The aim of this article is to analyze and re-assess the processes of union growth at a disaggregated level (the banking industry). This may best be accomplished through an interdisciplinary approach, as economic and sociological theories of union growth, which are summarized briefly in the first part, focus rather upon specific causalities in a different time span. In the second section, short-term economic and episodic factors of union growth are identified in terms of both a conventional analysis and an empirical back-up. In contrast with recent research in this field, this analysis reveals the rather unstable influence of economic variables and the predominant impact of episodic events such as industrial action and the war-time increase in female employment. It is also argued that structural shifts in the pattern of union growth probably reflect changes in employers, attitudes and the industrial relations system. In the last section, long-term structural factors of union growth are examined. A few factors, including changes in internal labour market structure and the social custom of union affiliation, seem to have been determinants, whereas increasing employment concentration and a toughening legal system are not necessarily consistent with the trend of union membership. The upsurge in research in this field has been stimulated by the steep decline in union membership both in Britain and the United States. This research shows that the logic of union growth in the service sector differs significantly from that in the manufacturing sector and that unionization can progress in other less organized tertiary industries, adding a new ingredient of the black-coated worker to British unionism.

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Right-Bank Ukraine was one of the regions whose 'path to capitalism' could be categorized as following the Prussian model. The "Inventories Reform" was one of the factors which prepared this 'path'. Before the Reform, serfs in Right-Bank Ukraine were classified according to the number of cattle in their possession. The amount of land allotted to a serf, and the number of days of compulsory labour he was assigned yearly, depended on which category he belonged to. The more cattle, the more land and the greater obligation. In terms of labour days Per one acre of land, however, more land meant a smaller amount of compulsory labour. In other words, although a serf with less land was assigned lighter obligations as a whole, the amount of compulsory labour per one acre of land was actually greater. The Reform was introduced in order to change these circumstances so that serfs with less land would also be assigned less labour. At the same time, however, the Reform could be used by lords as an excuse to expand their demesnes. Often, serfs did not object to reductions in their land allotments, since this also entailed a reduction in their obligations. Thus, as a result of the Reform, portions of the land of some serfs were annexed to the lord's demesne and consequently there was an increase in the number of serfs with little land. Meanwhile, there was a movement on the part of the lords of Right-Bank Ukraine at the time not only to expand their demesnes but also to replace inefficient compulsory labour with employed labour. The "Inventories Reform" can be said to have supported this movement from the legislative side.

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This paper aims to analyse the prosperity of Taiwanese tea traders from the Qing dynasty to the early Japanese colonial period. Tea was one of the most important exports from Taiwan. Oolong tea from Taiwan was a famous soft drink in America. But in the late 19th century, British and mainland Chinese traders controlled the tea trade system and excluded the Taiwanese. This system continued unchanged after the Japanese occupation. British traders continued to control trade in Taiwan tea from China, mainland traders kept on managing their tea factories in Taipei. In 1904, the Bank of Taiwan decided to change Taiwan's currrency system, and set up foreign exchange networks. The Japanese colonial government supported shipping lanes around Taiwan. These policies had a greater impact on the trade. British and mainland Chinese traders moved their bases from China to Taiwan. Some Taiwanese set up their own tea factories in rural Taiwan in the early 1900s. Their factories increased the production of better leaves at low cost. In the early 1910s, Taiwanese tea traders extended their tea markets to South-East Asia. They sold not Oolong but Pauchong tea. Pauchong tea freed Taiwanese traders from the control of British Oolong tea traders. The Niitaka Bank was organized by Taiwanese to support the tea trade in 1916. This bank got excellent results. In the 1920s, Taiwanese tea traders exceeded British traders in the amount of trade.

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By a notification in 1871, the Meiji Government contrived to establish a unified national system for the relief of abandoned children. The Tokyo area, however, had its own special system, "kunai-azukari", that had its origins in the Tokugawa Era. This relief system, financed by ku and gun as autonomous government units, is reputed to have played an important role in times of social upheaval, particularly during the period of the Matsukata Deflation. On the other hand, the fact that the system far exceeded the national one in the scale of expenditure and was subject to the arbitrary control of local officials, caused conflicts with the policy of the municipal government. Study of the shomu-ka (general affairs section) documents of the old government enable us to clarify both the structure of these conflicts and the concern of the authorities over the increases in expenditure which were due mainly to the participation of particular agents, "shusennin", in the kunai-azukari system. Eventually, the local autonomous system was dissolved. In 1885-1886, the municipal government ordered that all children under the care of kunai-azukari be accommodated in the Tokyo Yoikuin (the poorhouse). Once the order had been put into action, all the related expenditures were completely incorported into the accounts of the Yoikuin. Since it is obvious that the wishes of ku and gun offices were precluded, and since all remaining resources were appropriated as a new source of funds for the Yoikuin, I conclude that the order implied a solution favourable to the municipal government. Meanwhile, it should be pointed out in reference to further study that there might be the hopes for the rationalization of "society" and "culture" held by the chairman of the Yoikuin, Shibusawa Eiichi, and other "distinguished persons" in the city.

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