恐慌下江浙蠶糸業の再編

Abstract

Previous studies of the Chinese economy during the 1930s have emphasized the weakness resulting from Japanese aggression and the threat of war, and the entrapment of the people in the "bureaucratic capitalism" of Chiang Kai-shek. Thus the feudal aspects and the acquiescence in imperialism of the Kuomintang government are stressed, and the entire process is viewed as the nipping in the bud of Chinese capitalism and the suppression of "nationalistic capitalism." In this essay, I shall criticize this view with reference to sericulture in the Kiangsu and Chekiang areas. The improvement of sericulture, which was one part of the Kuomintang policy of economic reconstruction aimed at raising the technical level of the silk industry, then in decline under the threat of war, with a view to competing with Japanese silk, then completely dominant on the world market. As a result, the private Family of Hsueh 薛 in Wu-hsi 無錫 became dominant in Kiangsu, while the provincially-run industries formed the basis of production in Chekiang. These monopolies improved the quality of the silk, organized the peasants in production co-operatives, and using the power of government control produced raw silk of superior quality and low price. By using new machinery the quality of the finished silk was further improved, and the cost lowered. Inroads were made on the raw silk market， dominated by foreign companies. In this way the mechanized silk industry of the area was not only able to overtake Shanghai, which had been the centre of the industry in the 1920s, but proved competitive with Japanese silk on the American market.