著者

林田 治男 ハヤシダ ハルオ Haruo HAYASHIDA

雑誌

大阪産業大学経済論集

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, no.3, pp.89-105, 2004-06-30

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At the beginning of Meiji Era, many foreign employees came to Japan in order to support her modernization. They contributed to the various fields, such as the construction of capitalistic society, the reinforcement of military power, and digestion of technological knowledge. Among them I am interesting in the railway engineers, for the transportation is a necessary condition for the development, the railway was the frontier industry of the contemporary economy, and it had a large ripple effect. The Imperial Government contracted to Horatio Nelson Lay of Britain in 1869. She canceled the contract next year because of his dishonest actions, and at the same time she ordered the Oriental Bank Corporation to clear the trouble between Lay and to succeed the contractual relations. Therefore the Japanese railways was constructed by British civil engineers and navvies using the British materials, was managed by British mechanical engineers and operators. Thus owing to the advice and suggestion of British engineers Japanese railways began to service. In order to study the motivation of hired British engineers it is necessary to investigate their careers. After their materials are acquired, it is possible to examine their skills and rewards, and induce their ethos overcoming a lot of heavy conditions in Japan. Last summer I visited the National Archives and the Institution of Civil Engineers in UK in order to inquire the memoirs of the Proceedings, the Candidate Circulars, and the members list of ICE and so on. After come back to Japan, I have been trying to support them by using the Japanese primary materials. Now I decide to publish this summarizing note which shows their careers, hoping to help this theme develop.