日露戦争後における海軍兵器生産の構造 : 大型艦船生産を中心として

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the actual condition and features of the warship building in Japan after the Russo-Japanese War. Though the warship building in Japan started at the begining of the Meiji period, the chief warships were built in foreign countries. But the warship building developed rapidly after the Russo-Japanese War, so that most warships were built within the country before World War I. What was the cause of this development? First, Navy Expenditures in the General Account increased in spite of difficult situations of public finance. The greater part of those expenditures was made for warships. Secondly, Navy yards were expanded and mechanization furthered. Thirdly, shipbuilding in private enterprises grew, consequently the main shipyard could build large-scale warships. Fourth, material industries for warship-building gradually developed. But this process was not simple outcome. Because dreadnought was done completely in England. This warship was not only great but also speedy. Moreover, many big guns were loaded. It followed that other ones became old-fashioned. Then japanese Navy requested British shipyard (Vickers) to build the superdreadnought-class warship (Kongou) to introduce the new technique. The important feature of this munitions industry was vertical and horizontal combination in goverment enterprises with private ones. It had the merit of saving expenditures by specializing in a specific occupation in the former, getting stable orders without being controlled by business cycle in the latter. The above-mentioned matter suggests that the munitions industry in Japan established itself in this period. Thus the imports of the warships from abroad decreased remarkably, and specie payment for finished goods, namely warships, diminished in this process. But specie payments for munitions didn't diminish generally. Because the imports of material, machines and the other arms increased. It implies that the specie problem caused by expantion of armaments still continued.