明治後期から第一次世界大戦期における地方資産家の事業展開

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the business activities of OGUMA Koichiro, one of the famous wealthy men of Hakodate, Hokkaido, from the late Meiji to the World War I era.Oguma attained a resounding success by investing in fishing grounds during the Russo-Japanese War. With his fishing and other business successes, he became one of the most prosperous men in Hokkaido. Thereafter, his main business activities lay in the fishing business.During World War I, he again enjoyed great success in speculating in the shipping business, and used profits from that speculation to contribute to the welfare of his beloved Hakodate. He donated part of his profits to the Hakodate association for Education and built warehouses, an unprofitable business in the region, which Hakodate needed.After the 1920 Crisis, Oguma invested in unprofitable regional enterprises and became the president of a regional bank in Hakodate to contribute to the restoration of Hakodate local economy. However, in terms of business, he gradually departed from Hakodate. And in the middle of the 1920s, his contribution to the welfare of Hakodate began to merge with his non-business activities.