The purpose of this article is to examine the activities of the Sericulture General Council（Sanshu Seizo Kumiai Kaigikyoku 蚕種製造組合会議局）established in Tokyo in 1875 as the national industrial association representing silkworm cultivation cooperatives throughout Japan, in order to place the Council within the overall development of industrial associations in modern Japan. The author focuses on the Council’s response to the issue of uncontrolled over-cultivation of inferior quality silkworm eggs.
　It was around the 10th year of Meiji that Japanese-cultivated silkworm eggs experienced a noticeable decline in competition with Italian and French products due to fluctuations in quality, in response to which the Council and regional cooperatives set about to build a system to regulate distribution both for the domestic and export trades. In the case of the latter, the Council conducted “surveys” at such foreign trade centers as Yokohama.
　Moreover, there was the problem of over-cultivation by Japanese farmers resulting in lots sitting unsold on pallets in foreign ports. The Council’s response was to place quotas on production quantities during 1875 and 1876. However, regarding regional disparities in quality, there arose a difference of opinion within the Council over whether to regulate production or not, resulting in the failure of the quota system in 1877, due to the disposal of only a portion of the amount earmarked for limited distribution. Although attempts were made from that time on by enterprise promotion departments in major sericulture areas to coordinate operations, the differences of opinion within the Council continued unabated, resulting in the disbanding of both the cooperatives and the Council in 1878. As for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, despite efforts to control egg production through the Council and its cooperatives, no significant effort was made to directly intervene in solving the Council’s problems.
　It was in this manner that around the 10th year of Meiji a national council centered around sericulture attempted to respond to overproduction and inferior quality within the industry with little success, in the midst of no positive leverage from the central government. Nevertheless, the author points out the pioneering efforts of Japanese silkworm cultivators to form a national organization to deal with industry-wide problems, placing the Sericulture General Council as the originator of the national industrial association in modern Japan

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This article focuses on the migrants from Guangdong and Fujian who made a living in the sugar industry in Sichuan during the Qing period. 　From the 17th century on, migrants from a wide range of regions flowed into Sichuan Province, resulting in rapid population growth. The research to date has mainly focused on migrants from Hubei and Hunan, who were engaged in rice cultivation. However, during the 19th century sugar production became one of Sichuan’s significant industrial sectors, especially for migrant families of Guangdong and Fujian origin, reflecting the development of a wider commodities consumption sector in China.
　Moreover, it was those same migrants from Fujian and Guangdong who introduced sugar planting and advanced sugar manufacturing technology to Sichuan. At that time the sugar industry particularly flourished in the Tuo River basin, making Sichuan the largest sugar supplier in China. In order to examine why Sichuan sugar production grew into one of its staple industries, the author focuses on the geographic patterns in which immigrants of various origin settled in Sichuan.
　At first, many immigrants tended to settle in areas called Tian-ba田壩, which provided preferable topographical and agrological conditions for rice cultivators from Hubei and Hunan. On the other hand, sugar cane was cultivated in areas called He-ba 河壩, characterized by sandy riverside soil, unsuitable for either rice cultivation or settlement. Even during the mid-Qing period, when the population of Sichuan was growing rapidly and competition to acquire arable land fierce, the He-ba lowlands remained generally unpopular, but still provided one of the few potential agrarian venues for immigrants who were unable to acquire suitable farmlands for rice cultivation. Then due to the industrial and geographical niche created by Guangdong-Fujian migrants and their descendants, sugar production in Sichuan became an extremely rational choice to earn a livelihood and aspire to higher social status.
　Analyzing the Sichuan sugar industry in this way allows us to not only identify a microscopic pattern of migration during the Qing period, but also discuss the linkages between Sichuan province and the global economy in a broader context.

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