著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.24, no.1, pp.1-31, 1989-04-30 (Released:2009-11-06)

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After 1902, Mitsubishi Goshi opened branches in Hankou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Peking, Vladivostok, and Singapore in order to export coal extracted from the company's mines. As these branches began in the 1910s to deal in commodities made by other companies, the character of the trading department of Mitsubishi Goshi changed from that of a sales department to that of a Sogo-shosha (general trading company). In this paper, I will try to outline reasons for the change by analyzing the business activities of the branches. In the 1910s, coal exports to China were unstable because of the severe fluctuations of the foreign exchange rate. As a result, the branches were unable to show stable profits. On the other hand, they had adopted an independent profit system. Thus, in order to obtain a profit, the manager and salesmen of each branch attempted to deal in goods produced by other companies. They sold the goods made by Mitsubishi-related companies, including beer, carbonated water, paper, and glassware, and traded commodities of unrelated companies, including raw cotton, cotton thread and fabrics, cement, paulownia oil, sesame, and so on. They succeeded only in dealing in paulownia oil and sesame-export goods of Chinese origin to Europe and America. This indicates that only those goods which do not suffer the instability of major goods (coal) are suitable for trade. From the above analysis, we can form a hypothesis that the Sogo-shosha is a mechanism for stabilizing foreign trade and that a sales department must transform its character to that of a Sogo-shosha in order to stay in operation when its main business becomes unstable.

著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, no.1, pp.28-51, 1988-04-30 (Released:2009-11-06)

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During World War I, Mitsubishi Goshi opened branches in Europe and America for the company's overseas activities. In this paper, I have analysed the motives, activities and the results of such development by focusing on the London Branch in England.Before the war, the company had its foreign branches only in China, and most of the overseas activities had been conducted through foreign commercial houses. When the war occurred, the company felt it difficult to export to Europe, so the company switched its export trade from Europe to Russia via Vladivostok. But again, as Russia suspended gold standard, the company faced another difficulty to take foreign exchange risk. Since the company had to import goods such as machinery or raw materials, it was indispensable to promote export for acquiring a steady supply of foreign currency. In order to meet such needs, the company opened its branch office in London 1915 and New York the next year.The London Branch sold the company-made non-ferrous metal such as copper or Chinese products, and purchased machineries and materials for the company's shipyard. The accounts for these transactions were settled by the foreign exchange in the firm. The purchasing was soon exceeded by selling, so a trade surplus was accumulated in the branch office. With the purpose of making use of these surplus funds, the company went into the common exchange business. On the other hand, Japan was enjoying a war boom, and the Trading Division of Mitsubishi Goshi decided to add other company products to its own line; thus the company turned to a general trading enterprise. With corresponding to such a transformation, the company decided to enlarge the scope of overseas activities, resulting in the opening of agent offices in such cities as Paris, Seattle, Berlin, Rome, Lyon and Marseilles.These activities of the foreign branches became a precondition for further growth of the foreign exchange business of the Bank Division as well as of the proper business of the Trading Division of Mitsubishi Goshi. Later the foreign exchange business of these branches was transferred to Foreign Exchange Division of Mitsubishi Bank, and their trading business was to Mitsubishi Shoji (Trading) Company.

著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, no.3, pp.57-62, 1987-10-30 (Released:2009-11-06)

著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.1, pp.28-45,ii, 1979-09-25 (Released:2009-11-06)

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Zaibatsu firms had several characteristic features; diversified business, close ownership by family (Ie) and so on. Corresponding to these features, their top management organization was, differently from other non-Zaibatsu firms in Japan, functionally similar to those of divisional type of organization in United States which had a general head office with automonous divisions.It is, however, after 1910s that each Zaibatsu firms had formed such a common decentralized type of organization, and they differed from each other during Meiji era. This article traces on the formation process of the top management organization of Mitsubishi during Meiji era as a case study of the Zaibatsu firms.

著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, no.3, pp.26-49, 1977-03-15 (Released:2010-11-18)

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The main business of the Mitsubishis in their formative years was shipping business. By 1876 their shipping division had already established as one of the biggest organizations, with the number of employees exceeding 1700 and many branch offices covering the whole country. Thus the company keenly felt the necessity of keeping constant communication among them and issued documents to clarify the structure of authority and communication so as to establish a systematic organization within itself.This is why the Mitsubishis laid down “Mitsubishi Kisen Kaisha Kisoku” (Regulations of the Mitsubishi Steamship Co.), which was intended to systematize the inside operations of the company. But, in addition, there was another reason. At that time the Meiji Government intended to protect the shipping companies in which a systematic and open-system management including the modern accounting and reporting practices was realized. The Mitsubishis needed to work out such an organization in order to put themselves under the Government's protection.After all, the Mitsubishis succeeded in building up an explicitly definited centralized departmental organization. This article is intended to trace the creation and development of this type of administrative structure which was significant not only in the development of the company but also in the more general growth of the modern enterprise in Japan.

著者

長沢 康昭

出版者

関西学院大学

雑誌

商学論究 (ISSN:02872552)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, no.1, pp.p67-81, 1975-12

著者

長沢 康昭

雑誌

福山大学経済学論集

巻号頁・発行日

vol.3, no.1・2, pp.107-130, 1979-09-30