著者

金子 文夫

出版者

土地制度史学会(現 政治経済学・経済史学会)

雑誌

土地制度史学 (ISSN:04933567)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, no.2, pp.28-52, 1977

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This article attempts to analyze monetary expansion of Japanese imperialism into Manchuria in the period from the Russo-Japanese War up to the First World War. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese imperialism began to invade Manchuria, but was unable to maintain its military presence there because of the check by British and American imperialism and Chinese nationalism, and thus chose instead to proceed with economic invasion. The two most important vehicles for this program were the South Manchuria Railway Company, which controlled railway traffic, and the Yokohama Specie Bank, which was in charge of monetary system. This paper aims to clarify the role played by the Yokohama Specie Bank. The bank with many offices in Manchuria was assigned the role of the central bank in the colony-i.e., the role to unify the money system of Manchuria as an integral part of the Japanese money system. The Specie Bank virtually controlled financing for trade of Japanese cotton fabric and Manchurian soy-bean, which were the two major trade items. But due to the complex distribution system within Manchuria, it fell short of penetrating deep into village communities. As for the supply of public loans for the sake of control over public finance of Manchuria-another important means of colonial administration--the Specie Bank, and for that matter Japanese imperialism, was unable to accomplish much due to the lack of capital fund at its disposal. Besides these, there were two additional factors that decisively prevented the Bank from accomplishing its desired money policy. First, on the Japanese side, there was a conflict between the South Manchuria Railway and the Specie Bank over the choice between the gold and the silver standards. The South Manchuria Railway, as an importer of capital fund from the European money market which was on the gold standard, preferred the gold to the silver standard. Japanese traders were also in favor of the gold standard as they wanted to avoid losses caused by fluctuations of the exchange rate between gold and silver. The Specie Bank, on the other hand, found the silver standard more convenient for its planned penetration into the Manchurian silver money market. The second factor was the establishment of a new bank system in Manchuria-e.g., the Mukden Provincial Bank-which issued silver bank notes and obstructed Japan's monetary expansion. After all, Japanese traders preferred gold standard-bank notes issued by the Bank of Japan, whereas Chinese traders used silver standard bank notes issued by provincial banks, with the result that the Yokohama Specie Bank's silver bank notes failed to hold sway over the Manchurian economy as they were expected. Japan was far from successful in unifying the Manchurian money system. It added new kinds of currency to the pre-existing system, only to throw it into a greater confusion.