Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to elucidate how the “specialization in cereals” emerged and evolved in the imperial Japanese market —Japan, Chōsen, and Manchuria— and to analyze how this structure related to “industrialization.” The “rice production development program” and increased exports to Japan created demand for Manchurian millet as a subsistence food in the rice-producing south. The result was the “specialization in cereals within the empire” which formed along the axis of exports to Japan. However, in 1927–1928, import volumes for millet declined considerably as its rose relative to that of rice. This change in demand differed with region: in the north, the demand for millet stayed stable because of the expansion of railway and the industrialization along it, which created a new market for millet. Demand for millet fell in the southern provinces as the improve standard of living increased demand for rice. In farming districts, improved irrigation facilities and the use of fertilizers, both promoted by the “rice production development program”, led to increased production of barley varieties and enabled the consumption of those, which contributed to the fall in demand for millet. Industrialization created a new axis along which “specialization in cereals within the empire” emerged.
The original version of this chapter was revised. The erratum to this chapter is available at DOI10.1007/978-4-431-55927-6_9.
This chapter is a translation of an article that originally appeared in Shakai Keizai Shigaku 74(5) (Jan 2009), pp. 25–45.
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55927-6_9
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of a “commodity chain” is a methodological tool developed in “world history” studies to elucidate (a) the process by which a particular product moves from the producer to the distributor to the consumer, and (b) the nature of the people and society involved in that process.
- 2.
The railway’s operations in this district continued to be delegated to the South Manchurian Railway until June 1940 (Senkōkai 1986, pp. 83, 87).
- 3.
However, the statistics on private lines do not categorize volume by type, line, and station, and I accordingly could not analyze the distribution volumes of the private railways in my consideration of distribution structures by region, discussed below.
- 4.
The main limitations of this material are (1) that they show the volume of cargo arriving at and departing from each station but do not link those to point of destination and point of origin; (2) the statistics on volume show only weight, while price remains unclear.
- 5.
Again, regarding the limitations discussed in the previous footnote, there is no need to doubt the credibility of the statistics themselves. For example, the fact that the increases in rice exports are extremely close to the increases in railway-to-harbor shipments suggests that there is ample value in discussing changes within the railway statistics themselves.
- 6.
The changes appear not to match in some years, but that is likely due to the difference between the period covered in annual trade data (January through December) and the accounting year used in gathering railroad statistics (April through March). It is said that the peak period of Manchurian millet exports was December through February (MMT 1928, p. 29).
- 7.
As explained earlier, the operations of both the Hamgyong line (from Suseong Station northwards) and the Domun line were delegated to the South Manchuria Railway Company in 1933, and therefore for statistical purposes, it is more convenient to handle both together.
- 8.
- 9.
However, since most cities lay in port regions, we must also consider import shipments that came directly by sea. Import volumes at Jinnampo on the Gyeongui line had never been very high, even then fell from 8517 t in 1928 to 5246 t in 1929, Wonsan, on the Gyeongwon line, saw a large drop from 33,542 to 12,509 t between 1928 and 1929. Conversely, import volumes into Cheongjin on the Hamgyong line rose from 4609 to 8045 t in the same period, and the trend subsequently continued at all the ports. The trends of declining demand on the Gyeongui and Gyeongwon lines and the increases on the Hamgyong line parallel that of the cities in the port regions.
- 10.
In 1930, the Government-General designated 46 medium and small cities as Eup. Among these, 13, were situated on railway lines in the north.
- 11.
(A) Total shipments (the graph on the fold) are higher than the totals of the seven districts in the Figure because shipping volume of private railways were comparatively high.
- 12.
However, some scholars have argued that weight should be given not only to incentives by the Government-General or landowners, but also to the business judgment of farmers themselves as “independent operators” (Park 1995, pp. 96–98).
- 13.
For research on the case of Taiwan, see Horiuchi(2001).
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Takeuchi, Y. (2016). The Shifting Axis of Specialization Within the Japanese Empire: A Study of Railway Distribution of Cereals in Colonial Korea. In: Sawai, M. (eds) Economic Activities Under the Japanese Colonial Empire. Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55927-6_3
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