産業資本確立期における市場構造と鉄道建設 : 埼玉県下北埼玉郡地方における横貫鉄道の分析

抄録

Until recently, the sphere of railway history has relatively been neglected in the studies of socio-economic history in Japan. In these circumstances, the round symposium entitled "A problem of industrial revolution and railway mainly in Germany and Great Britain" was held by the Learned Society of Transportation History in 1964. At this symposium, a new point of view on the study of railway history in Japan was presented to its participants. They attached much importance to the relation between market structure and construction of railway networks. This theme was, however scarcely taken into consideration in the study of Japanese railway history at that time. It is a well known fact that the construction of railway networks in Japan was promoted through the policy of industrialization drived by Meiji Government. At the beginning of Meiji era, the Government licensed establishments of Nihon Railway Oampany (Ueno-Maebashi, Ueno-Aomori), Kohfu Railway Company (Shinjuku-Hachiooji) and others in Kanto province. All of their lines were converged in Tokyo and got into a concrete shape as the base of the railway networks. In such a course of constructing railway networks, several railways whose lines were destined to traverse local towns-for example, Kitasaitama Railway Company and Tone Railway Company-were planned in the middle of 1890's. The line of Kitasstama Railway Company was expected to connect Kumagaya (Takasaki line) to Kurihashi (Tohoku line), crossing Gyoda, Ha-nyu and Fudoh-oka, at the district of Kitasaitama in Saitama prefecture. This district was well known as a region of cotton industry (aojima and tabi) in these days. The author of this article intends to bring out a feature of market structure in 1890's, analyzinag the course of constructing railway networks in the district of Kitasaitama. Firstly, he tries to analyze the development of the production of commodities and the transportation in this district from late 1880's to early 1890'. Secondly, he attempts to analyze the project of Kitasaitama Railway Company. According to the document entitled "The entreaty for the construction of Kumagaya-Kurihashi Railway" (1897), this railway was mainly to bc utilized for conveying tabi, aojima (cotton fabrics) and so on. Therefore, both manufacturers and small tradesmen of tabi and aojima in this district earnestly encouraged the company to construct the railway. But their efforts were vain, for the company was not able to construct the lines at all. This might help us get a glimpse of some of the features of the process of railway network constraction in Japan.