産業化の開始と家事使用人 : 大阪府泉南地方の一商家の事例を中心として

抄録

In the early stages of Japan's industrialization, the increased demand for labor in industry caused a labor shortage in domestic service. Nevertheless, domestic servants remained a large occupational group. The aim of this paper is to show how families were able to continue to employ domestic servants through a case study of the Hiroumi family, merchants specializing in fertilizers and rice in the Sennan district of Osaka Prefecture. The Hiroumi family normally employed three to four live-in servants. Most were girls not yet independent from their parents, who were the ultimate recipients of their wages. They were recruited from the poorer families of the neighboring areas. On the eve of industrialization in the 1880s, the cotton-weaving industry had already developed as a cottage industry throughout the Sennan district. Parents were able to put their daughters to work as weavers at home instead of sending them away to domestic service. However, the latter was more profitable for them, and therefore it was easy for employers to hire domestic help. But the situation changed after industrialization began in the 1890s. A cotton-spinning mill built in the Sennan district was willing to employ large numbers of local girls at high wages. In addition, the weaving industry began to flourish owing to a sharp rise in the demand for cotton cloth. It was clearly more advantageous for parents to send daughters to the spinning mill to work, or keep them at home weaving, rather than put them into domestic service. The Hiroumi family was faced with a labor shortage. Employers of domestic servants immediately took countermeasures, such as raising wages, or offering improved payment systems. Although it was not as easy to hire and retain workers as in the past, the Hiroumi family was still able to employ as many domestic servants as it needed.