An analysis on the development of the Japanese silk industry during the inter-war period

本研究旨在分析两次世界大战期间日本丝绸业发展的结构性因素。本项目的主要成果如下：1.在群泽公司的帮助下，大量战前郡泽制丝公司的管理文件，在1920年已经成长为日本最大的两个公司之一，可以通过这个项目收集。这些管理数据，包括一些未知的数据，对于回答两个基本问题很有帮助：为什么群泽和另一家大型缫丝企业片仓公司在整个战前时期的规模（盘的数量）不断扩大，以及这种扩大是在什么条件下实现的？2.虽然没有发现大量的新的中小丝绸制造商的管理文件，但利用已经收集到的关于真部精士后盖社（真部丝绸公司）的资料，对大危机中导致破产的原因和过程进行了管理分析。通过这一项目，审查国家在促进丝绸业方面的作用也取得了进展，重点是县当局在丝绸和/或养蚕协会的帮助下发挥的作用。

This research project aims at analyzing the structural factor for the development of the Japanese silk industry during the inter-war period. The results of the project are as follows.1.Benefited from the help of Gunze Co., a lot of managerial documents of prewar Gunze Silk Manufacturing Co., which had grown to be among the top two firms in Japan as late as 1920, could be collected through this project. These managerial data, including unknown ones, would be of much use in answering two basic questions : why, unlike many other Japanese silk reeling entrepreneurs, did Gunze together with Katakura Company, another one of the big two, keep getting bigger in the size of the firm (the number of the basins) during the whole prewar period, and on what condition was the enlargement made possible?2.Although the bulky and new managerial documents of the small or medium silk manufacturers couldn't be discovered, the managerial analysis focusing on the cause and the process to bankruptcy in the Great Crisis was advanced with the already collected data on Makabe Seishi Goshigaisha (Makabe Silk & Co.) in the Ibaragi prefecture.Examining the role of the state for fostering the silk industry was also progressed through this project, focusing on the function of the prefectural authorities with the help of the silk and/or sericulture association.