明治期大紡績企業の職員層
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概要
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the employment conditions of white-collar employees in the Meiji period with special reference to large cotton spinning companies. The first half of the paper looks at the formation of the management hierarchy in the Kanegafuchi, Ohsaka and Mie Cotton Spinning Companies, and demonstrates the leading role of univirsity graduates in the making of a management organization which would prepare the way for multiple unit firms. In the second half of the paper the focus shifts to the employment conditions of the management hierarchy, with reference to the actual terms of employment, to promotion opportunities, and to salaries and bonuses. Using the records of a number of companies, in particular the Ohsaka and Amagasaki Cotton Spinning Companies, the following points were discovered: (1) Even if there was no actual life-time employment, from the start the majority of white-collar employees of these large companies enjoyed long term employment. There was no institutionalized discrimination in employment between managerial staff (shain) and daily-wage employees (koin). Furthermore, it was possible for the upper stratum of blue-collar workers to be promoted to technician status (gishu) after long service. (2) Salary rises were regular, but differed in amount from employee over a range of from five sen to five yen. These companies had operated a bonus system from the start, the amount received depending upon one's position in the company and amounting to roughly more than six times one's monthly salary for someone with ten years' service. The bonus thus represented an important part of the yearly income. In sum, it is safe to say that many of the characteristics of the 'Japanese employment system', which has been the subject of so much discussion recently, were present even during the formative period of the large cotton spinning companies.
- 社会経済史学会の論文
- 1986-01-15