両大戦間のアメリカ金融資本分析に関する一考察 : 石油産業の発展とチェース(ロックフェラー)集団の形成を中心に(1914-1934)
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概要
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This article concentrates on the problems relating to the process of the reorganization of the Standard Oil Group after World War I. It is in this period that the oil industry had become one of the leading secstors in the structure of American economy and had begun to accumulate unprecedented amounts of capital. At the same time this full-scale development of the oil industry created large numbers of new enterprises and sharpened the competition among capital groups. The whole of this process reflected the formation of new interest groups and the reorganization of existing groups and their stiff battle centering around the control of the petroleum industry. For the purpose of concrete analysis, we will choose the Rockefeller Group as offering the best example to clarify the formative process of finance capital based upon the petroleum industry. This is the very core of the problem. By the beginning of this period the petroleum industry had developed enough to become one of the main fields where active strategic operations for the cotrol of the industry were pursued by finance capital. The reorganization of the Standard-Rockefeller Group took place with such a general background. We must first follow the process of this general development of the petroleum industry. The important point here is the change of the structure of the oil industry since the turn of the century, from the kerosene industry to the essential energy industry. This tendency was led by the growth of demand for gasoline and fuel oil. During W. W. I it became clear that petroleum was the important munitions material and the strategic key material for the national economy. The incentive to control the crude oil resources and to build a complete system of vertical integration was very strong and dominated the direction of this industry in this period. The integration movement and the merger movement became the dominant characteristic of the accelerated activity of petroleum capital. Secondly, we must follow the process of the "dissolution" of the "Standard Trust". The Standard Oil Group, a kerosene monopoly in the 19th century, was obliged to reorganize itself in accordance with such developments as stated above. As a result of the "Dissolution" of "Standard Trust" in 1911, each member of the group became an independent enterprise, as a matter of form at least. Since "then each company expanded and integrated its operations, and the group was strengthened as a whole. But, on the other hand, some "chips of the old bloc" left the group and in thier search for capital came under the influence of new financial power. Thirdly, we must pay attention to the process by which Rockefeller executives reinforced the Financial conditions for their operation. The Rockefellers (J. D. Rockefeller and his cabinet) gained control and made Equitable Trust Co., which had been affiliated with the Kuhn-Loeb Group, into their core bank until the mid of the 1920's at the latest. On the other hand, Chase National Bank and J. P. Morgan & Co., etc. also began to make an entry into the petroleum industry, intervening in the reorganization of the Rockefeller Group. Above all, the behavior of the Chase group-provides a significant case. A. Wiggin's Chase National Bank experienced extremely rapid growth after W. W. I, expanding its financial influence in various industrial sectors. As for the petroleum industry, the allied power of A. Wiggin, H. Sinclair and E. Walker (Blair & Co.), with Sinclair Consolidated Oil Co. as their base company, entered into this rising industry by gathering up the old chips of the "Standard Trust". Indiana Standard, Prairie Oil and Pierce Oil all became related in varying degrees to C. N. B. It's partly because of this reason that Rockefellers had to pursue an institutional strengthening of their finance and even the new formation of their own financial power. So, Standard-Rockefeller began to increase its combinations with various financial institutions behind the appearance of the self-finance system. There occured keen competition between them in both the petroleum sector and the financial sector. In one sense, this competition was a kind of driving force in the formation of the finance capital, that is, an interest group based upon the petroleum industry, forming a big financial-industrial combination with their operation centering on the oil industry. This competition and the attendant contradictions resulted in the merger of Chase and Equitable in 1930 and for the following three years there proceeded the reorganization of the financial institutions and pertroleum companies.
- 政治経済学・経済史学会の論文
- 1974-07-20