The Rationalization of the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry in the 1920's

Abstract

The rationalization of the Japanese cotton spinning industry progressed very much in the 1920's. This meant a big change in the capital accumulation achieved by the cotton spinning monopoly enterprises up to then. This monopoly system in cotton spinning industry, the aim of which was the pursuit of high profit with monopoly prices, was compelled to face competiton with the "Zaikabo" (the cotton spinning industry in China), and moreover to compete with the imperialistic world Powers. This situation obliged the cotton spinning monopoly to construct a new system producing the high-quality products through the rationalization of management. However, this system was not constructed by an ordinary process in which machinery would have been introduced by additional investment, instead, it was done by labour fortification called "scientific management". The exploitation of the workers, e.g. extra night work, has become more rational since then, but at the same time this exploitation brought about a change in the former relations with employers. Therefore, this rationalization in the cotton spinning industry meant the reorganization of the old monopoly system into the new control system of monopoly. Under this control it was almost impossible for smaller cotton spinning companies to survive without striving to produce cotton thread as a main product, in turn this pushed them down to a lower class. This reorganization in the cotton spinning industry also changed the production-system in its biggest customer, the domestic cotton textile industry. These cotton textile producers, naturally, were put in keen competition with smaller cotton spinning companies for the cotton thread production. This competition also demanded the cotton textile producers to rearrange and to rationalize, they produced the wide-cloth and high-quality products with joint planning, etc. For this reason the domestic cotton textile producers became more positive about exporting their products. The contradictions accumulated in the cotton spinning industry found their solution in the market abroad through the above mentioned rationalization. After all, this rationalization process in the cotton spinning industry indicated the change of the reproduction-structure controlled by the monopoly system, namely it indicated the reorganization of the monopoly system which enabled capital accumulation under the new condition.