Putting-out system (English: Putting-out system)

A wholesaler is an entrepreneur who acts as an intermediary in the purchase and sale of goods. A business structure in which an entrepreneur does not start production himself, but outsources production to many small-scale home workers, in order to meet large demand in the market, is called a wholesale-based home industry. In some cases, the wholesaler is simply a direct or indirect buyer of products, in other cases, the wholesaler also acts as a loan shark, making loans to producers and buying products at low prices in exchange for the debt, or in other cases, the wholesaler advances raw materials and production tools, further subordinating the producers. Producers have their own workplaces in their homes, and in many cases, they own their own production tools, so in form, they are independent small-scale producers. However, because they have little capital and have to rely on merchant entrepreneurs, and because they have to sell their products depending on the market power of merchant entrepreneurs, due to these economic circumstances, they are in effect in a subordinate relationship similar to that of wage laborers.

Wholesale cottage industries are a transitional form of business that lies between the self-operated handicraft industries of pre-modern times and the large-scale mechanized industries of modern times. This is because it was a time when, while technology was at the level of handicraft industries, markets had expanded and influential people in distribution could lead economic activity. However, the strength of wholesale cottage industries and the speed of their transition to large-scale mechanized industries were determined by social and economic factors such as the position of the producers of the cottage industry in feudal society, the influence of urban craftsmen in that society, and whether the market relations were distant or nearby.

[Makoto Terao]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

問屋とは物品の買入れ、販売の取次ぎをする企業家のことをいう。その企業家が市場における大量の需要を目当てに、自らが生産に乗り出すのではなく、多くの零細な家内労務者に生産を委託する企業体制を問屋制家内工業という。問屋が、単に製品の直接間接の買占め人である場合、高利貸をも兼ねて、生産者に貸しをつくり負債と引き換えに製品を買いたたく場合、原料や生産用具を前貸しして、生産者をいっそう従属させる場合などがある。生産者は自宅内に仕事場をもち、多くの場合、生産用具は自分のものであるから、形のうえでは独立した小生産である。だが、資本力が弱く商人企業家に頼らざるをえないこと、商人企業家の市場支配力に依存して製品を販売しなくてはならないこと、このような経済事情から、実質的には賃金労働者に似た従属関係に置かれる。

　問屋制家内工業は、前近代の自営的手工業と、近代の機械制大工業の中間にある過渡的な企業形態である。技術の面では手工業の水準にありながら、市場が拡大し、流通面の有力者が経済活動の指導者でありえた時代だったからである。ただし、家内工業の生産者が、封建制社会のなかでどのような位置にいるのか、その社会での都市手工業者の勢力がどの程度か、市場関係が遠隔のものか近隣のものか、などの社会的、経済的事情により、問屋制家内工業の強弱や、そこから機械制大工業への移行の速度が決められた。

［寺尾　誠］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例