<論説>近代日本の産業地域形成期における農家経済構造の変化 : 愛知県『農家経済調査』にみる農家の暮らし (特集 : 家族)

Abstract

本稿では、都市化と工業化が著しい大正期の農家の暮らしとその変化を明らかにすることを目的とする。具体的には東京府と大阪府に次ぐ工業規模をもち、かつ農業生産額も全国の中で上位に位置していた愛知県を事例とし、『農家経済調査』の分析を通して、農家の七年間の暮らし(一九二三年から一九三〇年まで) を経年分析した。その結果は次の三点に要約される。第一に、農家の経済構造の推移をみると、農業以外の生業を手離して生業を単一化する一方、都市住民向けの蔬菜栽培や養鶏などによって農業自体を多角化していく傾向が認められた。第二に、この時期の農家は家族構成員の周期的律動という内部状況だけでなく、市場経済という外部状況への対応が同時に求められるようになり、特に後者からの影響が増大する傾向にあった。以上をふまえ、第三として、近代日本の産業地域形成過程は、俸給生活者家族だけでなく、農家の役割をも含めて考える必要があることが示唆された。

In this article I take years between 1885 and 1935 as the period of the formation of industrial regions and through the use of the Economic Survey of Farm Households by Aichi prefecture, I aim to elucidate the livelihoods of farmer households and the changes therein during Taisho era, when urbanization and industrialization were prominent. The reason that I chose to focus on Aichi prefecture is not simply because it followed Tokyo and Osaka in number of factories, but because the value of its agricultural production was among the top in the nation and it is thought that the influence of industrialization on farming villages and farmers was relative conspicuous compared to that of other prefectures. The chief methodology of this study is to employ the Economic Survey of Farm Households as a primary source and to analyze it. Specifically I use the survey for five years, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1930, to elucidate a single farm family's produce and consumption, in other words, an overall portrait of its way of life, and attempt comparisons with those in other counties when pertinent. First, I grasped the total changes in the industrial structure of modern Aichi prefecture and clarified regional characteristics of agriculture and manufacturing within the prefecture (section 1). Then, I depict the movements of youths who lived through those changes based on sources related to emigrant labor (dekasegi) and the writings of youths printed in village publications. In order to examine these more concretely, I follow the lives of a single farmer family for seven years, from 1923-1930 and did a yearly analysis of family's strategy that accompanied the family's periodic rhythms. Furthermore, I did a comparative analysis of other counties based on regional variations within Aichi prefecture (section 2), and as comprehensive view of the above, I consider the roles that families played in the formation of industrial regions from the point of view of changes in farm economy and lives experienced by farm families in modern Aichi prefecture. The following three points were clarified as a result of this analysis. First, it was recognized that non-agricultural production resulted on the one hand in increasingly simplified livelihoods, and there was a tendency for agriculture itself to become more diverse as a result of poultry and vegetable farming. This occurred within the context of urbanization and industrialization and as the number of laborers who did not possess a basis for self-sufficiency in food increased, which resulted in the advance of commercial agriculture in farming villages near the cities. Secondly, a response began to be sought to the two aspects facing farm households: the internal circumstances of the periodic rhythms in family composition of farm families and external circumstances determined by market economics. Farm families of Aichi prefecture, a region in Japan following only those of Tokyo and Osaka in terms of concentration of industrial productivity, provided labor for factories. There was likewise a tendency for the influence of external circumstances to grow larger due to the fact that they shouldered the role of satisfying the agricultural produce market that had expanded due to the demand for food by urban dwellers and factory workers. Thirdly, based on these facts, I indicated that it is necessary to consider not only the role of salaried families as the result of the formation of industrial regions in modern Japan but also the role of farm families. In the case of Japan, there was a simultaneous reorganization of the division of labor between the industrial and agricultural sectors rather than the dissolution of agriculture and agricultural villages in the context of urbanization and industrialization, and the category of "farm families" was born, and the technical and psychological foundations of a new agricultural were built amidst various complications. This change played no small role in urbanization and industrialization. Therefore, the argument on the relationship between the family and the market that focuses simply on the birth of the families of salaried workers is insufficient; we must make a renewed examination that includes an analysis of the modern farm families.