著者
池田 憲隆
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.29, no.2, pp.32-45, 1987-01-20 (Released:2017-11-30)

The Russo-Japanese War had a great effect on the armament industry in Japan. Some works referred to this point before. The common view was that the system of armament production changed rapidly after Russo-Japanese War. The content of this change was combination of state arsenals and private heavy industries. But such an alteration applies to the case of the naval armament production. There was not a near connection between the military arsenals and the private heavy industries at the time. What was the cause of it ? First, the army did not need a great number of arms in time of peace. Accordingly, the military arsenals met the requirements of the army. Secondly, the army had not reach a consensus on the mobilization policy of military industries yet. However, the military armament production did not change nothing. The army substituted new arms for old ones after Russo-Japanese War. Though the army tried to procure materials of the arms at home, it was not going smoothly. Consequently, the production and deployment of the new arms was delayed. Further to that, there was a difficult problem for the military armament production. It was how to keep the management of the military arsenal expanded during the war. So the army adopted the policy to extend arms sale to the foreign countries for the purpose raising the rate of operation in the arsenal. The army had attached importance to arms sale to the foreign countries as a means to increase one's own influence in the first place. In addition, arms sale had the attention of the army as a means to keep the management of the military arsenal after Russo-Japanese War. On the other hand, it was a few monopolistic commercial capitals that carried on practical business affairs of the arms sale. They had a vital interest in the Chinese market. They also attached importance to this trade in order to increase their own advantage. Thus the army and military arsenals were hardly connected with the private heavy industries, but brought about closer relations with the monopolistic commercial capitals after Russo-Japanese War.