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Japanese Imperialism and the Manchurian Economy, 1900–31

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

What makes Manchuria a most promising industrial field … is the fact that coal and labour are obtainable at an extraordinarily low cost. … Although Manchuria possesses a population of forty millions, not a single piece of clothing worn by the inhabitants is manufactured in the province. All textiles required by the people are imported either from south China or from Japan. The starting of a spinning and weaving industry in Manchuria will be fraught with great possibilities. [Shirani Takeshi, Kwantung Civil Governor (1909).]

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1972

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References

1 Quoted from The Japan Weekly Chronicle, 21 10 1909, p. 730.Google ScholarContrary to Shirani's assertion, however, the actual population of Manchuria in 1909 was probably no more than 18 million.Google Scholar

2 Quoted from The Japan Weekly Chronicle, 15 12 1927, p. 641.Google Scholar

3 Manshi kai, hen, Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi (History of Forty Years of Manchurian Development) (Tokyo, 1964), Vol. I, p. 706.Google ScholarAnother scholar, Ping-ti Ho, points out that: “after the cession to Russia of some 350,000 square miles of territory north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri in 1860, the colonization of Manchuria became a vital matter of policy. In 1860, therefore, the rich virgin plain of the Hu-lan River, north of Harbin … was legally thrown open to Chinese immigrants. In the next year the fertile prairie of north-western Kirin … was made available. … The Sino-Japanese war of 1894–5 and the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–5 made the colonization of Manchuria an even more urgent national concern. Before Manchuria was made into three provinces in 1907, all legal bans to Chinese colonization had been lifted.”Google ScholarPing-ti, Ho, Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 160.Google Scholar

4 Ishida, Kōhei, Manshū ni okeru shokuminchi keizai no shiteki tenkai (The Historical Development of a Colonial Economy in Manchuria) (Kyoto: Mineruva Shobō, 1964), pp.128–36.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. pp. 136–8.

6 Ibid. pp. 227–31.

7 Chin-tai tung-pei jen-min ko-ming yün-tung shih (The History of the People's Revolutionary Movement in the Northeast in Modern Times) (Ch'ang ch'un: Ch'i-lin Jen-min Ch'u-pan-she, 1960), p. 156. (Hereafter cited as History of the People's Revolutionary Movement.) Between 1901–3, the yearly average of Manchurian exports was $13,644,000; imports averaged $7,568,000. Between 1909–11, in contrast, exports and imports increased to $95,160,000 and $68,798,000 respectively.Google Scholar

8 Hosokawa, Karoku, Shokuminchi shi (Colonial History), in Gendai Nihon bummei shi, Vol. 10 (Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinposha, 1941), p. 426.Google Scholar According to figures cited by Andō Hikotarō, the population of the Three Eastern Provinces increased by approximately 10 million during the 20 years from 1907 to 1927. At the beginning of the period, it was estimated by Japanese officials at 16,778,000; by 1927 it had increased to 26,784,000. Andō, Hikotarō, “Senzen no Manshū keieiron to Nihon imin” (“The prewar argument for the management of Manchuria and Japanese immigration”) Waseda seiji keizaigaku zasshi (Waseda Political-Economic Journal), No. 171 (10 1961), p. 2.Google Scholar

9 Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 1, p. 848. In Europe, Germany and England were the biggest importers of Manchurian beans and bean products.Google Scholar

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17 The term is André Gunder Frank's. See his book, Capitalism and Under-development in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil (New York: Modern Reader Paperback, 1969).Google Scholar

18 Nishimura Shigeo, p. 9.Google Scholar

19 The system of bean circulation is illustrated in the following diagram:Google Scholar

In spot transactions large wagons drawn by teams of horses carried the beans scores of miles to the major stations in the railway zone – Dairen, Haicheng, Liaoyang, Suchiatun, Mukden, Tiehling, Kaiyuan, Szupingchieh, Changchun, Yingkow, Fushun and Antung. According to one Japanese consular report from Changchun in November 1911, 700 to 800 (and on some days as many as 1,000) horse-drawn wagons loaded with beans entered Changchun daily during the height of the winter marketing season. Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 1, pp. 880 and 874; Nishimura Shigeo, p. 10.Google Scholar

20 Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 1, p. 696. The Mantetsu charged higher freight rates for transporting agricultural commodities than for industrial manufacturers. For 1,000 tons of processed agricultural commodities a peasant had to pay 573 yen in freight charges, whereas for the same amount of industrial manufactures the charge was only 250 yen.Google Scholar

