The machine tool industry played an important roll in the process of industrialization in developed countries. Germany has led the machine tool industry in the world for a long time as well as USA. However, the study of the history of the German machine tool industry has kept low-toned compared with that of USA and England. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the significance of following aspects: the establishment date and place of this industry in Germany and its special characteristics. In this context, particularly, this will attempt to examine the stage of technological progress and the international envioronment in this industry.

The German machine tool industry was derived from the machine building industry during the 1860s and 1870s which formed its basis untill the middle of the 19th century. We can pick up the following factors according to performances of this industry: first, the formation of four main regions of the machine tool building, namely Saxony, Berlin, Rhine-Westfalia and Baden-Wurttemberg. In these places, Chemnitz in Saxony was the most important city, because of the concentration of many machine tool factories in this area led by the leading company Zimmermann. Therefore, we can even call this period as "the period of Chemnitz" or "the period of Zimmermann". Secondly, the establishment of factory system, which had led to development of the technological standard of the German machine tools. Thirdly, the evaluation of German machine tools has recognised as a improved one in the international expositions in Paris and Wien during 1867 and 1873 respectively.

The companies in Chemnitz stuck to english type of machine tool which became gradually behind American type in 1870s. In spite of this, the application of American machine - tool technologies related to the mass production were to be carried out mainly by the companies in Berlin.

Both as a source of fertilizer and coal and as a destination for peasants and samurai migrating to flee poverty, Hokkaido in the second half of the nineteenth century played a large role in the development of the Japanese economy. This paper will examine the structural changes of a key industry in late nineteenth century Hokkaido, the fishing industry. From this analysis, a few observations will then be made on the characteristics of primitive capital accumulation in Japan.

During the Edo period, the fishing industry in Hokkaido operated under the basho-ukeoi system. Influential merchants, known as basho-ukeoi merchants, held exclusive fishing and trade rights in the Ezo area. However, at the end of the Tokugawa period, many Japanese fishermen moved into Ezo and began to undermine the basho-ukeoi merchants' monopoly on fishing and trade. With the Meiji Restoration, the Ezo fisheries were freed from the control of the basho-ukeoi merchants. The number of Japanese fishermen continued to grow in the Meiji period. Despite losing their franchise, the former basho-ukeoi merchants continued to be influential fishermen and merchants in Hokkaido.

Due to Matukata Deflation, many of the Japanese fishermen in Hokkaido accumulated debts with these merchants and were eventually forced to sell them their fisheries. On the other hand, fishermen who remained independent from the merchants were able to expand their operations during this period by buying up a large number of fisheries. In the 1890s, these fishermen and merchants gained a monopolistic control of the fisheries in Hokkaido.

Later, these two groups became the source of capital for local dealers in Hokkaido. Thus, in Hokkaido, there were two routes by which industrial capitalists appeared: former basho-ukeoi merchants who changed their activities after losing their monopolistic rights in the Meiji period, and fishermen who were able to expand their operations during a time when economic hardship was causing a differentiation in the peasantry. In particular, the route followed by the basho-ukeoi merchants differs from the one widely viewed as the typical route to capitalism followed by the Seisho, who became industrial capitalists with the support of the government. It should be noted that outside the major industrial centers, primitive capital accumulation took place without govemment support or protection.

When we consider the agricultural development of far west, it is very important to inquire into acquistion of water for irrigation as well as land disposal. California was no exception. The early development of California complicated the problems of water rights afterwards. In other words, as gold mining was the leading industry in California economy in its frontier stage, water rights developed for their benefit accordingly. It was called the "Appropriation Rights". The first user of a river acquired the right of utilization prior to others, and the user was not always required to become the landowner of the riparian land. In addition, the first man who introduced the water from the river could change the water course freely. While this rule was convenient for the gold miners, it was against the principle of "Common Law" which had been accepted as the state law. The water rights founded on the principle of common law was called "Riparian Rights". This ruled that only the owner of the land along a river had the right of use to the river water.

The California courts expressed special judgment on the two water rights which were fundamentally inconsistent with one another and protected the right facilitating economic development and restrained the right injuring it. The court recognized appropriation rights in the heyday of mining industry. Then, it began to adhere to riparian rights in order to restrain mining as agriculture became a main industry. But with the development of irrigated agriculture, riparian rights came to the front as a serious obstacle to the development of California, Lux v. Hegain case was a typical case and by means of recognizing eminent-domain law, the court intended to restrain riparian rights.

The court thus gave a great influence to the economic developmet of California through the above judgments. Consequently, the state of California was able to have a full-scale irrigation act in 1887 and the economic development of the state entered into a new stage since then.