<論説>明治二〇年代における皇室財産運営の特徴及びその変容 : 御料鉱山を素材として

Abstract

明治二二年から二三年にかけて、皇室の経済基盤を強化する目的で膨大な官有地が御料地として編入された。しかし、早くも明治二〇年代後半からその処分が進められる。その理由については従来、皇室経済の合理化であり編入時の論理と齟齬しないという通説的理解が存在してきた。本稿は御料鉱山を対象として、政治史的アプローチを用いて従来全く顧みられなかった御料鉱山の編入から払下げに至る過程を整合的に説明し、右の通説を見直すものである。御料鉱山は、そもそも編入・運営の時点から皇室経済基盤強化に止まらず、国家活動を支えるという役割が期待されていた。払下げにおいても、皇室経済合理化の要請ではなく、皇室と国家の関係についての認識の相違や、それが生み出した政治的対立が重要な誘因となっていた。これは、御料地の編入・運営・処分の論理には必ずしも連続性があったわけではないことを示し、皇室財産の歴史的意義を再考する一階梯となるものである。

From Meiji 22 (1889) through Meiji 23 (1890), high-quality and extensive government properties were selected and transferred to the jurisdiction of the imperial house. This was carried out prior to the establishment of the diet in order that political parties could not interfere in the finances of the imperial house. However, as early as the latter half of the decade of Meiji 20, the matter had progress to reorganization and disposition by methods such as by selling off the property, uncompensated transfers, or swaps. This appears at a glance to be at odds with the original goal of a reduction imperial property and the transfer of jurisdiction, but economic historians have explained it as a means of rationalizing imperial house finances and instead of being opposed to the original goal of transferring jurisdiction, it was in fact a policy that was in thorough-going pursuit of those goals. This explanation has been persuasive and become the broadly accepted understanding of the disposition and reorganization of imperial properties. However, when specific properties are examined individually, some cannot be explained according to this conventional interpretation. One of these is the selling off of the imperial mines, goryo ko-zan. In this article, I employ a politico-historical approach to examine the selling off of the imperial mines as an example to reassess the conventional understanding. At that time, I overcome the problem of treating the selling off imperial mines as an individual issue as it has been in previous studies of economic history. In previous studies of economic history, the process from the shift in jurisdiction to the selling off of the imperial mines has not been sufficiently explained in a consistent fashion. The following facts are elucidated in this article. When the government mines at Sado and Ikuno were incorporated as imperial property, the intent of the Ministry of Finance in using the logic of increasing the national treasury was strongly at work. In operating the imperial mines, the engineer-bureaucrats conferred on them the role of centers promoting and serving as models for private mines, which the state had not previously been able to fulfill, as well as strengthening the economic foundations of the imperial house and increasing the national treasury. It is generally claimed that in creating the cabinet system and establishing imperial property, the imperial house and national state were separated systematically, but when we examine the logic of the incorporation and operation of imperial mines, there appears a unified view of the imperial house and nation state in which the assets of the imperial house would be used to support the activities of the nation state, despite the premise of the separation of the imperial house and nation state. However, implementing this type of thinking required improvements and expansion of the enterprises at very high costs, and this engendered the view that the size of the imperial mines needed to be reduced. In contrast, within the group of people who advocated reducing the imperial mines, opinion was divided regarding the relationship between the imperial house and the state on the issue of taxing the imperial mines, and thus a conflict arose. In contrast to the official government position that imperial mines were the private property of the imperial house and could be treated in the same manner as other private property by the state, in other words, taxes could be levied on them, the leadership of the Imperial Household Ministry thought that as the imperial house and the nation state had been systematically separated, the government could no longer intervene in the imperial mines, and thus could not levy taxes. Ultimately, the government position won out, and as a result, the Imperial Household Ministry's plan did not stop at simply reducing imperial mines but advanced down the path of selling them off. In this manner, part of the reason for the selling off of the imperial mines was not merely a simple demand for economic rationalization. There was also political conflict born out of differences of opinion regarding the relationship of the imperial mines to the nation state among the actors involved in operations of the imperial mines. Insofar as we can judge from the case of the imperial mines, it is clear that no continuity was displayed in the logic of their incorporation, operation, and disposition.