一九二〇年代における化学工業保護政策 : 商工省「三大政策」の歴史的意義

抄録

Until now, the policy for the heavy and chemical industries in Japan in the 1920s has not been estimated very positively. On the contrary, this article makes it clear that a epoch-making, systematic policy for the heavy and chemical industries was established in the middle of the 1920s, through examining the protective policies for the two chemical industries (the synthetic dyes industry and the soda industry), which were included in Sandai-Seisaku (the three principal policies). Sandai-Seisaku meant the protective policies for the synthetic dyes industry, the soda industry and the iron industry, and were instituted at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the middle of the 1920s. Since the above-mentioned two chemical industries make up the fundamental section of all the chemical industries, the examination of the protective policies for these two should give important insights for the purpose of comprehending the whole policy for the heavy and chemical industries. In the middle of the 1920s, the policy for the heavy and chemical industries was considered systematically with the policy for the key industries and the revision of the tariff as principal policy, for the purpose of coping with international economic competition and improving the balance of payments. The protective policies for the synthetic dyes industry and the soda industry were incorporated into Sandai-Seisaku, which was the concrete measure of the policy for the key industries. And then, for the purpose of fixing the two industries as key industries in the industrial structure, the fundamental policies for them were enforced in and after the middle of the 1920s with the development of them for a background. In the policies during the middle of the 1920s, a gradual line was taken both in individual industrial protection and in the whole conception. Such gradualism corresponded to the international situation in the relatively stable period, and was rational with respect to the financial problem of those days and the adjustment of the interests of individual industries.