The Characteristics of Cotton Textile Factory Owners in Several of the Villages of Senboku-gun, Osaka Prefecture in the 1910's

Abstract

As a result of the rapid expansion of the cotton textile production in the Izumi Region, the production in Osaka Prefecture grew and led the national textile production from the 1900's to the 1920's. At that time a lot of medium and small textile factories were established and the cotton textile industry was formed in the Izumi Region. In this paper, the author investigates what kind of farmers became textile factory owners, the driving force for the industrialization of the rural area in Senboku-gun during the Meiji-Taisho Eras, and also explains the factors which contributed to the differences between the distribution pattern of the “Shiro-Momen” (non-dyed cotton cloth) factories and that of the cotton blanket factories in the same area. The results are as follows:From an analysis of the imposition lists on the household tax (a kind of local tax at that time) at 4 villages, It can be seen that the main class of the textile factory owners were small landlords or landed farmers who owned 5-20 tan (1 tan is about a fourth acre). And as one approaches the inland villages of Hakata-son, Sinoda-son and Gosho-son away from the coastal village Kamijo-son, it can be seen that the main axis of the class rises from 5 tan to 5-10 tan or 10-20 tan. It seems that the economic structure of those villages is certainly reflected in the appearance of many textile factories.The textile factories were not distributed uniformly in the rural area. The number of factories varied greatly from settlement to settlement in the same village. It seems that the response to the textile industry was influenced not only by the economic situation at each settlement, but also by the villager's sense or the presence of a pioneer at each settlement. Also it shows a tendency for the factories to specialize in one product at each settlement, and the cotton blanket factories increased more and more at settlements nearer to Otsu-son.The “Shiro-Momen” factories which spread out widely to the south of Senboku-gun, rapidly increased after the late 1900's. The geographical location was a main reason for the increase in this area, and, consequently the conditions for establishing textile factories were fostered at that time. There were two main conditions in this area: The first was that the small landlords or landed farmers who were short of funds were helped to establish factories by developing or diffusing the cheap power looms and motors in this region. The other was that a lot of the small landlords or landed farmers who would become textile factory owners lived in this area.It seems that the distribution of the cotton blanket factories were restricted within the surrounding area of Otsu-son because of production techniques and their functional relation to the cotton blankets. Exactly speaking, production system of the blankets had a more complicated division of labor than the“Shiro-Momen”production. Also, Otsu-son was the birthplace and the center of blanket production. Therefore, we may presume that the conditions of transportation and communication prevented the distribution of those factories from expanding far from Otsu-son at that time. Also, another factor is that the smaller farmers in this area could enter into the business, because even small scale weaving of the cotton blankets certainly made profits.