三池窒素・東洋高圧の設立と合併

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is examine the circumstances under which Mitsui Mining Co. had established Miike Chisso Industries and Toyo Koatsu Industries, in three respects; (1) the relations of the dyestuff industry which Mitsui Mining Co. had developed, to the synthetic ammonia industry, (2) the reasons why it had established two companies of the same type, and (3) the meanings of the merger of Daiichi Chisso Kogyo Co.Mitsui Mining Co. started to produce in Taisho Era various dyestuffs using tar collected from coke ovens. In late 1920's, as the production of alizarin and sulphuric dyestuffs had increaced, the demand of the nitric acid, which is necessary for producing dyestuffs, also increased. So, it caused lack of nitric acid. This condition was critical to Mitsui Mining Co., because it had decided to start producing Indigo. Then, it had to make for itself the nitric acid from the synthetic ammonia.On the other hand, having established Miike Chisso Industries, Mitsui Mining Co. set up Toyo Koatsu Industries in order to introduce a new method of the synthetic ammonia, to produce the ammonium-sulphate which were then insufficient in Japan, and to supply Miike Senryo Kogyosho (Miike Dyestuff Works), which belonged to Mitsui Mining Co., with the ammonia to produce the nitric acid. The true reason why it didn't enlarge Miike Chisso Industries but established Toyo Koatsu Industries was to intend tax exemption. So, after the expiration of the special privilege, they were amalgamated.The most difficult and also important problems to produce the synthetic ammonia were to select the technology they shoud adopt and to obtain related skilled engineers, in those days. Mitsui Mining Co. solved these problems by merging Daiichi Chisso Kogyo.