<論説>イギリス工業化と「旧帝国」 : 西インド諸島を中心に

Abstract

イギリス工業化の諸起源のなかで、いわゆる重商主義植民地帝国の形成という事実は、どのような位置をしめていたのか、これが本稿の問題である。ここでは、一八世紀にもっとも話題になりながら、わが国ではほとんど研究されていない西インド砂糖植民地に考察の対象をかぎる。一─三章は、この植民地の特異な性格、経済状態、およびこの植民地を核にして成立した貿易のシステムなどを、主として同時代人の見解から析出したい。前半で検討した西インド砂糖植民地の特異性と、この植民地をコアとしてなりたった貿易体系が、本国の工業化とどのようにかかわっていたかという問題を、四章および五章であつかう。市場および原料供給地としての西インドの意義はあまりにも明白であるが、そのばあいでも、西インドを孤立的にあつかうことは適切でない。また、工業化の資金調達という点では、不在地主制というこの植民地の特殊性が大きな意味をもった。イギリス資本主義のランチエ的性格は工業社会の爛熟の結果うまれたのではなく、その起源自体にすでにみられたものである。

Generally speaking, West Indies had a good reputation from the economic point of view in eighteenth century Britain. But it's a pity that so far, their history has little investigated in our country. Why were these colonies so popular? What were the fundamental characteristics of them just before the Industrial Revolution? How did their economy --'sugar economy'--fluctuated during these years? In the first part of this essay (ch. 1, 2 & 3), I'd like to give tentative answers to these questions by investigating some contemporary opinions. The latter part of this paper (ch. 4 & 5) is mainly concerned with the direct and indirect impacts that West Indies had on the British economy and society. What was the role of the sugar colonies in the early phases of the British industrialization? Many other trades were derived from or stimulated by sugar trade. West Indies, therefore, became the core of a great commercial network, and this system of world commerce, as a whole, offered a vast vent of the British manufactures and supplied much raw material, especially raw cotton, for British industry. Though as for the capital sources of industrialization, I can't make a clear-cut assertion, it goes without saying that absetee planters and West India merchants supplied some parts of them. By the way, the absentee landlordism of these colonies brought forth societies of the West India gentleman in London and several outports. This fact suggests that West Indies played a part of a 'safety valve' of the squirearchy.