Published Papers - NAGAHIRO Toshitaka

The Growth of the Management Scale of Coal Mines during the Interwar Period--The Case of a Small-Scale Mine

NAGAHIRO Toshitaka

Japan business history review ( 学術雑誌目次速報データベース由来 )  37 ( 2 ) 30 - 55   2002  [Refereed]

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In most previous studies of the Japanese coal industrial history, it is assumed that small-scale coal mines were undeveloped. Large-scale coal mines, such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi, were thought to have monopolized the market during the interwar period. However, there is almost no empirical study that analyzes small-scale coal mines. Therefore, this paper examines the case of Arate coal mine, under small-scale management in the coalfields of Chikuhou during the interwar period.<BR>The coal market share of Arate was greatly extended under the oligopoly of large-scale coal mines from 1930 to 1935. In this study, this factor is analyzed from three angles: a market, production, and finances.<BR>What should be emphasized is that Arate produced high-quality coal that was equal to that of large-scale coal mines. Arate operated under a labor-intensive system, using low wage earnings, and was became able to compete at the same production cost as large-scale coal mines.<BR>That is, Arate competed on an equal footing with large-scale coal mines, in both the market and production cost, and grew in management scale. This paper thus presents a critique of the historical image of small-scale coal mines as undeveloped.

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