政策用語としての「殖産興業」について : 「殖産興業」研究史への一規角

抄録

This paper tries to show how, when, by whom, and in what meaning was the word "Shokusan-kogyo" (Promotion of Industry) employed as an expression of industrial policy. It is a part of a larger study on the industrial policy in the early Meiji period. The word as a statement of the industrial policy was seldom used before the second decade of the Meiji era. At that time, the Japanese government was making an investigation of the conditions of Japanese industries in order to give answers to the questionaries by the British Legation. The classification of industries by the British Legation began to influence the various expressions of the industrial policy of the Japanese government, and it was during this period that the word Shokusan-Kogyo was gradually being employed. Those who used this expression were mostly government officials and its adherents called "Protectionists." By Shokusan-Kogyo they tried to convey the idea of promoting every kind of industries from the making of objet d'art to the manufacture of arms. It was quite convenient to use this expression for the government officials who recognized the failure of industrial policy adopted previously. The word Shokusan-Kogyo thus became a slogan of new industrial policy. The opponents, however, critisized the slogan, and the heated debates on the appraisal and modification of the policy followed. The depression as a result of the policy hurt those engaged in manufacturing, and they began to use the same slogan in order to obtain a relief policy. By the Meiji twentieth, Shokusan-Kogyo has become a cliche, and its political implication disappeared gradually.