This article devotes to study how the old plantations have changed in the circumstances of the capitalistic developments after the Civil War, especially around World War II. In the most plantations, operated as a single unit, there have prevailed the plantation "tenant" system or share-cropping system. Under this system, the "tenants" worked under the general supervision of their planter, leasing various kinds of production facilities and being bought up all the products by him. In other words, there could be seen some primitive forms of capital got entangled with the remnants of former slavery, resulting in the low standard of living and labor productivity and the spread of the peonage. In the actual plantation, the cash crops have been mainly cultivated in the "tenant farms", and the "home farm" raised the feed crops by the wage laborers. In a word, the plantation has been that very transitional system which linked the "strings" of industrial capital in the "home farm" with the "strings" of merchant's-usurer's capital, strengthened by the subdivided land system. In the era around World War H> one can find the rapid progress of the mechanization and the capitalistic developments in the southern agriculture. According to some contemporary investigations in the Mississippi Delta Area, the plantation "tenant" system is being drived away by the wage labor system in the "home farm", accompanying such transient phenomena as the relative increase of croppers, "cropper-laborers" and "through and through" systems of farming. Only the mechanized "home farm" can lead the "tenant" system to the complete disappearance, resulting in the extinction of merchant's-usurer's capital and such exploitations peculiar to the peonage. Thus, in the 1950's the majority of the plantations in the Delta Area shifts to the capitalistic large farms ("neo-plantations"), intensifying the antagonisms peculiar to the capitalism.

View full abstract

Japanese shipbuilding industry had been on the condition of the serious depression ever since the slump in 1920. But, there was a considerable improvement in mercantile shipbuilding in the period of the 'motorship boom' 1928-29. This paper aimes to clarify the details of this boom. The 'motorship boom' was a rationalization movement of the shipping. After the First World War, Japanese owners purchased a lot of aged ships at very low prices from foreign owners. But, the entry of these aged ships to the markets exacerbated the depression in freight rates. Moreover, tramp shipping was dealt a double blow in the years 1927-28 ; the insurance of the ship and the wage rates of seamen were raised in these years, and consequently voyage costs increased considerably. To tide over this difficulty, the tramps owners wished to modernize their old ships, and began to adopt economical motor ships. The economy of the motorship was a vital competitive factor. For liner vessels the advantages of the diesel engine were soon recognized. Nihon Yusen and Osaka Shosen, the largest liner companies in Japan, adopted the fast motor ships with great enthusiasm. The route subsidies given to these companies encouraged the building of the high class liner tonnage. The rationalization of shipping stimulated the demand for motorships and provided the shipbuilding industry with its opportunity for expantion. In the period of this 'motorship boom', a few large shipbuilding companies, notably Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Yokohama Dock, were established in supreme position in mercantile shipbuilding. By virtue of their resources, these zaibatsu-affiliated companies gained a notable lead in the construction of motorships, and this was a vital factor in securing contracts. The greatest deppression stopped this 'mortorship boom'. But, in 1932 a subsidized 'scrap and build' scheme was started and under this scheme the rationalization movement of shipping was continued again.

View full abstract