Japan Paper Association was established in 1880, as a trade association by the Japanese papar-manufacturing companies, for the purpose of controlling price. However, in a short time, it found the price cartel difficult to maintain in the period, and transformed the purpose to promote friendship among members.
But with the tariff reforms in 1899, 1906, and 1910, the Japanese paper-manufacturing industry fell into a difficult situation owing to the tax reduction of imported paper. So the association strived to reinforce its organization and operations by degrees. As a result, it laid a foundation that was able to manage cartels for the limitation of output after World War I.
The object of this article is to trace the development of Japan Paper Association and analyze its organization and, operations before World War I.

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Admittedly, there are two sharply contrasted views on the late Victorian entrepreneurial performance at the present time. One traditional opinion, for instance, maintained by D.L. Burn (1939) is that the British entrepreneurs performed badly from the 1870's and if they had done better, the decline of the British steel industry compared with the German and American steel industry could have been avoided.
Another opinion, recently asserted by D.N. McCloskey (1973) is that the relative decline was inevitable and from whatever perspective they are viewed, the British steel makers did well and their behavior was rational. According to him, the relative decline, i. e., slowing down of British steel production growth, was merely caused by maturity of the British economy.
By taking a biggest iron and steel company in Britain over that period, that is, the Bolckow Vaughan & Co., this study tries to give an important example to this controversy.
Bolckow Vaughan's were formed as a partnership in 1839 at Middlesbrough in the North-East of England and in 1865 they were transformed into a limited company. Throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian age they were a largest pig-iron producer. As a steelmaking company, they had four steel-making processes: acid converter, basic converter, acid open-hearth furnace, and basic open-hearth furnace. Although they were willing to adopt acid converter and basic converter processes in the 1870's and early 1880's respectively, they did not show a prompt response to basic open-hearth furnace process in the late 1880's and for the next 20 years. The basic open-hearth furnace process, from the technical point of view, became the most important steel-making process from that time on.
Consequently, they lagged in adoption of basic open-hearth for the reason that they were not innovative in research and development of technology by contemporary standards. Primary sources such as Directors Minutes, Annual Reports and so on of the company bear out the above conclusion. In spite of the fact that this is only one case, considering the influential position of Bolckow Vaughan's, this study throws doubt on the view of, so to speak, “rational school” regarding the British entrepreneurial performance during the late Victorian and Edwardian Age.

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A principal problem in the management of an industrial enterprise is the judgement in the combination between possible technologies and goods. In iron industry, the amount of pig iron produced in Britain in the industrial revolution was almost doubled in decade, and more than half of the goods were castings for various uses.
In the present paper, the goods of Newton Chambers, iron works specialized to foundry, were analysed based upon Day Books between 1793-1833 at an interval of ten years. The goods were classified into seven groups: (1) goods sold to merchants, mainly domestic uses, (2) tools and machine components, (3) rails and wheels for mines, (4) pig iron, (5) ballasts, (6) water pipes, and (7) gas pipes and components of gas works plants. The company did not produce guns and components of steam engines. The constitution of goods and its variation over the period revealed the trace of the activity of entrepreneur.
The goods which characterize Newton Chambers were cast-iron pipes. Their high quality and low price stimulated new social needs. The great demands for iron pipes had started from 1807 in London for water works and for gas light companies after 1814. The percentage of pipes in the annual sale in 1813 was 20%, in 1823 30%, and 1833 49%. Newton Chambers could survive in serious depressions after Napoleonic War by the great demands for iron pipes.
It is concluded that the success of Newton Chambers is the judgement of adoption and improvement of the production technology for mass production of standardized castings, which combined successfully with the newly developed public works for the improvement of city environments.

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