HISTOR¥

There are some new papers of interest to the financial historian on the IMES-pages. Below are the abstracts and links:

株式分割払込制度と企業金融、設備投資の関係について ―1930年代初において株式追加払込が果たした役割を中心に―

戦前期の株式分割払込制度は、株主が株式額面の全額を一度に払い込むのではなく、複数回に分けて払い込むという資本金制度であり、株主の払込負担の軽減等を通じて資本の社会的集中を促進するために明治期に導入された。株式分割払込制度の下での追加払込は、企業のイニシアティブで行われ、商法や定款で払込に応じない場合のサンクションが規定されるなど制度的な強制力を有していたため、金融市場がタイト化する恐慌期等において最後の資金調達手段として機能し、企業の資金繰りや設備投資に寄与していたと考えられる。1930年代初の企業金融が逼迫した時期においては、幅広い業種の企業が追加払込金を徴収し、その資金で設備投資や負債返済等を行ったことが、営業報告書や社史等の史料から確認された。また、三菱経済研究所『本邦事業成績分析』と東洋経済新報社『株式会社年鑑』から174社の企業財務データベースを作成し、1932年度における設備投資関数のクロスセクション推計を行ったところ、企業の設備投資は、流動性制約と負債制約を受けていた一方で、株式追加払込が流動性制約を緩和し、設備投資を増加させていたことを示唆する結果が得られた。

One of the most exciting contemporary tools for students of Japanese financial history, or better: Japanese history altogether is JACAR (English page here), a database administered by the National Archives of Japan. In its own words:

The Bank of Japan added quite some information and publicatios of interest to the student of Japanese financial history. First of all, it published an English version of Teranish Juro's article on the impact of banks on the prewar Japanese economic system (I earlier discussed the Japanese version, and comments by major Japanese economic historians). The abstract:

I have just added a paper of mine on Japanese money doctoring to the for download-page. Enjoy reading.

The Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies of the Bank of Japan published 2 papers of relevance to students of Japan's financial and/or economic history. Here are the links and abstracts:

Okazaki Tetsuji 岡崎 哲二, 「戦前期日本銀行の取引先政策」

On 12-14 February 2007, the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand will hold its yearly conference. The conference pages include the program, prizes and awards, and info on accommodation.

Earlier this week, amazon.com announced the publication of Kobayashi Hideo's new book on the Research Bureau of the South Manchurian Railway Company. The book's description (in Japanese):

日本の満洲経営を「知」で支え、戦後「日本株式会社」の官僚支配システムをも準備した伝説の組織、満鉄調査部。後藤新平による創設以降、ロシア革命、満洲事変、日中全面戦争へと展開する東アジア史のなかで数奇な光芒を放ったその活動の全歴史を辿りなおす。

Through H-Net:

The Harvard-Yenching Library is pleased to announce its Travel Grant Program for the 2006-2007 academic year. The purpose of the grant is to assist scholars from outside the metropolitan Boston area in their use of the Harvard-Yenching Library's collections for research. There will be eleven grants of $400 each (three in Chinese, two in Korean studies, and six in Japanese studies) to be awarded on a merit basis to faculty members and to graduate students engaged in dissertation research. Priority consideration will be given to those at institutions where there is no or few library resources in the East Asian languages, and no major East Asian library collections are available nearby. Each grantee will also be provided with the privilege of free photocopying of up to 100 sheets. Please note that the awards must be used before August 1, 2007.

From H-Net:

MARKETS AND MODERNITIES IN ASIA 2007-2008
The Asian Institute at the University of Toronto invites applications from established scholars to spend one or two semesters on campus participating in an interdisciplinary colloquium.

COLLOQUIUM STATEMENT
The year long colloquium investigates sites in Asia to examine the relationship between two types of historical and contemporary transformation: the formation of modern subjects and the formation of "the market" as a central feature of modern capitalism. Both "the market" and modern subjects are produced through specific political programs, regimes of knowledge, forms of regulation and applications of force. They are also produced through cultural work in the media, in literature, and in the intimate spheres of family and community life. Such work is contentious, and often contested. The notion of entrepreneurship, for example, is differently valorized depending on prevailing ideologies of gender and ethnicity, city and village; collective subjects or self-conscious social groups may form within or against market processes; and the interface between capitalism and colonial, fascist, democratic or neoliberal agendas is fraught with contradictions. By placing Asia at the center of the field of vision as it examines these complex dynamics, the colloquium aims to contribute to debates that too often take capitalism as it arose in Europe as "normal capitalism," the fixed point from which variations can be assessed. In so doing it aims to generate insights that are at once empirical and theoretical.