who was connected with foreign firms had strong influence on the marcket price of raw silk through the advance system for encouragement of export as well as through the control excercised by the trade association. This situation was very unfavorable for the producers. After the abolishment of the concession resulting from the successful revision of the unequal treaties, "indirect" export by foreign firms was replaced by "direct" export by the large Japanese trading firms of the zaibatsu families. In the process of the chage within the trade system, the middlemen found new masters in the form of these Japanese firms and the producers were actually placed under a system of tighter control.