21 Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 1, pp. 108 and 880; Nishimura Shigeo, p. 10.Google Scholar

22 Nishimura Shigeo, p. 5.Google Scholar

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24 Asada, Kyoji, Nihon teikokushugi to kyūshokuminchi jinushisei (Japanese Imperialism and the Old Colonial Landlord System) (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobō, 1968), pp. 173 and 177.Google Scholar

25 Katō, Toyotaka, Manshūkoku keisatsu shōshi – Manshūkoku kenryoku no jittai ni tsuite (A Short History of the Police in Manchukuo) (Matsuyama City, Ehime prefecture: Manchuria-Mongolia Comrades Assistance Association – Ehime Branch, 1968), p. 26.Google Scholar Although I have made no attempt to explore the subject of Manchurian banditry, readers wishing to do so may find it helpful to consult Weale, B. L. Putnam, Manchu and Muscovite (London: Macmillan and Company, 1904), ch. 21Google Scholar; Howard, Harvey J., Ten Weeks With Chinese Bandits (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1926)Google Scholar; Mark Mancall and Georges Jidkoff, “Les Honghuzi de la Chine du Nord-Est” (unpublished manuscript, 1969). In Japanese, Watanabe, Ryūsaku'sBazoku – Nitchū sensō shi no sokumen (Bandits – An Aspect of the History of the Sino-Japanese War) (Tokyo: Chūkō Shinsho 40, 1964) contains a good introductory bibliography of Japanese and Chinese language materials.Google Scholar

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36 Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 2, p. 815.Google Scholar

37 In 1915 in South Manchuria alone there were 15 Chinese currencies – 4 hard ones and 7 paper ones – plus two “special monetary systems” in common use. In addition, Hong Kong silver, Mexican dollars and five types of Japanese currency were circulating. Minami Manshū nōgyō gaikyō (The General Condition of Agriculture in South Manchuria), Minami Manshū tetsudō kabushiki kaisha, chihōbu, chihōka (Dairen, 05 1915), pp. 27–8.Google Scholar

38 Except where otherwise noted, my discussion of Japanese banks in Manchuria draws on Hou Shu-t'ung, “Japanese Bank Notes in Manchuria,” Yenching Political Science Series, No. 13 (Peiping, 1931), pp. 125.Google Scholar

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41 Hou Shu-T'ung, p. 18.Google Scholar

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47 In 1930, a Chinese study of the effects of the likin system on the Manchurian bean trade disclosed that “beans coming from the producing district in Fuchin on the lower reaches of the Sungari river to the manufacturing centre in Harbin” had to pay the following likin dues: At Fuchin: (1) Public welfare tax; (2) Product distribution tax; (3) Tou tax (when the beans are weighed); (4) River bank tax; (5) Customs duty; (6) River tax; (7) Waterway tax; (8) Wharf due; (9) Cereal tax; (10) Water police tax. At Chamoshih: (1) Distribution tax; (2) Business tax; (3) Tou tax; (4) River tax; (5) Waterway tax; (6) Customs duty; (7) Wharf due; (8) Cereal tax; (9) Water police tax. At Anta: (1) Special tax; (2) Province entrance tax.Google Scholar “At Shiaochiaotse the only additional levy is the entrance tax into the provincial frontier, charged at ·2 per cent. ad valorum. The Customs duty is the official revenue of the Chinese Government, and as a comparison between the different rates charged, the national tariff is infinitesimal. The River tax and the Waterway tax … are the main levies of the provincial authorities. The Production tax is collected by the tariff bureaux of different provincial finance ministries. At some places there is the Bean tax, collected by the local chambers of commerce. Proceeds from the River tax and the Water-way tax are intended to meet the expenses of the naval fleet on the Sungari river. … The Steamer landing fee is also collected by the naval authorities. The Cereal tax is collected by the Cereals Associations … at different localities for their Education Departments, retaining 50 per cent. of the total proceeds for their own upkeep. It is puzzling to enumerate all the varied forms of official and unofficial levies.” Tsao, Lien-en, “The marketing of soya beans and bean oil,” Chinese Economic Journal, Vol. VII, No. 3 (12 1930), pp. 965–6.Google Scholar

48 Hosokawa, Karoku, Shokuminchi shi (Colonial History) in Gendai Nihon bummei shi, Vol. 10 (Tokyo: Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha, 1941), pp. 431–3.Google Scholar

49 Manshū kaihatsu yonjūnen shi, Vol. 2, p. 337.Google Scholar

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53 History of the People's Revolutionary Movement, p. 263.Google Scholar

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