創立期幹線鉄道会社における重役組織の形成

Abstract

In the 1880s, a lot of railway companies were established in Japan. Many of them were promoted by provincial governors, for the purpose of stimulating of the development of industry in local communities. Therefore, in the early years, the railway companies had problems becoming independent of local interests.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formative process of the top-management structure of Kyushu Railway Company from 1886 to 1890, and to shed light on the relationship between a railway company and local communities in modern Japan.The conclusion of this paper is as follows : 1. At the start, the top-management structure of Kyushu Railway Company was a council system, where in the major directors represented local communities. The first aim of the company president was to achieve independence from the representative who disregarded making a profit.2. At first, the president included stockbrokers in the board of directors. There were two purposes for this. One was for smooth fund-raising, and the other was to increase the number of board members opposed to the representative of local communities.3. But fund-raising was stymied by the panic of 1890, and the super-vision of local communities was difficult to overcome. Alternatively, the railway president managed to enlist zaibatu capitalists as stock-holders and brought them on to board of directors, moreover the president issue a bond for new fund-raising. These measures achieved their purpose in 1900, after which the Kyushu Railway Company was no longer dependent on the local communities.